In 2013, following a Town forum on community engagement, a group of local community people formed the Vic Park Collective. “It was about business people and those from local small businesses, along with the community, coming together and saying ‘what would we like to see happening in Vic Park’,” said founding member of the Collective Flavia Pardini. “Not that Vic Park isn’t a great suburb, there were just some things that we felt could be done and were not happening”. The hope of the initial Committee was to make Vic Park a place that nobody had to leave, as everything they needed day-today would be available locally for them. They sought to help build a unique community that all sorts of people love feeling part of, and have lots of opportunities to participate in.

Collective Chairperson Kat Wray said “We reviewed our strategy, which allowed us to evaluate whether we were delivering what was intended, and to clarify whether we still wanted to achieve the same goals.

“The Committee only retains one founding member, but really the overall aims of the original Strategy were still important to us. But the review was a good opportunity to refocus, and shift some of our efforts to ensure we are achieving all of our goals.”

The new Plan defines four key pillars: Creative collaboration; Community connectivity; Inclusivity; Sustainability.

“We’d ended up running a lot of events, and all of the other things we wanted to achieve were taking a back seat. So now we’ve rebalanced our approach so that we still get to deliver the events, which we all enjoy doing, but we’re also ensuring our events tick boxes in our other areas of focus. Plus we’re devoting time to working on other strategic activities we believe will benefit our community.” Said Ms Wray.

Bringing together residents, businesses, community groups and the Council to contribute to encouraging a thriving cultural scene is a core element of the strategy, as the Collective recognises the contributions so many people and groups make to their community and wants to see as much achieved as possible from all of that effort.

Being social connectors who bring people out of their homes and into public spaces to participate in shared experiences, is important in itself and also gives the Collective the opportunity to be a sounding board and advocate to the Town about local issues and initiatives.

Environmental sustainability is also an important part of what the Collective does.

By incorporating sustainable practices into everything they do, they are educating their community on simple ways they can take care of their homes, families and the planet.

“The various Committees have achieved some great things over the life of the Collective, which we’re all really proud of.” Ms Wray said.

The Collective has been able to make a very tangible and long lasting contribution to the fabric of their Town’s cultural scene through art, murals and parklets. A series of murals were developed through workshops with artists and local art enthusiasts, and these then became the stops on a self-guided arts trail made available in print and on the Collective website.

Work on streetscapes, place making and bringing people out into the street to engage with their community included taking on the tender to develop the Town of Victoria Park’s Urban Forest Strategy and consulting on and building Parklets to encourage casual public use of spaces on Albany Hwy.Improving the public domain is an area the Committee is currently focusing on.

The Collective has always taken an active lead in coordinating events for their fellow residents, with the aim of contributing to the evolution of their culturally vibrant and interesting Town. They focus on socially responsible and constructive events, which provide opportunities for people to connect and socialise while doing something for their community, learning something new, and of course having fun. Events take a range of forms and sizes and many involve collaborating with other local groups, to bring together complimentary skillsets and varied audiences.

“Collective Conversations, described as like TED Talks with drinks, are free pop up talks at local venues (usually pubs) where people can hear specialists in a field speak on their topic of interest. Talks have included a Meet the Candidates during local elections, Trees in da Hood and Plastic Free July Challenge.

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