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Community collaboration

Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition

This work sees GLOBE collaborating with community-based practitioners across Victoria and globally, to develop new ways to apply systems thinking approaches to community-based prevention. In partnership with these communities, we are contributing to the development of best-practice and world-leading research in systems-based prevention.

Impacts to the health and wellbeing of communities are complex and numerous and can be connected to one another in ways that are hard to unpack. They can be found in:

  • policies and built environments
  • social norms
  • the subtle differences that define communities
  • populations.

We are working with many communities across Victoria, and globally, to bring together the theories and practices of systems thinking, the lived experience and insight held by communities, and local prevention allies with the goal of developing systems-thinking approaches to support the health and wellbeing of communities. Through projects including WHOSTOPS (South Western Victoria), RESPOND (Reflexive Evidence and Systems interventions to Prevent Obesity and Non-communicable Disease) (North Eastern Victoria) and the VicHealth Local Government Partnership (VLGP) (13 local government areas across Victoria), we are collaborating with communities to develop a model of best practice in systems-based prevention.

  • RESPOND

    RESPOND is a stepped-wedge, cluster randomized-controlled trial in the Ovens Murray/Goulburn region of Victoria. Prevention teams across 12 local government areas are using systems thinking methods to engage their communities in a conversation about the key drivers of health for their community, and the kinds of actions they could take together to support health into the future. RESPOND also features a large-scale childhood health monitoring study, discussed under the Monitoring and Evaluation theme.

  • Connecting the dots

    Between 2020–23, GLOBE is delivering the Connecting the Dots module, a foundation module supporting VLGP. VLGP is a collaborative approach to building the capacity of council-based teams to champion youth voices in local decisions that affect their health and wellbeing. Connecting the Dots is providing support and mentorship to council teams as they learn and expand their familiarity with systems thinking as a tool for community engagement and planning.

  • STAIR - Systems Thinking with Active Implementation Research to create healthier school environments

    The purpose of this study is to support schools to improve the wellbeing and health behaviours of primary school aged children in South West Victoria and simultaneously test co-designed implementation strategies to help support the delivery of interventions for healthy school environments.  STAIR is a five-year Partnership Project funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), led by Professor Colin Bell.

     

    Learn more about the project here.

  • Map My

    Map My, a web-based platform using participatory mapping and group model building approaches, is a collaboration between researchers, public health stakeholders and rural communities in Colac Otway Shire, Victoria and Tamworth Regional Council, New South Wales.

    • Participatory mapping involves the creation of maps by local communities to provide a visual interpretation of the local geography and key features related to healthy food access.
    • Group model building is a participatory workshop method that results in participants building a visual representation of the things that influence access to healthy food in rural communities and generating potential solutions.

    Map My, will allow community members to use the software in their own home or in a convenient location. It is hoped this will remove barriers and increase participation for community members.

    Learn more about the project here.