Maroondah Council formally adopted its Community Wellbeing Plan in December 2009, which outlines the initiatives that improve the health, safety and wellbeing of the municipality.

Councils are required to adopt a municipal health plan, which is aligned with the term of the council. These plans are developed in partnership with the community and the Maroondah’s Partners in Community Wellbeing Committee will be overseeing the implementation of Maroondah’s Community Wellbeing Plan.

This morning I officially launched Maroondah’s Community Wellbeing Plan, in an event that included the many organisations and community members that assisted Council in developing the strategy.

The speech delivered during the launch is included below:

In the spirit of Reconciliation, we acknowledge that we are meeting on land for which the Wurundjeri people have been custodians for many centuries, and on land which the Indigenous Australians have performed age old ceremonies.

We, Maroondah City Council, accept, respect and have shared with the Wurundjeri people in their customs of welcome.

The Wurundjeri people support the coming together of all people, respecting their individuality to focus on a unified and cohesive nation.

The Maroondah Partners in Community Wellbeing Plan was developed in partnership with the Maroondah community, local organisations and State Government.

The development and implementation of the Plan is a legislative requirement under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008.

The Plan aims to improve the health and wellbeing for the Maroondah community, by addressing issues that impact Maroondah’s community.

Maroondah undertook extensive consultation in developing the plan, including a survey of households through the Maroondah Focus, as well as discussions at Eastland, community organisations and the Council’s know your parks program.

Part of this consultation included the involvement of Primary School students who provided drawings of what they like in Maroondah. Several of these drawings are available in the plan, as well as on display today.

Six priority areas were identified during this extensive consultation:

• Healthy Minds Healthy Choices
• Engaged Resilient Communities
• Accessible Safe Communities
• Lifestyle Opportunities to Support Health and Wellbeing
• Targeting Equity and Social Inclusion
• Healthy Sustainable Environments.

Each of these six priority areas have action plans involving specific objectives, strategies, and timeframes, which will be monitored by the Maroondah Partners in Community Wellbeing Committee.

Some of the action plans have already been implemented, including the forming of Maroondah’s new Partners in Safety Committee, which is a partnership between Council and agencies dedicated to improving safety within our municipality.

The development of the plan was made possible through the many organisations that provided input, including the members of Maroondah’s former Partners in Safety, Health and Wellbeing Committee and many of these participants are here today.

The implementation of Maroondah’s Community Wellbeing Plan will only be possible through partnership with community organisations. It gives me great pleasure to officially launch the plan and Council looks forward to working with the many members of our community to ensure how we can improve the health, safety and wellbeing of Maroondah.