A major review
From late 2022 until early 2023 the City undertook an extensive community engagement process which was divided into two parts.
Part one
Part one was an in-depth consultation which started with a workshop with Elected Members to determine their vision for the future of the City of Rockingham.
This was followed by an in-depth consultation with the community, including workshops, pop-ups (in-person interviews at local shopping centres and City facilities and events), and dedicated consultation with our advisory and reference groups, using open-ended questions to identify the topics that should be included in the Strategic Community Plan.
Part two
Part two was a comprehensive survey to prioritise the words to be included in the vision and the topics identified in part one under each of the Aspirations, and to identify any missing topics that are important to our community.
Elected members were informed of the progress of the community engagement program at the February 2023 Councillor Engagement Session, and at a Councillor Engagement Session in May 2023 the draft vision and aspirations were discussed.
To ensure that the Strategic Community Plan was truly representative of the views of the City of Rockingham’s community, the consultation needed to reach as broad a range of the community and stakeholders as possible. Accordingly, the consultation deliberately sought input from hard-to-reach community members and those who had not previously engaged with the City.
The City also referred to its recent community satisfaction survey and business survey with more than 1,000 participants, gathering invaluable feedback to inform the development of the Strategic Community Plan.
We would like to offer our sincere thanks to the community members who took the time to provide feedback during this review.
A minor review
This review was advertised during July 2020 on the City’s website, social media and via public notice in the Sound Telegraph. We also sought comments from our Rock Port users, and the working group who helped to develop the plan in 2018. An updated version of the Strategic Community Plan was adopted by Council at the October 2020 meeting.
A major review
Our previous plan was adopted in 2018, following a major strategic review and extensive community engagement at Planning for the Future workshops where the community outlined the aspirations and priorities for the future which guide the City’s strategic direction.
Community input
We held a series of Planning for the Future workshops and conducted surveys between February and May 2018 to determine the community's vision and aspirations. The community shared what they valued most about Rockingham, and what they wanted the City to aspire to be over the next 10 to 20 years.
More than 500 sets of inputs were received from the community during the process through the following:
- community members – a total of seven workshops were held at various venues across the City (10,000 random sample invites were sent to the community to attend these workshops)
- the City’s business community (organised in conjunction with Rockingham Kwinana Chamber of Commerce)
- Rockingham Youth Advisory Council
- Kolbe College and Rockingham High School students
- the Disability Access and Inclusion Advisory Committee (DAIAC) - members were asked to provide their inputs
- members of the community at the Salvation Army in Rockingham
- visitors to the City's libraries (by providing comments on questions in a survey book)
- an online survey to the Rock Port community
- a public survey on Facebook
- Rock Port working group online forum and workshop.
Councillor input
A workshop with the City's Councillors was held on 1 May 2018. The purpose of this workshop was to present the outcomes from the community workshops and surveys, and to identify the priority areas for the community. A representative from each of the community workshops was in attendance to support the outcomes of their workshops. There was a strong level of alignment with the feedback presented and what the Councillors believed should be the key strategic focus areas for the City for the next 10 years.