Introduction:
The engagement and empowerment of community residents with the local council is the key to deliver a smart thriving community unlocking the enormous potential within the community. One of the key challenges currently faced by the community is the lack of common channel to share and track ideas and the lead time of the implementation cycle after the idea is accepted.
The Smart community platform provides the engagement platform for the community members to actively share their ideas, collaborate and enhance their ideas and prioritise them for hackathon and accelerated implementation by the Government Bridge Forum (A forum of all government agencies).
The Smart Community platform with set of initiatives, which can be implemented in parallel, effectively leveraging the thought leadership and enormous human potential available within the community for the benefit of the community and delivering great community engagement results.
Idea Module:
· A simple Idea platform to begin with where council residents can post their ideas/projects/Suggestions
· Provides an ideal platform for public to collaborate and build upon each other's ideas/projects/suggestions
· Idea is to capture ideas by category and capture public interest (by voting/likes) and prioritise them for “Hackathon” and other initiatives
· conduct 4 Hackathons per year open to Public involving “Schools” to convert selected ideas from “Ideas” to prototypes
· Explore option of using services of Innovation partners to conduct the hackathon
· Selected prototypes can then be elaborated and offered to “Partners” and “schools” to build
App:
· A mobile App for council residents which can act as key engagement tool for engaging residents in the Council activities and projects
· Basic app to share targeted updates/actions/events/News/FAQ/Knowledge articles to council residents
· Use “Hackathon” to develop prototypes and develop the basic design
· Seek Budget from Federal/State Govts. As part of Innovation/Local Governance Agenda and partner with Partners (Tech/innovation partners) for Technology Support
· Include “Schools & Youth” as part of the initiative as applicable
· Use “Pulse Surveys” to assess the opinion of Council Residents on key issues and general engagement
· Extend to include “Idea Platform, Pulse Surveys, Public Transport, Volunteer Support Platform” & Report Issues features in future
Public Transport:
· A simple survey designed to assess Public Transport requirements at various spots around Local at various timeslots to help PTV make data based decisions on Bus Routes and Train parking slots
· Utilise community buses for piloting new bus routes for new growth areas
·Community School Bus” - Often Public Schools are busy with cars. Parents are also forced to use cars after dropping their kids which increases further congestion at roads and car parks. It's an initiative to pilot some Public-school buses for interested Parents (funding provided by Parents) which will help Parents to use Public Transport and reduce congestion at schools and roads
· Put forward these projects/ideas to “Govt Bridge Forum” to seek support
Partners:
· Reach out to the following groups to enrol them as local Council partners for all the above initiatives
· Local Businesses/Local Business Groups - There are lots of local Businesses and local Business groups which are keen to contribute to Local Council's growth
· Tech/Innovation Partners - There are lots of Tech companies who are keen on innovation and want to partner with interested parties to deliver innovation
· CSR Partners - Many companies have strong Corporate Social responsibility initiatives with which WC can partner with to deliver projects for Public
· Govt. Agencies/Departments - There are Govt. Agencies and departments both at federal/State level which are keen to deliver projects related to innovation agenda and supporting local governance. Apart from that Local council can partner with VicRoads and PTV for their pilot and innovation related to optimise public transport. Use Govt Bridge Forum to seek support.
· Support Local Council Partner Public showcase where all partners can showcase their projects in Local and get more traction & support from local community for their products/services
· Win-Win partnership for both stakeholders since most of the ideas/projects can be implemented across all other councils across the country
Schools & Youth:
· Engage Schools, Colleges and other education/research institutes and Youth community forums who are keen to contribute to projects in Local for contribution to Local Council initiatives like “Hackathon”
· Builds engagement of kids with the council and local initiatives right from young age
· Use “Volunteer Community Platform” effectively to develop skills of Youth and increase engagement of Youth
Sustainability:
· Explore options for natural methods for controlling weeds in council areas
· Explore options for reducing waste by actively joining initiatives like War against Waste and coordinating with “Partners”
· Explore options for serving surplus food from food joints to needy people/food bank
· Explore options for pilot projects allowing growing of vegetables and fruit trees in the natural strips with ownership of maintenance with local community groups
Volunteer Support Platform:
· There are lots of people who are keen to offer volunteer support in terms of time, skill, teaching, tool/vehicle support etc.
· This platform will be sort of the central location where people interested to offer volunteer support can list their skills and availability anonymously
· People who have similar ideas/projects can team up together using this portal for volunteering activities and collaborate for projects using “Hackathon”
· People who have ideas and need volunteer support can post selected ideas from “Idea Platform” to “Volunteer Support Platform” for interested volunteers to join their project or contact relevant people for discussing their ideas and executing their projects
Govt Bridge Forum:
· Identify Priority projects for implementation by Federal and State Governments and request funding rather than trying to fund using Council Budget
· Organise a public forum every 3 months with State/Federal representatives and representatives from agencies like PTV/VicRoads/Police/Justice departments and request their action plan for the ideas/projects. This will help to get required attention from relevant authorities for accelerating projects
Safety & Security:
· Effectively use “Idea Platform” and “Hackathon” to prioritise top ideas for increasing security and deterrence mechanisms within the community
· Use “Schools” to engage kids and Youth positively to reduce youth related crimes
· A ready reference guide for Safety and Security
· An incident reporting and notification solution
· A SOS button to alert for emergency situations
· Use “Volunteer Platform” effectively to develop Neighbourhood watch groups
· Use “Partners” to engage Technology & Innovation partners to pilot new projects with smart technologies
· Lobby for more support from Government using “Govt Bridge Forum”
Business Enabler:
· Conduct a detailed survey of skill sets, experience, and job profile, Industry, functional/domain skills, technical skills within the community and effectively highlight the advantages of shifting offices to Local to various industries and corporations.
· Utilise the “Partners” as a channel to reach out to those Partners to setup offices in Local
· Utilise “Volunteer Platform” effectively to build local skills for jobs of future for youth and reskilling of people where applicable
· Lobby for more support from Government using “Govt Bridge Forum”