Stronger together

Four of our 13 local government areas are benefiting from a unified approach to health promotion and healthy eating, thanks to the leadership and coordination of their locally based Healthy Kids Advisors.

Establishment of a health promotion network, Melton City Council

The Healthy Kids Advisor for the City of Melton, Maryann Barsoum, has led the establishment of a Health Promotion Network to strengthen healthy eating alliances in the region, develop partnerships and improve Melton's collective health and wellbeing outcomes.

Members of the network include:

• Millie Scanlan, VLGP Lead and Health & Wellbeing Project Officer, Melton City Council
• Benjamin Taylor, Health Promotion Coordinator, Western Health
• Trinity Gathercole, Health Promotion Coordinator, Western Health
• Jessica Law, Health Promotion Coordinator, Western Health
• Dawn Tschujasehenko, Health Promotion Coordinator, Western Health
• Maryann Barsoum, Healthy Kids Advisor for the City of Melton

The network meets monthly to share local ideas and knowledge, solve problems collectively and identify opportunities for collaboration. A recent result from this collaboration was combining efforts to co-host food education workshops during the school holidays across three community centres in Melton.

The network has also developed and delivered a community engagement workshop for sports clubs which focused on simple ideas to fuel local teams with fresh, seasonal, delicious food to enhance sporting performance and recovery.

In June 2023, the network ran a large Health Promotion Forum for neighbouring service providers to attend. The forum encouraged partnership opportunities and shared various health outlooks, including a focus on Vic Kids Eat Well and boosting healthy options in schools and settings with the support of the region’s Healthy Kids Advisor and Western Health. Other workshops explored into mental health, climate change, sustainability and gender equity.   

Award for network excellence, Northern Grampians Shire

The recently established Northern Grampians Shire Prevention Network is made up of seven health promoters from community health services across the Northern Grampians, along with the Healthy Kids Advisor for the region, Lauren Dempsey. Developing an integrated plan with shared goals, strategies, and actions, the network executes a collective impact approach, working collaboratively to achieve common goals

With Lauren, the network consists of:

• Stacey Keller, East Wimmera Health Service
• Maddison Hendy, East Wimmera Health Service
• Lizz Anthony, Stawell Regional Health
• Sarah Allan, Stawell Regional Health
• Melissa Mair, Grampians Community Health
• Felicia Osilaechuu, Grampians Community Health

Health promoters from East Wimmera Health Service, Stawell Regional Health and Grampians Community Health meet weekly with our Healthy Kids Advisor to achieve local council actions from the Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plan, share learnings and strengthen their working relationship.

The network’s approach of shared trust enables them to divide up registered Vic Kids Eat Well settings amongst each other which helps streamline efforts and avoid duplication of setting engagement. Their coordinated, considered efforts in the shire have earned them a Network Excellence Award at the recent Vic Kids Eat Well awards. 

Together, they manage eleven registered settings, with seven of these being schools. The network has also signed up two outside school-hours care (OSHC) services, two sports clubs and both the major sport and recreation settings in the Shire. Read about the recent menu transformation at Stawell Sports and Aquatic Centre here.

Network workshops for food strategy, Central Goldfields Shire

The Central Goldfields Food Network was established six months ago to kickstart innovative, place-based solutions around food access, food security and healthy eating habits in the region. The network is a collaboration between Central Goldfields Shire Council, the Healthy Kids Advisors initiative, Maryborough District Health Service and Healthy Loddon Campaspe. 

Ciel Lindley is the Healthy Kids Advisor for the Central Goldfields Shire. She says, "The network is a great opportunity to strengthen community engagement to ensure that we all remain community-led and galvanise our efforts sustainably.”

Alongside Ciel, the network is run by:

• Adam Tarr, Health Broker at Healthy Loddon Campaspe
• David Leathem, Acting Manager Community Partnerships at Central Goldfields Shire Council
• Gemma Simpson, Youth Worker at Children and Young People First and VLGP Project Officer
• Julia Walsh, Sustainability Officer at Central Goldfields Shire Council 
• Ned Patterson, Health Promoter at Maryborough District Health Service

Recently, the network held community workshops with local school representatives, businesses, producers, organisations and interested community members to explore food system strengths and weaknesses and build place-based solutions to local issues. The voices from these workshops will co-author an Issues and Opportunities Network Paper that will be released later this year to inform the development of a food strategy for the shire. You can read more about the workshops here.

Multi-tiered collaboration, City of Greater Bendigo

The City of Greater Bendigo’s growing movement to support facilities to create healthy food environments has prompted the establishment of two Communities of Practice (CoP): Food in Schools and Food in Sports. Uniting efforts and creating a space for coordinated endeavours, these two CoPs are maintained by Healthy Kids Advisor, Rebecca Fry, in collaboration with local health promotion workforces.

Members of the Food in Schools CoP are:

• Linto Thomas, Director of Community Engagement at Regional Victorians of Colour
• Chanel Relf, Food Systems Officer at City of Greater Bendigo
• Sebastian Goscha, Health Promotion and Community Engagement Officer at Bendigo Community Health Services
• Paul Macdonald, Education Officer, Resource Recovery and Education at City of Greater Bendigo
• Cara Smith, Health Broker at Healthy Loddon Campaspe
• Kristy Bennett, Connected Communities Officer – Early Years at the City of Greater Bendigo
• Rebecca Fry, Healthy Kids Advisor — City of Greater Bendigo

Members of the Food in Sports CoP are:

• Cara Smith, Health Broker at Healthy Loddon Campaspe 
• Chanel Relf, Food Systems Officer at City of Greater Bendigo
• Crystie Ballard, Participation Officer at City of Greater Bendigo
• Jasmine Noske, Project Coordinator – Program Delivery and Digital Communications at Sports Focus
• Johanna Colquhourn, Population Health Officer at City of Greater Bendigo
• Narelle Bickford, Graduate Researcher of Public Health Nutrition at Victoria University
• Paul Goudie, Regional Coordinator (Loddon Mallee) – Community Infrastructure and Place at Sport and Recreation Victoria
• Siobhan Sullivan, Senior Health Promotion and Community Engagement Officer at Bendigo Community Health Services

The collaboration has helped consolidate and streamline communication with each other and the schools and settings they work with on the ground — an excellent outcome for avoiding duplication and maximising reach. Read more about the impact of this exciting collaboration here.

 About the Healthy Kids Advisors initiative 

The Healthy Kids Advisors initiative is delivered by the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation and supported by the Victorian Government and Australian Government. 

This community engagement initiative is active in 13 priority communities to spread pleasurable food education and encourage participation in the state-wide Vic Kids Eat Well movement. 

In collaboration with local health promoters, Council and community, our Advisors offer free support and simple ideas to boost healthy and delicious food and drink in schools, sports clubs, after-hours care and council-run facilities. 

Want more information?

Visit the Healthy Kids Advisors news page or contact us at hka@kitchengardenfoundation.org.au

Follow us 

#HealthyKidsAdvisors, on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.