Outside the Square brings local people together to think differently and create positive change in our community.
Make a Change Australia recently hosted Homes for Change, an Outside the Square event, in the regional town of Bendigo. Facilitated by Karen Corr over one hundred community members joined the evening conversation to explore how homes change as lives and community change.
Deep engagement took place before the event to ensure a diverse representation of community members. These included developers, advocated for ageing and disability communities, youth, social housing experts, builders, and community groups interested in sustainability and community connection.
Outside the Square is a community engagement event that activates participation and results in new solutions and community driven actions to local issues.
We talk to two participants from the evening and to see how the event has created new momentum.
Tiny Houses Bendigo are regularly meeting, to hear how people are passionate about doing and structuring groups around those people.
One member of the group is an interested community member Michelle Pollard. “My main passion is building design. I completed Advanced Diploma of Building Design & Drafting at Bendigo Tafe. I believe every new house built should be designed following Passive Solar design principles. My aim is to keep the conversation focused on sustainable housing options.”
“Homes for Change was a great opportunity for organisations like Radius,” states Scott McLarty, of Radius.
“We are owners of a number of properties that are currently under review. Homes for Change provided a diversity of organisations and people in the one room. I was able to hear other peoples housing solutions and share mine. Bringing this interaction back into the Radius team we can now look into these ideas deeper and make contact with our new networks”.
