The Wyndham Civics Hub
The Wyndham Civics Hub is a space to learn more about how to navigate civic systems for improved access and outcomes in areas such as justice, health, and education. Wyndham CEC works with partners to develop civics programs that enable people from multicultural communities who live, work and or play in the City of Wyndham to learn more about this City and its services. We acknowledge that some people may miss out on accessing services due to a range of reasons such as language barriers, financial pressures, lack of knowledge and/or trust in services, and this can have some immediate and long-term effects on how individuals, families and communities can work and function in their everyday lives. The Wyndham Civics Hub programs aim to be two-way learning experiences that can learn from lived experiences and knowledge of participants to help create more culturally responsive services and systems. A series of videos have been produced to show key learnings from these programs.
“Wyndham City Council supports… Community engagement and active citizenship to make cities and communities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.” – (Wyndham City Learning Community Strategy 2018-2023, page 13)
A Walk through Justice
This program was delivered in partnership with the Victorian Police and funded by the Department of Justice and Community Safety. With a focus on the three branches of government, the legislative, the executive and judiciary, the Academy program offered participants a walk through Victoria’s Parliamentary system (making of law), to the Victoria Police (carrying out the law) and the Courts (interpreting the law and providing deterrence). The program also covered areas of administration of justice that is undertaken by the Department of Justice & Community Safety and looked at the role of community legal services and the media.
Visits included the Victorian Parliament House, Wyndham North Police Station, Sunshine Magistrates’ Court, the Metropolitan Remand Centre, Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, WEstJustice Community Legal Centre, The Age newspaper and more. Participants had the opportunity to talk to and ask questions of Members of Parliament, magistrates, the Victorian Police, lawyers, youth workers, prison officers, journalists and others about issues relating to justice such as community safety, crime, sentencing, media reporting and making of laws.
A Walk through Health
Wyndham Community & Education Centre in partnership with Mercy Health and funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health developed a health engagement program to address unmet health and wellbeing needs of the community. Originally planned for face-to-face visits to health services this program moved online during the COVID-19 restrictions. The COVID-19 pandemic further highlighted the need for accessible and culturally relevant health responses and communications. Participants of the program met with health professionals online over eight sessions to learn more about areas such as ‘Going to the Emergency Department, Visiting the GP, community nursing programs, chronic health issues, cancer screening, mental health supports and health relationships. Issues around health such as accessing interpreters, ensuring privacy and confidentiality, making complaints, and providing feedback was also covered to ensure more informed choices can be made by consumers. Separate programs were delivered for Men’s Health and Women’s Health that linked to the National Mens and National Women’s Community Health Strategy Framework. Some of the information from services with key insights from participants can be viewed in the Walk Through Health videos.
A Walk Through Health
A Walk through Education
Wyndham CEC partnered with Wyndham Park Primary School to create and deliver The Walk through Education program. This program aimed to address the needs of new and emerging communities to understand and navigate the education system in the City of Wyndham. The program also aimed to show the many informal learning opportunities that exist to support learning for children and adult learners and to foster a lifelong learning mindset. During the COVID-19 pandemic this program moved online and was delivered to the WPPS parent community. Interpreters in Karen and Chin-Hakha were able to interpret information during the sessions enabling two-way communication between parents and presenters on a range of topics such as supporting young people with mental health, accessing library services and youth services supports, supporting children in University, understanding pathways into vocational education and university, how to support your child with homework, understanding the importance of early years education, and options available for older learning in the ACE system.
A series of short videos that document some of these services and key learnings are available here. This activity was funded by the ACFE Board as part of The Family Learning Partnership program.
