Digging In To New Skills
When the Covid-19 lockdowns caused the undoing of months of work for Muswellbrook Healthy and Well and Muswellbrook Shire Council Sustainability Unit the team looked for other ways to share the message.
“Originally Mick (Brady – Muswellbrook Shire Council Sustainability Officer) and I were working on an event with schools, engaging different groups in the community to do different workshops to try different things,” Carly Hughes, Local Coordinator of Muswellbrook Healthy and Well said.
“Two weeks beforehand it was cancelled after months of preparation.
“Mick suggested to do an online version to try and keep people connected during this time and it fitted in nicely with the Act Belong Commit campaign.”
If you follow the Muswellbrook Healthy and Well, Sustainable Futures – Muswellbrook or Warrior Disability Services Facebook pages you will have seen the results of this decision.
Each week there are videos covering composting at home, reducing plastic, heathy cooking, cooking with what you have at home, energy saving and more.
Sally Pereira, Director of Participant Services from Warrior Disability Services said their team have loved the opportunity to learn and share knowledge with the community.
“I love it how the guys do the video and then put it out to the community, then it might just be one person that goes cool, I am going to go and do some composting,” she said.
They make a group exercise of doing the research and putting ideas together for the video, something that Tracy Ward, Sustainability Officer from Muswellbrook Shire Council misses out on making her videos at home.
“Because everyone was going to be at home there was going to be more waste produced so we were keen to stick with the whole watch your waste angle,” she said of a focus on reducing waste while both cooking and cleaning out unused items.
The whole experience has been tied together by clips from Ms Hughes to support mental health during the unprecedented times we are experiencing.
“During this time a lot of peoples social circles have changed, and from the Act Belong Commit point of view it is about showing people how they can still have those connections that are different from what we are used to,” she said.
“While there is not our usual community events or activities, or we can’t hang out with our friends at sporting clubs, what are other ways we can connect with people or be trying new things, still challenging ourselves and still being mentally, physically and socially active in different ways.”
If you would like to check out any of the tips from these local videos, check out the groups Facebook pages.