The Healthy Towns has undertaken extensive community consultation to determine needs in each town. In Woolgoolga this consisted of:

• 421 community health and wellbeing surveys
• Over 30 face-to-face consultations

Communities were asked questions about living in Woolgoolga, access to healthcare, health and wellbeing priorities and how easy or difficult it is to access certain services.

The survey results have been summarised in a Woolgoolga Community Profile resource: download here.

Two community workshops were held on Tuesday 5 June 2018 and attended by 58 participants. Results of the surveys and face-to-face consultations were discussed.

Participants achieved two key workshop outcomes:

• identified and prioritised key issues facing the Woolgoolga community
• brainstormed initial ‘ideas’ or solutions to address the agreed key issues

The workshop outcomes have been documented in a Woolgoolga Community Workshop Summary: download here.

Following 18 months of community consultation and co-design, NCPHN is now funding community health and wellbeing initiatives for Woolgoolga.

Initiatives include:

• Men’s health and wellbeing groups
• Healthy Towns Month
• Community information strategy and newsletter
• Nutrition classes
• Driver education for young people
• Community suicide prevention training.

The Woolgoolga Community Action Plan outlines key demographics for each community and lists each of the initiatives being funded. Click image to download a copy.

Next steps for the Healthy Towns program include implementation of local initiatives and a formal evaluation to determine the impact of the program in communities.