The Our 3021 project was a unique and pioneering primary prevention project in Melbourne’s West. HealthWest Partnership, cohealth, Brimbank City Council and IPC Health worked in partnership to design and deliver the project with the local community. The aim of the project was to empower members of the community to design and run their own projects aimed at improving the health and wellbeing of local people. Our 3021 was implemented over a number of years and funding support was provided to a range of inspiring community projects including coffee mornings and lunches for older people (with transport provided), tennis sessions for young people of all ages, and interactive community planning sessions to steer the project.
My role was to design and develop the evaluation framework when the project began, and to collect data from a range of sources throughout a two year period. I worked closely with the project team to build their evaluation capacity and to glean their knowledge and ideas about how best to involve community members in this work. This work concluded with yearly evaluation reports which the project team used to inform the next year’s planning.
I loved working so closely with the project team and getting to meet members of the community and go along and participate in their projects. Their work continues to inspire me to this day.