Rural Aid has announced the new topics for its popular "Community Builders" webinars series.
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The free webinar series, sponsored by Bushells, was created during the early months of Covid-19 restrictions to support small towns in rural and remote Australia in developing stronger futures in the face of adversity.
The theme of Rural Aid's August series is 'Tales and Lessons from Strong, Enterprising and Sustainable Rural Towns.'
CEO of Rural Aid John Warlters said the webinars were about bringing fresh ideas and real world case studies of successful small towns to the rest of Australia.
"Population decline, drought, bushfires and now Covid-19 are all challenges that destabilise the fabric and economic viability of our small towns," he said.
"We want to provide proactive solutions and inspiration for the people who 'get stuff done' in those towns; we call them the community builders.
"This series is being built off the back of the success of our first Community Builders series held earlier in the year."
Mr Warlters said that while community leaders, business owners, primary producers, councillors and key community organisation representatives are the most common attendees, anyone is welcome to register and join in.
"These webinars have become critical opportunities to connect, and exchange ideas and information to broaden the collective knowledge base in rural Australia," Mr Warlters said.
The webinars are hosted by Peter Kenyon, community change and renewal expert from The Bank of Ideas.
"Peter has spent over 35 years in the field of community change and renewal, and he has a wealth of knowledge on delivering initiatives, programs and long-lasting improvements to our precious small communities across Australia and beyond," Mr Warlters said.
Episode one features a town in Tasmania and one in Western Australia with case studies on turning around a community in decline,.
Host Peter Kenyon will introduce a town in Tasmania and Western Australia with a case study on how to turn around a community in decline.
"Deloraine is a quaint town in the Meander Valley near Launceston with a population of around 3000 people and Balingup in the south east of WA has under 600 locals," he said.
"These are two rural communities with forty-plus years of continuous community reinvention. Both towns benefited from alternative and traditional farmers finding common ground and both have developed significant calendars of special events."
Guests from these towns will speak on the initiatives that worked for their communities, and attendees can ask questions through the chat function of the webinar platform.
The schedule for the webinars are as follow:
Week 1: August 6 4pm-5pm AEST | How to turn around a community in decline
Week 2: August 13 4pm-5pm AEST | Reinvent your town's fortunes through alternative tourism
Week 3: August 20 4pm-5pm AEST | How to use events to put your town on the map
Week 4: August 27 4pm-5pm AEST | Bold community campaigns that work in small towns
To register to be part of the Community Builders Series, visit: ruralaid.org.au/towns/webinars
