At the heart of our community, we value safe, clean public spaces where everyone can come together, learn and enjoy activities. We appreciate having facilities and events that cater to all ages and backgrounds, fostering a sense of connection and harmony. We also value health and wellbeing services that support every member of our community, especially those who need it most. Our strategic objective is to ensure that our community services and facilities are high quality, sustainable, inclusive and strengthen our collective resilience.
Major achievement
Through major initiative 1.1, we implemented community roundtables as part of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Initiative for population groups including LGBTQIA+ communities and young people to inform programs and initiatives to improve mental health and wellbeing.
LGBTQIA+ community support
Our LGBTQIA+ community roundtable provided valuable insights to help Council create safer and more inclusive programs and events for LGBTQIA+ community members. We installed 3 flagpoles at Hawthorn Arts Centre, one of which permanently flies the Progress Pride Flag year-round. Suggested by the roundtable, initiatives such as this create more inclusive and welcoming places.
We also enhanced other key programs, such as maternal and child health and now deliver a Rainbow Storytime in our libraries. We proudly celebrated IDAHOBIT in May 2025, with comedy-musical duo The Tuck Shop Ladies at the Kew Court House. Also, rainbow families and allies had fun at a rainbow-themed public ride session at Kew Traffic School.
Highlights for the year
- Summer in the Park festival spanned 19 free events, over 5,000 attendees and enjoyed a packed lineup from live jazz to opera, movies, comedy and even a Beatles singalong
- JJ McMahon Memorial Kindergarten in Kew was renewed as part of our early childhood facility renewal program.