COMMUNITY leaders gathered at the Shire Futures forum, held at Gymea Tradies last Friday to discuss ideas to move the region forward.
The forum also looked at ideas for the shire in the areas of business, education, sport, welfare and the arts.
Ideas for sport included developing a centralised sporting body to look at the sporting needs of the shire, more volunteer coaches, looking at how school facilities could be used after hours, and developing Waratah Park as a centre of sporting excellence.
Business needs closer ties with the council and more training for shire businesses in the basics, such as how to write tenders.
Ideas to foster arts and culture include performances of Shakespeare in Gunnamatta Park, a zoo, an ice rink and cafe where youth could drop in at any time, and a talent quest for disabled people.
There could be a combined jazz, blues, folk, food and wine festival in the shire, with certain suburbs hosting different types of music.
And a museum could be built at Kurnell next to an Aboriginal cultural centre.
This could go hand-in-hand with a "Respect Festival" at Kurnell on Australia Day, where people can celebrate the value of mutual respect.
These ideas and more will be on a Shire Futures website which will be launched later this month.
BOOSTING SERVICES ONLINE
FORMER Sylvania High School student and youth advocate to the NSW Commission for Children and Young People, Vanessa Kutcher, spoke of the need to engage young people through better social media sites to make them more aware of community services.
‘‘Unless the service has an online presence that is clear and straightforward, it is pretty much invisible to young people,’’ she said.
She looked at sites for mental health services, youth housing, leisure and sport, volunteering and community involvement.
‘‘Overall the websites found were a disappointment,’’ she said.
‘‘The only website or information that was clear were the emergency contacts.
‘‘With greater access to services and resources, a young person is able to better engage with their community and become a functioning member of that community.
‘‘Young people need to take more initiative and become engaged, but adults also need to encourage community participation.
‘‘Give young people some real power to make a change.’’
‘‘How about we let a young person be the mayor of the shire for a day?’’ she said.
‘‘You’d be surprised what we come up with.’’
What do you think of the ideas from the forum? Do you have any more to add to the list?