The Redan Inspiration Cafe is a name most residents would not have heard of before.
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It’s a one night community event for those who live, work or play in Redan to connect with others, share their ideas on local challenges, and collaborate for future change and initiatives.
The event run by not-for-profit organisation Make A Change and supported by City of Ballarat is a new approach to inspire and consult with community, in contrast to council led consultation to develop a community plan.
Make A Change director Karen Corr said people coming together from different backgrounds could create new initiatives.
“The purpose of the evening is to give people the chance to meet other people in the area that they haven’t necessarily connected with and share different ideas. When you connect with other people you are not usually connecting with, even more interesting ideas come on,” she said.
City of Ballarat councillor Belinda Coates said Redan was chosen for the Inspiration Cafe to extend community consultation to more central Ballarat suburbs.
“We have done a number of township and neighbourhood engagement projects but a lot of them had been on the outskirts of town at areas like Buninyong, Miners Rest, Learmonth and Cardigan Village,” she said.
“We are just trying a slightly different approach of community engagement to test it out and see how it works. Often when you get people together really unexpected things happen and you get some really interesting connections and interesting ideas.
“There are some really successful community based projects like Food is Free, sporting groups, Neighbourhood Watch. They don’t necessarily need council support to spring up.”
Feedback received through community engagement so far raises the idea of beautifying the area to make it look more bright and lively, introducing more community events, and activities and facilities to keep young people engaged.
The Redan Inspiration Cafe will run from 6.45pm to 9pm at the Ballarat Regional Soccer Facility on March 1.
Visit https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/inspiration-cafe-redan-tickets-39753066492 to book a ticket.