How does the Wyndham Community Revitalisation site ('Opportunity Wyndham') engender place-based reform and what makes it unique?
It’s the people -. each location has its unique demographic makeup. The key to Opportunity Wyndham is that it is locally led by value-aligned partners striving towards a shared vision of local jobs for local people. Wyndham City Council plays an important role – as a neutral, local coordinator who is trusted by partners, transparent and free of contractual compromise. Holding all the stakeholder voices across the system -community, services, business, and government is an important part of progressing systems change so that solutions are created that work for our diverse partners.
One of the things I’m most proud of is the team at Wyndham. We ‘walk the talk’ on having a diverse and inclusive team that’s representative of local lived experience, with participants now delivering the work. Having that local knowledge and lived experience embedded in the day-to-day work supports us to stay true to being community-led.
Who are Wyndham’s stakeholders and why should others become involved?
Our stakeholders are the local Wyndham community, education and employment service providers and local employers – as well as all levels of Government. We have a priority on local young people, newly arrived community members from refugee or migrant backgrounds and women. These priority groups are representative of where significant need is within our community.
We’ve learnt through the work that collaborating across sectors like mental health and family violence supports a more holistic response to community need and we are exploring the best way to do that. I joke that we’re “exclusive to be inclusive” – what I mean is that Opportunity Wyndham is a closed partnership. We’re keen to have new members who are value-aligned, committed to collaborative action, and can provide a representative voice for our local community.
What has been the wider employer, industry, and community response to this project?
We started in 2019 with an idea of how to work with business and what we could offer, but we really needed to prove the concept. Fortunately, the business community has been incredibly open to engaging and working with us and now we’re looking at how Wyndham businesses can become more welcoming and inclusive, to foster sustained employment for our community and a secure workforce for their business continuity. One of the ways we’re doing this is through piloting an ‘Inclusive Industries Service’.
We did a lot of pre-work with our partners to better understand the local jobs and skills ecosystem and ethnographic insights about our local community. This informed some key pillars to our work - a focus on soft skills, mentoring, building networks, working with industry to harness diversity-as-an-asset, and developing entrepreneurial skills for self-employment. Each time we’ve consulted with and co-designed projects with community there’s been a lot of affirmation for our priorities and focus. While this reassures us, it also highlights the scale of the need and that some of the systems change work will take years. We need to have a long-term approach to achieving better outcomes for all our partners.
What is the “Inclusive Industries Toolkit”?
It’s a comprehensive resource that covers various areas of diversity and inclusion. Developed in collaboration with key stakeholders and aligned with the Opportunity Wyndham partnership, the toolkit aims to address local needs and empower both a) people looking for work and b) employers to create inclusive and thriving environments.
From understanding the importance of diversity and inclusion to implementing inclusive recruitment practices, promoting flexible work arrangements, building an inclusive workplace culture, addressing unconscious bias and fostering awareness and respect, the toolkit equips users with practical tools, factsheets, learning modules, activities, and resource guides.
In 2023, our Inclusive Industries Service will offer support tailored to businesses’ needs to assist them to create inclusive workplaces that prioritise diversity, equity and inclusion. Support may include recruitment services, culture transformation, custom strategy development (using recommendations from workplace inclusion audits), guiding businesses towards embracing inclusion and regulation compliance – leading to long-term, sustainable staffing solutions.
Can you tell us about a success story that has come out of your project?
I’ll celebrate the way we’ve been able to coordinate so many different parts of the changing jobs and skills ecosystem into the Opportunity Wyndham partnership. We received project funding that allowed us to increase our investment in a local social enterprise partner and foster greater collaboration across our service partners. It’s an integrated response to local industry workforce needs in horticulture and land management, agribusiness and community health - locally coordinated through co-design to create collaborative solutions.
What research/learnings informed your project's strategy and plan?
Initially, our model and approach was driven by learnings we took from other place-based projects - Logan Together, GROW, EmPath, as well as ethnographic research and analysis of our local jobs and skills ecosystem. Over the past four years we’ve tested programs and initiatives, learnt from them, and consolidated the work. We continue to mature as a partnership and as the facilitating partner, and we’re at a stage where we need to further evaluate what we’ve done to inform our future strategic approach.
What current projects are contributing towards social inclusion?
Wyndham Emerging Professionals Network - we started with five meetups for young professionals in 2020-2021 where more than 180 people registered. We wanted to test interest and a format to support local people to build their professional networks. The project evolved in 2022 to be community-led and to support the formation of a Community Action Group, who now run regular events for emerging professionals across Wyndham.
The Wyndham Emerging Professionals Network has grown in attendance each event and recently conducted a new EOI process to expand the Community Action Group membership. We are excited to see where the group wants to take itself over time and are actively facilitating their voice - influencing the Opportunity Wyndham work.
Register to receive the Wyndham Inclusive Industries Toolkit here.