The results of these are starting to come in, showing that communities are taking up many environmental initiatives.

Recent regions joining the project include:

• Far North Coast Region
  Five Neighbourhood Centres will work in partnership with Local Government Sustainability and/or Environmental Officers and local environmental consultants to conduct sustainability education workshops with an emphasis on local environmental issues.



• Northern Metropolitan (Northern Beaches) Region
  The Northern Beaches Council Social Plan identified the high cost of living for the CALD communities as a major issue. A newly emerging CALD group, Tibetan, has been identified in the Northern Beaches, and this group as well as two other groups, Indonesian and Serbian will benefit from sustainability and environmental workshops.

Exciting results from some of the existing projects:

• South Coast Region
  Shoalhaven City Council are working with Centres to conduct the sustainable eco-community workshops. To date they have had a wide range of community groups participating, including Family Support Services, Aged Care, Migrant Services, YWCA, Department of Housing and Aboriginal Housing Tenants Association.



• Marrickville and Canterbury St.George Region
  This project has produced a great community development model and conducted workshops. Two workshops in Italian, conducted by the Ethnic Communities Council Italian Environmental Educators were attended by 80 people.



• South West Sydney Region
  The South West Sydney region had such great results from their first round of the project that they are undertaking a second round. Earlier this year they ran ten workshops in conjunction with three local government areas, with over 200 participants.

Updating the Kit

The new version of our kit, Eco-friendly Communities – promoting sustainable living and working, will be available from the LCSA and Livingthing website.

>> More info - www.lcsa.org.au or www.livingthing.net.au