Shaping the future of the City of Greater Geelong
The City of Greater Geelong is located 75 kilometres south-west of Melbourne, Victoria and is home to more than 270,000 people. It is Victoria’s largest provincial city. Geelong Council engages with the community in the development of key strategic instruments such as the Council vision, plan and budget to foster alignment in investment and service provision with community needs and expectations.
Deep engagement and deliberation with the community
Kinetica was commissioned to design and deliver an engagement and deliberation process with the community to inform the development Council’s new plan and budget, and to check-in on the existing Council vision. The extensive process included online surveys and open submissions offered to the community, and then a stream of deliberative workshops and a check-in forum with over 100 residents representative of the broader community. This deep engagement and deliberation was designed to ensure Council could understand:
- what a thriving community meant to residents,
- the key issues, challenges and opportunities for the region
- the roles Council is expected to play and
- how its strategy could contribute to developing a thriving community.
Clear directions for council to shape strategy
The deliberative process delivered extensive quantitative and qualitative data which we collated and synthesised to extract the key results and insights. The results underpinned a series of recommendations on key elements of Council’s strategy across liveability, health, and wellbeing. Council adapted its plans accordingly and provided further opportunities for feedback from the community before then launching the new Council plan.