Creating connected communities in the Snowy Valleys

Snowy Valleys Council, NSW

Snowy Valleys Place Plans

The past few years have been difficult for communities in the Snowy Valleys with the impacts of the 2019-2020 Black Summer Bushfires and COVID-19 lockdowns. Research tells us that for communities to be resilient in the face of emergencies, they need to be connected with each other, their places, local services and institutions.

As part of the preparation of the community for future emergencies, Council engaged Cred to prepare ‘Connected Community Roadmaps’ – community-led Place Plans for each centre across the LGA as a framework to build more socially connected and cohesive communities.

To do this Cred assessed and defined what assets exist in each community – socially and physically – and developed an action plan for each community in partnership with local people, community groups and services. Council can use the Roadmaps to aid in forward planning and resource allocation and community members can use the Roadmaps to galvanise the community for action to improve social cohesion.

Community pop-up in the Snowy Valleys.

Services
  • Engagement
  • Social Value
Awards

2023
PIA NSW Awards for Planning Excellence Community Wellbeing and Diversity Award - Commendation

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How we did it

Community pop up in the Snowy Valleys.

Cred:

  • mapped community assets and social connectors for seven localities in the Snowy Valleys
  • identified which of these assets bonded social groups, bridged interactions between groups and which linked groups to institutions and organisations
  • assessed their strengths and challenges
  • consulted stakeholders via pop-up stalls, interviews, community noticeboards and “Love Letters to Local Places” to determine small, medium and big ideas to build more socially connected and cohesive local communities
  • prepared a roadmap for each area that outlines who can do what to make the ideas happen, and
  • documented all of this on a Connected Community Roadmap for each of the 7 areas and prepared an overarching report for the whole LGA that summarises the social connectors across the Snowy Valleys.

The outcome

Council now has a clear framework it can use to work in partnership with its communities – to realise the aspirations and ideas of the Snowy Valleys communities to build more socially cohesive and connected local communities to better withstand future challenges and emergency events.

Spread from ‘Tumbarumba Community Roadmap’.

The Roadmaps set community identified visions and values to strengthen community connections and resilience locally, and identify ideas and actions to improve access to the community assets needed to better withstand future challenges and emergency events.”