Origins

HWEG ran a number of ‘Sustainability Workshops’ across the Hunter Region during 2004 – 2006. This program of workshops had mixed success:

• The local government areas of Lake Macquarie, Newcastle and Port Stephens experienced high levels of community participation in 2 hour and/or half day workshops on topics such as low waste gardening and green cleaning. So successful were these workshops that Newcastle and Lake Macquarie councils now fund and run their own program calendar.
• Maitland and Cessnock councils had little interest in participation in their workshops when offered. Notably, Maitland were forced to cancel their workshops due to lack of interest.

These outcomes were discussed by HWEG as part of the program’s formative evaluation. It was determined that those people who were keen to learn about sustainability topics would sign up for free workshops. Indeed, whilst new people were constantly being exposed to the workshops, many who had already attended were re-signing to learn more. Conversely, a large group of people were not being reached by the sustainability workshops and messages. A range of factors may have contributed to this: people’s time constraints and difficulty in attending ‘longer’ workshops; transport and travel issues; feeling intimidated by the workshop format; lack of interest in the subject matter as it has been promoted etc.

The Sustainability Workshop program continued to run in areas where it was supported by the community. However, HWEG agreed that a new method of education was required to target those areas where the workshops were not supported.