Implementing Meaningful Community Engagement for Harriott at Armstrong Creek
The project team at Harriott by Jinding were looking to research and identify the opportunities for meaningful community engagement.
Judi Carr and the Property Republic team, in collaboration with Lisa Thompson from ThinkSolve Development Solutions, were re-engaged for this initiative, after previously working with the developer.
The objective was to establish a strategic approach to community development that aligns community needs and project resources to produce tangible, sustainable benefits. With first residents soon to be welcomed, it was important to research and identify the opportunities for meaningful community engagement.
Another objective was to give Harriott residents the opportunity to shape the outcomes of the community’s Hilltop Park design.
A range of activities were undertaken to develop a comprehensive and strategic approach to community development and engagement:
City of Greater Geelong Discussion
Armstrong Creek School Discussion
Neighbourhood Shapers Membership
Neighbourhood Shapers Survey
Neighbourhood Shapers Workshops
Neighbourhood Shapers Residents’ Group
Note: The term ‘Neighbourhood Shapers’ relates to an online group of purchasers who agree to participate in surveys, attend workshops or become part of a residents’ group to help shape the future of Harriott.
The Approach
Judi Carr unpacked Harriott’s requirements and expectations and developed a simple, step-by-step framework for the Neighbourhood Shapers initiative, which would allow residents to be as involved in the process as they like.
Creating this overarching framework enables Jinding to facilitate the development of authentic engagement through regular two-way dialogue and support self-governance across all projects.
The framework encompassed the following steps:
Step 1: Invitation
Via email, all Harriott purchasers were invited to join the Harriott Neighbourhood Shapers, an online group who agree to participate in surveys from time to time, attend a workshop or become part of the residents’ group.
Step 2: Discussion with Council Officers
Lisa Thompson met with Kim Delbridge, Urban Designer and Bree Lord, Open Space Planner, from the City of Greater Geelong to seek an understanding of Council policy on planned, sustainable development, in particular the planning of local parks.
The Armstrong Creek area has a higher than average number of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and many people are moving to the Armstrong Creek area to send their kids with ASD to the Armstrong Creek School, which has won “Outstanding Inclusive Education Awards” due to their inclusive curriculum. As a result of this discussion, the idea of including play elements suitable for children with ASD in the Hilltop Park was explored.
At this stage, conversations also took place with parents of children with ASD, one of which is a resident of Harriott.
Our discussions with both the parents and Council members helped inform and shape realistic expectations of what can be included in the Harriott Hilltop Park.
With the information from our discussions, we developed some questions for an online survey. We asked purchasers as well as mums via a local Facebook group to complete the survey.
Step 3: Neighbourhood Shapers Survey
Purchasers who agreed to be a ‘Shaper’ were invited to complete a survey that included the following questions and topics:
How was their customer experience from enquiry to purchase?
What is important to them within their neighbourhood?
Future hillside park design and usage
What kind of future community engagement appeals to them?
As an incentive, there was the opportunity for survey participants to win one of three $200 VISA Gift Cards, drawn randomly.
Participants were also prompted to express their interest in attending a workshop.
Step 4: Neighbourhood Shapers Workshop
Judi Carr and Lisa Thompson conducted two, 2-hour workshops at Armstrong Creek East Community Hub on Wednesday 21st September 2022 (10.30am and 6pm). Twenty three purchasers attended.
The workshops’ objective was to understand what will make Harriott a great place to live, what a new community should look like and what design features should be included in the future Hilltop Park.
Step 5: Residents’ Group
One of the goals for ongoing community engagement at Harriott was to create a Residents’ Group who are interested in shaping the community into the future. With enough interest expressed from residents, a 2.5 hour workshop was conducted by Judi Carr to help the group set up their objectives, strategies and actions to determine what community engagement activities would suit their lifestyle.
The Results
Property Republic presented all results from the surveys, workshops and discussions in an extensive report, which also featured key recommendations.
As a result of Property Republic’s comprehensive step-by-step framework, a range of exciting outcomes were achieved for the Harriott community
Jinding’s landscape consultant has re-designed the park to include many of the features sought after by the community.
Property Republic conducted the first Residents’ Group meeting. There is now a core group of people who will work with the Jinding team to shape the Harriott community into the future.
Jinding have shared the report with the City of Greater Geelong.