Meat Masterclass: A Place for Community to Connect
An opportunity to upskill, while connecting community to Western Landcare, other support services and most importantly, to each other.
Capacity building - LEP23-021-15
The issue
Since commencing in the Landcare Coordinator role late last September, I have found engagement with landholders in the region to be difficult. Existing group activities had been lacking for some time, committees were fatigued and under supported, and there was a general lack of enthusiasm for Western Landcare. It was after minimal responses to my emails and answer phone messages I knew that I needed to adopt a different approach if I was to achieve better landholder engagement. I quickly acknowledged that if I was to drive cooperation with myself and achieve the objectives I wanted to, in line with Western Landcare’s strategic plan, I needed to deliver on a broader community level, an event or better, a series of events that’s interesting and drives community wellbeing and connectivity. I figured if I could, there’s a chance I could receive merit for my efforts and garner more enthusiasm for Western Landcare.
The solution
I discussed my challenges with colleague Bronte Lee, Coordinator for Rural Adversity Mental Health Program. We shared a goal to generate more community, particularly landholder engagement, so we collaborated on the delivery of a butchery and smoked meat workshop series. We held our first Meat Masterclass at Wentworth on 21st June that was also kindly supported by Contact Inc. In providing an opportunity for community members to refine/develop a new interesting skill, in a setting where they could meet like-minded people and chat informally with support services including ourselves, we generated valuable ground level engagement for our organisations and built meaningful community relationships.
The impact
The skills-based opportunity was very popular, with over 50 attendees who were all equally interested in both the butcher and smoking meats. With the several support agencies/services in attendance, including Rural Aid, Western Local Land Services and Salvation Army, we were able to connect community members to them and the resources available, particularly during times of hardship e.g. drought. I personally was able to come away with many new local contacts, I was able to get in front of some local landholders and have great discussions about future projects and further collaboration opportunities for myself/Western Landcare.
Learnings
It was a fantastic venue, the support services in attendance and their contribution to the smooth running of the day was extremely valuable, the ICPA Wentworth branch catered some delicious food and both meat professionals demonstrations were delivered expertly with upmost professionalism.
Bronte and I hope to deliver similar workshops throughout the southern Far West NSW region. If we were to replicate a butchery day, or another skills based education opportunity similar to this, we would certainly have a small microphone that can be worn during demonstrations, to enable all attendees to hear clearly the explanations given in real time.
Key facts
- Being able to adapt approach to fit individual communities and needs is important to achieving more meaningful outcomes.
- Creating opportunities for communities to connect with each other and support services available to them, is crucial to driving community cohesion and connectivity.
- Service collaboration is key to sharing knowledge and understanding of our community’s needs.