Annual Report Summary 2019-20

Theme 1

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Your Community, Services and Facilities

Strategic Objective

Community services and facilities are high quality, inclusive and meet a variety of needs now and into the future.

Key figures

$44.6 million net operating cost
163 groups received Council community grants
1.85 million library items borrowed

Achievements

Volunteers of Boroondara

Commitment

Develop and implement a campaign to promote volunteering across the Boroondara community to raise awareness of the benefits and impacts of volunteering, and encourage local residents to volunteer.

Project overview

‘Volunteers of Boroondara’ is a celebration of Boroondara’s outstanding community of volunteers. The campaign is a collection of 12 stories and portraits of volunteers making a positive impact in Boroondara. Each story highlights the participants’ motivations for volunteering, explains why volunteering is important to them, and encourages readers to consider a volunteer opportunity for themselves.

Launched online in May 2020, the stories are housed on a dedicated campaign page on Council’s website, and have been promoted through Council’s flagship publication (the Boroondara Bulletin) and via social media.

The Boroondara Volunteer Resource Centre invited organisations to nominate a volunteer for inclusion in the campaign. Ten organisations were selected to be a part of the campaign, including:

Boroondara Neighbourhood Watch
Solve Disability Solutions
The Koala Kids Foundation
Uniting AgeWell, Hawthorn Men’s Shed
Villa Alba Museum
Canterbury Neighbourhood Centre
Epilepsy Foundation
Blind Sports Australia
The Fathering Project
Friends of South Surrey Park

Project aims

The campaign aims to celebrate Boroondara’s diverse volunteer community and drive residents to consider how their time, skills and interests could make a positive impact in their own community.

As a unique campaign which highlights and brings to light the unsung heroes who generously give their time to support the work of local community organisations and the broader community, it is hoped that these stories will inspire the community and contribute to an increase the amount of volunteer enquiries received by the Boroondara Volunteer Resource Centre.

Volunteers of Boroondara also aims to drive traffic to Council’s dedicated volunteering portal: volunteer.boroondara.vic.gov.au

Project outcomes

The success of the campaign is a credit to the involvement of local community organisations and volunteers interviewed as part of the project; sharing their stories and taking photos and video as part of the campaign collateral.

Ongoing promotion of Volunteers of Boroondara through Council’s flagship publication, the Boroondara Bulletin, and online via Council’s social media channels is underway to drive awareness of the campaign among the community.

Summary of other achievements

Council adopted an Asset Management Strategy which outlines the objectives and supporting actions that will be carried out over a five year period to advance asset management practices across the organisation.
Following the adoption of the Flood Mapping Study in 2019-20, approximately 6,000 properties have been identified as liable to flooding. This allows residents and Council to plan and reduce any potential impacts.
Launched the new Boroondara Families section of our website, designed for families to discover local services and activities for children from birth to eight years of age.
Introduced a new Boroondara Volunteer Resource Centre (BVRC) portal ‘VIKTOR/VIRA’ to enable the BVRC to centralise volunteer recruitment, registration and records management, promote volunteer opportunities and manage the Boroondara Volunteer Skills Banks.
Greythorn Community Hub won the 2020 Award for Excellence in the ‘Community Assets and Infrastructure Initiatives (projects over $2 million)’ category at the LGPro Awards.
Council adopted the new healthy ageing plan, ‘Add life to your years - Healthy Ageing in Boroondara’ to support the City’s ageing population to remain healthy, engaged and connected to their community.

Delivered the Boroondara Eisteddfod via an online digital model during the lockdown in March 2020 enabling an opportunity for musicians to perform and celebrate incredible talent from musicians of all ages.
Council adopted the revised Community Strengthening Grants Policy to set out Council's framework for delivering grant funding and to provide information for Council and the community on the principles guiding the Boroondara Community Strengthening Grants.
Council adopted the updated Amenity Local Law on 9 December 2019 after a comprehensive review. The review and adoption of the Amenity Local Law 2019 resulted in a series of changes designed to protect and enhance amenity and neighbourhood streetscapes.
Council has activated various relief and recovery responses to assist our communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. More information on Council’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic is included on page 30.

Challenges

Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, libraries across Boroondara have temporarily closed and are now delivering services, collections and programs online. Despite the success of the online services, many library members miss the social connection provided by the library services.
As a result of the State restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, sporting clubs and the Boroondara Leisure and Aquatic Facilities (BLAF) closed down. Impacts were also felt in other areas including early years services, Maternal and Child Health (MCH) and Boroondara Youth. Officers faced significant challenges working closely with key stakeholders to provide support to impacted facilities and operators, as well as ensuring service provision continued where possible and in accordance with changing restrictions.
According to the Hawthorn rainfall station, the start of 2020 has been the wettest since the station was commissioned in 1972. This has resulted in a significant increase in drainage requests from residents.
During the State restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Council experienced a 25% increase in workload responding to customer concerns and requests related to safety and amenity issues around building sites, inadequate public authority reinstatement work, asset conditions and the flooding of roads, reserves and properties.