Healthy Loddon Campaspe is an initiative aimed at improving health outcomes in the Loddon Campaspe region – the heart of Victoria.
Healthy Loddon Campaspe (previously known as Healthy Heart of Victoria) was developed in response to the region showing higher than Victorian average rates of obesity, chronic disease and high-risk health behaviours.
Healthy Loddon Campaspe (HLC) projects are designed to focus on those parts of the community that are the least supported to help encourage healthy eating and get more people, more active, more often.
There are six local Councils involved in the initiative – Campaspe Shire, Central Goldfields Shire, City of Greater Bendigo, Loddon Shire, Macedon Ranges Shire and Mount Alexander Shire.
Background
In 2016, the community told the Loddon Campaspe Regional Partnership that it was concerned about health statistics and outcomes in the region. They also believed that health is everyone’s business, not just health services and professionals.
To address these concerns, a series of design workshops were undertaken involving over 100 stakeholders from local government, health services, primary care partnerships, universities and state government departments to develop the Healthy Heart of Victoria implementation framework.
Subsequently, in 2018 the Healthy Heart of Victoria (now known as Healthy Loddon Campaspe) initiative was funded $5M from the Victorian State Government.
The main components of Healthy Loddon Campaspe
Healthy Loddon Campaspe is implementing place-based activations focusing on physical activity and healthy eating. Projects focus on those parts of the community that are the least supported to help encourage healthy eating and get more people, more active, more often.
Examples of HLC activations across our region include:
- StoryWalks project with Goldfields Libraries in Kyneton, Castlemaine, Long Gully and Heathcote.
- Healthy Sports Clubs project - developing a place-based approach to enhancing the capacity of sporting clubs and facilities to offer healthy food and drinks to their members and guests. This project included the development of educational videos and a Healthy Eating Tips and Hints booklet.
- Jamie’s Ministry of Food pilot project with Heathcote Community House and Bendigo Community Health Services
- Oval Lighting project in Heathcote and North Bendigo
A workforce of localised Health Brokers work within the six Loddon Campaspe Local Government Areas to help build knowledge about health and wellbeing.
The Health Broker’s role is to make health everyone’s business – developing relationships between Council, local organisations and community groups to help build knowledge and influence decision making with respect to health and wellbeing.
There are HLC Health Brokers located in Campaspe, Central Goldfields, Loddon, Macedon Ranges and Mount Alexander Shires, as well as City of Greater Bendigo.
All households in the Loddon Campaspe region were invited to take part in the Active Living Census (ALC) in May-June 2019. Almost 25,000 responses were received.
The results from the ALC provide important information about people’s health and wellbeing. It also includes information about barriers to healthy eating and active lifestyles.
The ALC findings provide evidence at a local level, and enable reliable comparisons with other data, as well as across townships and demographic groups such as age and gender.
No other region in Australia has this type of data at this level of detail. The data supports planning for health and recreation services and a better understanding of people’s activity levels and preferences. It also gives us valuable information on what would help people meet national guidelines for healthy eating and active living.
We encourage any interested members of the community to view and utilise the data for their needs.
Read the Active Living Census for the region and each of our six local government areas HERE.
Stage 2 of Healthy Loddon Campaspe
Following the positive impact of Stage 1 of the initiative on health outcomes in the Loddon Campaspe region, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Victorian State Government provided further funding for an additional four years as part of the 2022 State Budget.
The initiative will continue to work within the region by:
- Implementing place-based activations focusing on physical activity and healthy eating. Projects will continue to focus on those parts of the community that are the least supported to help encourage healthy eating and get more people, more active, more often.
- A workforce of localised Health Brokers in each Local Government Area focused on developing relationships to help build knowledge about health and wellbeing.
- Utilising and sharing the findings from the Healthy Loddon Campaspe Active Living Census to help ensure that investments, infrastructure, programs and services across the region are what is needed and where it’s needed.
Planning and implementation is underway for Stage 2 of Healthy Loddon Campaspe, with a range of new projects recently announced.
👉 Find out more about our latest projects HERE 👈
