Amazing community support for My Community Projects!

Coal Point Public School Naturespace and Community Hub - is celebrating!

Coal Point Public School would like to gratefully acknowledge the support of our local

community members through their participation in the NSW My Community Project grant program.

The community decided which projects would receive funding by casting their votes, and last week the results of the ballot were revealed. Coal Point Public School Naturespace and Community Hub is one of three successful projects in the Lake Macquarie electorate that will be funded.

The Coal Point Public School Naturespace and Community Hub is a large landscaping and public facility improvement project that will revitalise the school grounds bordering the bushland and create an attractive space that everyone can access, to; play, exercise, explore and relax.

If you would like to know more about the project our first community drop-in session at Coal Point Public School will coincide with the Lake Macquarie Garden Club's Open Garden and Art Trail, between 10am - 2pm on October 13th. Preliminary design concepts will be available for comment and we will be providing tours of the school gardens and a sausage sizzle. All community members are welcome. 

Toronto Community Kitchen

We are so excited to see the overwhelming support that the Toronto Community Kitchen received in the voting for the My Community Project grant.

Our project received the highest points in our electorate! Thank you to all our supporters!

It gives us great heart to know that our community has come together to help some of our neighbours who don't always have a voice, let alone a home or a meal.

We are busy making plans to open our Kitchen while we wait to receive the Grant money. If all goes well we hope to open before the end of 2019.

As this is a community-based Project, we'd love to hear from you if you’d like to help serve in our Kitchen to make some new friends and support others in need.

God bless you and your families from St Joseph's,Toronto

Contact: Bev McWilliam 0437 868888. Community Engagement Coordinator

Can our gardens help save the planet?

The Environmental Trust that funded the Threatened Species Last Stand on the Coal Point peninsula project (TSLS) is calling for expressions of interest for new projects.

The CPPA is wondering is anyone interested in being a part of a new project that would assist landowners; by providing on-ground support to manage weeds, providing plants and garden plans to transition existing garden beds to native garden patches that support biodiversity and help address the climate emergency.

One of the issues that was identified in the TSLS project was how people’s gardens impacted on the adjacent bushland, through exotic grasses and weeds escaping beyond the back fence. The new project would assist to create a buffer garden bed that backs onto the bushland so that this threat is removed.

Another issue that the TSLS project explored was how to maintain a corridor of connectivity for Squirrel Gliders to be able to move along the peninsula, this new project would provide suitable plants and nest boxes for people’s yards to help join the dots of corridor connectivity and provide valuable food for the threatened fauna.

With many places across the world recognising the climate emergency this new project would make a commitment to addressing the emergency at a local level, looking at ways to use vegetation to stabilise foreshores, provide connective hope for the plants and animals that live locally and capture some carbon in the process.

Is there a willingness within the community to take on such a project? If you have a garden or some green space and are interested please contact Suzanne 0438 596 741 or email coalpointprogress@gmail.com by the end of July.

Toronto Area Sustainable Neighbourhood Update

The Toronto Area Sustainable Neighbourhood group has been quite busy in the past month.

The Sustainable Neighbourhood Action Plan (SNAP) is with Council getting feedback and having the production finalised. The community launch of the document is being organised for Spring and the local working groups have been developing their projects.

Below is the next instalment of The Toronto Area SNAP, the guiding document for the group which outlines the projects as well as the community vision and values as formulated at local workshops.

Toronto Area Community Vision

• To be proud of our neighbourhood
• To maintain and improve access to natural beauty and cultural heritage.
• To promote sustainable growth and tourism and
• To foster a community of environmentally aware and active residents

The Toronto Area Community Vision was developed following engagement with residents about community values and needs.  Formal engagement between Council and the Toronto community began in September 2010 with the objective of forming a Toronto Sustainable Neighbourhood Group and to develop a local Sustainable Neighbourhood Action Plan (SNAP).

Community engagement has included a Community Attitudes Survey (March 2011), two workshops, meetings and youth activities. Improvement of walking and cycling path infrastructure is seen as the single biggest environmental and social issue for Toronto Area residents.

Local sustainability issues of most concern to residents as highlighted in the survey were:

• Protecting and improving the natural environment
• Having access to parks, lake foreshore, bushland and other natural areas
• Improving streetscape and stormwater systems through environmental design
• Reducing waste and energy consumption
• Responses from the community workshops focussed around six key areas of action:
• Engaging in sustainable living activities such as community/backyard vegetable and native gardens, cycling and walking
• Protecting and enhancing natural environments including bushland, wildlife and the lake foreshore through initiatives such as Landcare and responsible pet ownership
• Fostering a safe neighbourhood
• Creating more opportunities for community interaction
• Reducing traffic noise, pollution and congestion and increasing sustainable transport accessibility such as public transport and electric vehicles
• Improving community facilities such as footpaths, cycleways, kerb and guttering, bushland tracks and access to public land.

Toronto Area Community Values
The residents of the Toronto Area value our:

• Peaceful village atmosphere
• Lake-side culture and healthy outdoor lifestyle
• Magnificent natural environment and rich cultural heritage
• Convenient and diverse range of local services
• Enterprising community people
• Community’s potential to keep the Toronto Area a special place
• Ability to make local decisions so that we can provide support for each other