About Healthy Towns
In 2018, Healthy North Coast embarked on a Healthy Towns program bringing together communities, Councils and the health system, in 6 towns in NSW.
Towns were supported to develop and implement an action plan to improve health and wellbeing outcomes, through 4 key steps; connecting, co-design, implementation and evaluation.
The program objectives included:
Social connection is as important for health as exercise or eating well. The process of Healthy Towns built connections by bringing people together to design local solutions to local issues. The initiatives we implemented also focused on building connections to support health and wellbeing.
Integrated and coordinated services contributed to improved health outcomes and community wellbeing. Healthy Towns supported initiatives that strengthened integration to meet the needs of local communities.
Healthy Towns addressed service gaps to improve local access to health services.
Healthy Towns operated in six communities:
Casino, Evans Head, Lake Cathie, Maclean, South West Rocks and Woolgoolga.
The program supported fifty community-led initiatives and six commissioned services. A formative evaluation was undertaken by PwC in 20191. Key findings included that the program met its objectives and increased community connection, infrastructure, and funded initiatives that address the social determinants of health.
The Healthy Towns Story
The Healthy Towns program was a place-based approach to improving health outcomes. The program implemented a community-led approach and collaboration with local governments to identify local needs, assets, and potential solutions to improve health and wellbeing.
The objectives of the program were to:
- Build community connectedness to support health and wellbeing
- Strengthen integration and coordination of health and community services
- Identify and address service gaps.
The program was codesigned and commissioned by HNC from 2017 to 2021. The total funding for the program was $1.47 million through the Core Flexible PHN schedule. It was rolled out in six sites in the North Coast region: Casino, Evans Head, Lake Cathie, Maclean, South West Rocks, and Woolgoolga. These sites were selected as they had populations between 2,000 to 10,000 people, an existing town-based sense of identity, existing services and community engagement structures and a mixture of demographic and health needs. Each site was allocated a HNC project officer who coordinated, codesigned and commissioned the Community Action Plan activities. There was strong engagement with local government, neighbourhood centres, Local Health District health promotion staff and other community based organisations. An example of a Community Action Plan is provided here, which was for the rural and high disadvantaged community of Casino, Richmond Valley local government area.
The program supported fifty community-led initiatives and six commissioned services. A formative evaluation was undertaken by PwC in 20191. Key findings included that the program met its objectives and increased community connection, infrastructure, and funded initiatives that address the social determinants of health. The program also:
- Increased social capital in communities by facilitating new relationships and partnerships between HNC, its partners, service providers and community members.
- Built on existing local infrastructure by funding a range of initiatives that aimed to improve access to services, fill service gaps, and improve connections across communities.
- The community led approach to identifying both need and solutions was valued by stakeholders and led to the funding of targeted and relevant initiatives. This was supported by survey results, with most respondents indicating that it was easy to get involved (98%, n=50), that they felt listened to (92%, n=48) and that their input shaped the Program (80%, n=41).
Recommendations from the evaluation included:
- Continue building on place-based approaches to commissioning.
- Continue to recognise the relevance of community-led approaches to addressing the social determinants of health and improving social connection.
- Continue building on the success of the Program to maintain momentum towards integration and community connectedness.
- Incorporate social capital measures within the commissioning cycle more explicitly.
- Engage communities earlier in the commissioning cycle.
- Utilise and build the Healthy Towns brand as part of future initiatives to signal a commitment to community wellbeing.
Learn more about Healthy Towns in 2025 and beyond.
Community Action Plans
