WINNER at Local Government Professionals (LGPro) Active Ageing & Wellbeing Awards - 31 March 2022

Category: Outstanding program or project - Non grant based (Council funded)

In a field of 12 nominees and 4 finalists, the FACES & PLACES project team has been formally recognised for it's contribution, advanced innovation, leadership and high standards of design and delivery in supporting active ageing and wellbeing for the Moreland community.

Congratulations to all participants and working group members.

Celebration event, Friday 26 March 2021:

Moreland's Mayor, Councillor Annalivia Carli Hannan and Chief Executive Officer, Cathy Henderson welcomed participants to join together and celebrate their work. Participants ‘pen/art pals’ got to meet each other for the first time... finally! whilst COVID restrictions were eased.

It was a wonderful event where certificates of appreciation were presented to participants and personal work books collected as keep sakes. The pure joy on faces being able to meet their pen/art pal in real life was positively priceless. Thank you again, to all participants, carers, parents, grandparents, teachers and project team members for giving your time and talent.

A copy of the celebration event presentation is available in the Document Library on this page and photos added to the above picture roll.

Artist update (Steph Hughes and Glen Walton of Playable Streets), December 2020:

"Hello! We've just spent an amazing 8 days (December 2020) painting the walls at the Coburg Library - such a bustling corner! We had incredible chats with people throughout the whole process, and it was great to see their reactions as the colour was added and as the images crept down the wall. The positivity from the locals around that zone has been another fantastic interactive element in this project. Alongside us (Steph and Glen) we had a great team painting - Raven, Peter, Charlotte, and Tom Civil - everyone put in a lot of hours and we're absolutely thrilled with the wall, and how people of all ages stopped and checked out all the imagery on it - it instigated a lot of chatting, smiling, and photography! We had fantastic drawings to work with - and something from every single participant has made it up in the mural - a place, face, bird, words, train, dog, flower, etc - I'm really happy how its all come together as a big colourful patchwork representation/reflection of our vibrant community. A few locals came and asked us to paint more of it on their garages :) which I think is a great sign. We thank everyone involved for the energy brought to the project this wacky year - it was truly enjoyable to make and share something as a community, (especially while going through a time of social distancing), and we're thrilled with how it all came together. Thank you so much, and have a fantastic summer."

CHECK OUT an online gallery of all participants drawings of their favourite 'FACES & PLACES' of Coburg at Playable Streets - an online version of the project to share with one and all.

And don’t forget to Click “Follow” at the top of this page to receive updates in your email.

Participant update, October 2020:

To build more connections between participants, their friends and family, and the broader community we thought we'd ask a few participants if they would like to share their 'FACES & PLACES' experiences. At the top of this page are images from Zoom meetings, plus some drawings from our brilliant participant artists and photos of a few participants completing the work books :) This project has revealed the deep affection Moreland residents have for their homes and gardens – and their personal stories and connections to the Moreland community.

Below some quotes from these interviews.

• "The project is from the community for the community."
• "It’s really good to make artwork and it’s really fun."
• "I love this area so much, I’m very active and go to all the library events, do a lot of volunteer work. To have something that’s me over there [the library] is very cool. I’m very honoured [to be involved]".
  
• "It will be nice to meet new people doing this, because right now we have no social interaction whatsoever."
  
• "I wanted to express and include some of my upbringing [in the project] and how crucial it was to who I am today."
  
• "I’m interested in the project because it’s kind of cool to think that I did that or we did that."
• "I loved reading about what my partner liked and their favourite place and who they were. You felt like you could get to know them"
• "‘The best part was that I got to be part of something that the whole community can see and enjoy"
• "Being a resident of Coburg for so long it was a great way for me to put a little bit of myself into the area"