From Belmore Basin to the Big Apple
Key points:
- The Wollongong Goals pilot project was launched in July and saw Council partner with global technology and design company Canva on its first city-level Goals Platform pilot
- People submitted more than 15,000 goals for Wollongong, Australia and the world during the campaign
- With the formal window for goals submission now closed, Council and Canva are working through next steps on this exciting pilot project
A little bit of Wollongong inspiration was the centre of attention in the Big Apple last month when the Malala Fund held a special event in advance of the United Nations General Assembly.
The World She Builds event was part of the USA Goals campaign, and asked people what goal they want to see achieved. A key part of the event was a purpose-built goals booth where people could write or video their aspirations for the future – a booth inspired by the pop-up held in August in Belmore Basin as part of the Wollongong Goals campaign.
“How extraordinary is it to see an inspirational woman like Malala Yousafzai standing in front of the distinctive goals booth in New York that looks remarkably similar to what was set up in Wollongong as part of the Wollongong Goals pilot,” Lord Mayor of Wollongong Councillor Tania Brown said.
“We said all along our participation in this project was about exploring new engagement opportunities for our community and reaching new audiences, as well as showing our city to be a leader on the international stage. It doesn’t get much more international than an event alongside Climate Week at the United Nations General Assembly. I’m so very proud.”
The Wollongong Goals pilot project was launched in July. Council partnered with global technology and design company Canva on its first city-level Goals Platform pilot.
The project used Canva’s Global Goals Platform as a new way of community engagement that brought together Canva’s technology, creativity and reach with Council’s well-established engagement expertise and close connections to community.
With the formal window for goals submission now closed, Council and Canva are working through next steps on this exciting pilot project.
“We’re counting and loading in the last written postcards to finalise numbers but we had more than 15,000 goals for Wollongong, Australia and the world submitted during the campaign and that’s just extraordinary,” Cr Brown said.
“We’ve already seen some common themes around peace and an end to war, as well as a strong focus on caring for the local environment, improvements to footpaths and ensuring there are spaces and places for young people to gather safely.”
Canva will share a report on the project with Council, capturing the diverse goals and themes collected from our community. We’ll use the data collected through this process to check-in on our Community Strategic Plan and ensure that the four goals shaped through community feedback in 2024, align with what is uncovered in this world-first Canva and local government collaboration.
Data collected through the Wollongong Goals platform will also be shared with the community.
The Wollongong Goals website is still open and receiving goals. While goals submitted after 5 October won’t be included in this report, they will continue to inform the conversation about Wollongong’s future.
