Join us on Thursday 23 February at 2pm AEDT for a full panel line up with the Jesuit Social Services’ Centre for Just Places and the City of Greater Dandenong as they discuss climate change, social justice, and the role and responsibilities of local government in building just and resilient communities.
Climate change is exacerbating existing social inequities and disproportionately impacting people experiencing marginalisation and disadvantage. There is growing attention on the justice implications of more frequent and extreme weather, with some State and Territory governments now legislating local governments to consider climate change in municipal public health and wellbeing planning.
The complexity of these emerging climate justice priorities is demanding collaboration across traditionally siloed departments in local governments, beyond the environment and climate change teams. In the face of the unprecedented storms, floods and fires, we have also seen shifting community expectations from local elected officials and leadership within Councils to move beyond traditional approaches towards partnering with the community in making decisions about how to meet their needs.
This webinar has been designed to share learnings, provide guidance, and promote the enabling environment for the collaborative, cross-sector action that is required to mobilise and support climate justice from the perspective of local governments.
Drawing on project partnerships from three LGAs, Jesuit Social Services’ Centre for Just Places will provide practical insight into how councils are responding to these emerging risks, building climate resilience and reducing risk in their communities through cross-sector, collaborative partnerships between community health and service organisations, community leaders and diverse departments within Council.
Join us to:
- Understand the ‘top-down’ mechanisms that enable climate justice – i.e. the key legislative and policy frameworks and government resourcing that exist, how they have enabled action, and gaps for further work.
- Understand ‘bottom-up’ approaches to climate justice, in considering the role of different sectors and service providers, including practical examples of ‘how to do’ climate justice in the context of local governments.
- Understand the skills, capacities and capabilities required for collaborative climate justice initiatives, and the strategic interventions to enable this in the local context.
Speakers
Dr Susie Moloney – Executive Director, Centre for Just Places
Susie is Executive Director, Centre for Just Places at Jesuit Social Services. Prior to this she was Associate Professor in Sustainability and Urban Planning at RMIT University. She has over twenty years of experience working across a wide range of research, practice and policy projects focusing on sustainability, social change and local empowerment processes, governance and climate justice issues.
Jack Piper – Ecological Justice Project Officer, Centre for Just Places
Jack has experience in research, project management, community engagement and supporting facilitation of workshops on the localised impacts of climate change. In his previous role at the Department of Environment Land Water and Planning this work focused on climate change literacy and adaptation for agricultural communities in regional Victoria. Jack currently leads the Centre’s work in planning and delivery of climate adaptation workshops for Community Sector Organisations across Metropolitan Melbourne.
Andrea Wolf – Project Officer, Centre for Just Places
Andrea works across climate justice and community resilience projects at the Centre for Just Places. Prior to the Centre, Andrea coordinated and collaborated on community development projects across regional Victoria, specialising in capacity strengthening and two-way learning initiatives with people from migrant and refugee backgrounds. Andrea coordinates the Centre’s work in mobilising cross-sector collaboration on climate justice in Melbourne’s west and in 2022, worked with five local governments and 40 contributing organisations to develop a Collaborative Action Plan for climate justice in the west of Melbourne.
Jess Harrison – Team Leader Sustainability Planning
Jessica Harrison is a sustainability professional living in Melbourne. She comes from an environmental consulting background and holds a Master of Environmental Management and Sustainability from Monash University. She is currently the Team Leader of Sustainability at Greater Dandenong City Council, and was previously the Secretary of the South East Councils Climate Change Alliance (SECCCA).
Darren Wilson – Environmental Planner, City of Greater Dandenong
Darren Wilson has been working in the land management and sustainability field for his whole career, with the last 20 years at Greater Dandenong Council. He is currently completing a Masters of Sustainable Practice at RMIT University and for the last five years his role has been focussed primarily on climate change – both mitigation and adaptation. With the Greater Dandenong community being one of Australia’s most culturally diverse municipalities, as well as having high levels of socio-economic disadvantage – helping to build a just and resilient local community has been a focus and passion.
Please see the video below about climate change and disability that was mentioned during the webinar, created by Greater Dandenong. These are powerful stories, as told by two people through their lived experience.
