For two years, the Newman Futures team and countless stakeholders have been working together through the East Newman Activation Program, which aims to grow a safe, vibrant and connected East Newman.
The program responds to findings from engagement with the community by providing educational and engaging activities for children, young people and families to do, building relationships between residents and service providers and creating a community hub at Train Park where community connection and pride is visible and accessible.
This year, with the support of many stakeholders, organisations and the local community Newman Futures has delivered 68 activations.
These include Train Park Playgroup, which was co-delivered by PAMS and Population Health once a fortnight, creating an environment for young children and their families to learn and connect.
The school holiday programs across the year saw movie nights, STEM learning with EducationFutures, Football clinics with the West Coast Eagles’ AFLW players, the Yabu Band performance, a NAIDOC week performance by Bradley Hall Band and more.
Over the school holidays this year we engaged with 1,539 people and worked with 22 organisations to deliver activities.
We also engaged Dismantle, a youth development program that uses bicycle mechanic activities to help young people develop social skills, build confidence and connect to educational and vocational opportunities. In January, the team from Dismantle joined us to deliver their Bike Rescue Program where 17 young people from Newman learnt how to pull apart bikes and re-build them, while also learning how to work in a team and how to express themselves.
The three day course saw these young people take home their very own bike, that they built at the end of it. The program proved so successful that Dismantle returned to Newman in the July school holidays to run the program again, with a new group of young people gaining valuable life skills
During March and June, Newman Futures collaborated with more than 16 organisations, service providers and volunteers to conduct its Street Blitz program, which saw East Newman given a refresh creating a sense of community pride and ownership.
Foodbank WA also joined Newman Futures in October to teach the community all about nutrition and healthy food habits. Everyone got to learn some new recipes and share a meal together. The Newman Neighbourhood Centre, the Australian Army Pilbara Regiment and the Remote School Attendance Strategy pitched in and helped out with this event.
In partnership with the Shire of East Pilbara, residents came together for the Train Park Community Planting Day. Local community members got their hands dirty planting shrubs in new garden beds in an effort to green the park and to generate community ownership of Train Park.
The Newman Futures Activation Program would not be possible without the passion and efforts of stakeholders, organisations and community partners.
