Why your small contribution will have a big impact
Are you someone who wants to do more but either doesn’t have the time, or has been burnt by similar requests in the past? This is where Restore the Bay is very different. You set the agenda for how much time you want to commit and how you are involved. Though it may seem insignificant to be asking for such a small amount of support from you, this is the among the most valuable contribution you can make to our community this year. Allow me to explain.
What makes Restore the Bay so different
Putting our community at the centre of decisions about our future means understanding how our own community connects with the Bay. Discovering this is pleasant, easy, non-threatening, enjoyable and constructive … but it has never been done this way.
We will not be asking you to take part in any demonstration or write to your MP.
You won’t be made to feel anxious or desparate about problems.
There will be no arguments because we’re focused on identifying shared values (this will be an enriching and enjoyable experience).
We recognise you are short on time and don’t need more than you can offer.
The outputs will allow you to see how any contribution you make, has helped created a path to positive change.
Will you help describe our community’s connection to the Bay?
Right now, there are two ways we would love your support:
By spending 25 minutes telling us how you connect with the Bay (these data will seed our tool or ‘model’ with critical information); and, if you have the time;
Attending a single 1-hour workshop in mid-May to help refine these data (this help finalise the accuracy of the tool we describe below).
Sign up for a 1-hour online workshop in mid-May (Zoom)
Or, join our in-person workshop at the Ecocentre, St Kilda
What are the benefits to you?
Imagine you participate in one of the workshops. These are going to be short, enlightening and pleasant events that will leave you feeling positive and enriched.
If that’s the last time you are involved, we still want to send you the final tool. While this will take some time to build, our aim is to enable you to see your personal values presented (e.g. the red lines, below).
This is why your contribution is so important
With your help, we are aiming to build a tool that will allow you to see where you fit within the ecosystem (e.g. the red lines). You might already see how your input can help build this picture of ‘existing conditions.’ That’s to say, how our values are projected to change (traffic lights on the right) if we continue with current levels of threat.
The next stage of this project, will be to develop community-designed actions to alleviate those threats and turn the lights green. There’ll be more on that later, once we have this initial tool constructed. The tool becomes the way we can collectively identify:
Where the main risks lie;
What the optimal mix of actions are to increase all shared values;
How to measure change that relates to these values; and
Put an economic value on the actions.
Community stewardship plan
Armed with the little information we ask from you now, will set our community on the path to creating its own stewardship plan to manage our coastline. Being community-led, community-managed, socially prioritised, environmentally viable, measurable and economically justified, gives us the strongest opportunity to influence how our Bay is looked after. The intention is to present this information into the plans to renew the Port Phillip Bay Environmental Management Plan.