About the Program
The Grit and Resilience Program
The Grit and Resilience Program is a community-led initiative that strengthens social inclusion and mental wellbeing across the Rural City of Wangaratta.
Funded by the Victorian Government’s Social Inclusion Action Group (SIAG), the program was developed in response to the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. It builds on earlier work supported by the Primary Health Network, with a renewed focus on connection, inclusion, and community resilience.
We work with people from all walks of life, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, LGBTIQ+ communities, people with disabilities, culturally diverse groups, and those with lived experience, to create a more connected and supportive community.
Through events, workshops, and collaborative projects, the program helps residents build strength, overcome challenges, and support one another.
Objectives & Values
Building on the success of the initial four-year program, the evolved Grit and Resilience Program brings together community members and organisations to:
- identify local needs, existing initiatives and gaps related to social connection and social inclusion in the local community
- test and develop a range of funded initiatives that support community participation, inclusion, and connection.
Social inclusion is central to the program, it means ensuring everyone can participate in society and have equal opportunities. It’s about the quality and diversity of our social networks and the roles they play in our wellbeing.
The program uses a place-based approach, drawing on local knowledge and evidence, while also adapting successful ideas from across Victoria and beyond.
It’s guided by a collective impact model, which includes:
- A shared vision
- Continuous communication
- Common measures
- Coordinated actions
The Programs values include:
- We are community focused, led and designed.
- We strive to ensure that our activities are relevant to the entire local government area.
- We recognise the interdependence of wellbeing across our community and that social and environmental determinates of health are critical.
- We will actively work together.
- We support and facilitate inclusion and acceptance.
- We will communicate with each other and all members of our community with respect, honesty and in good faith.
The Purpose of The Program is to:
- Prevent social exclusion
- Increase social inclusion
- Increase social connection
The Program achieves this by:
- Being community led and owned, empowering communities to identify their own needs, make decisions and develop solutions at a local level
- Considering equity and inclusion when making decisions about flexible funding.
- Applying a place-based approach
- Being informed by evidence, learning from past programs and activities, and local knowledge
- Operating from community development and collective impact approaches and principles.
- promote mental health and wellbeing through place-based coordination and activities/initiatives addressing social inclusion and connection.
Consortium
Delivery of the Grit and Resilience Program is by a Consortium of representatives that includes community members and organisations.
Membership of the Grit and Resilience Program Consortium (Social Inclusion Action Groups) reflects the broader Wangaratta community. Membership includes a variety of lived and living experiences including members with experience of mental ill health, psychological distress, addiction and/or social exclusion, isolation and discrimination. Membership reflects the diverse communities (defined as people with a disability, LGBTIQ+ people and people from CALD background), as well as include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, young people and older adults.
The membership of the Grit and Resilience Consortium has two types of partners:
- Community partners - includes local community members with a variety of lived and living experiences and reflect our diverse community.
- Organisations - who provide a perspectives on social inclusion, connection and mental health and wellbeing promotion within the Wangaratta Community
