Inner South-east Metropolitan Partnership

This project addresses the issue of social connection and activity centre activation. It builds on the learning and impact of the Bayside Chatty Café scheme by expansion into the Glen Eira and Stonnington LGAs. Having demonstrated the scheme’s effectiveness in recovery and community resilience, Bayside will share learnings and guide implementation across the Inner South-east Councils to integrate the scheme within local services and programs. The Chatty Café organisation will build a network of local volunteers, host organisations and partners to reduce social isolation and loneliness and build community resilience.

Delivery of this project is being led by Bayside City Council and Chatty Café Australia and will engage the local councils of Glen Eira and Stonnington; local traders and community centres and libraries; Neighbourhood Houses Victoria and the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (DFFH).

The Chatty Café Scheme aimed to reduce social isolation and loneliness by creating opportunities for people to connect at participating venues within Bayside City Council. The project has engaged with more than a hundred Neighbourhood Houses, libraries, local cafes, restaurants and new parent groups. The project was very popular among customers, volunteers and host venues and positive social impact was consistently observed across multiple participant groups.

In 2022 / 2023, an expansion of this project has reached across two other Local Government Areas of the Inner South-east: Glen Eira and Stonnington.

Read the Chatty Café Project Report PDF, 3313.84 KB.

The Vacant Shop Takeovers project aimed to transform and repurpose vacant shops along Chapel Street, revitalising the place experience and addressing the myriad of socio-economic impacts of COVID-19. The City of Stonnington has worked with the community and property owners to make vacant properties available for use by creatives and start-ups to trial their ideas to increase activity, foot traffic and engagement. Renew Australia undertook desktop research, stakeholder mapping, visual mapping of vacant spaces and stakeholder engagement with real estate agents, property owners and local businesses in the area to evaluate their interest and willingness to participate. This allowed the collection of useful insights/learnings that will inform future vacant shop activation programs. The project received positive feedback from participating artists and surrounding businesses which enabled the showcasing of high-quality works by diverse Australian artists and grassroots advocacy for greater integration of art and creative content in the urban environment.

Read the Vacant Shop Takeovers Final Report PDF, 3318.68 KB.

The Bare to Beautiful program saw Boroondara City Council partner with landlords, real estate agents and trader associations to activate vacant shopfronts across Boroondara’s 53 shopping precincts. This involved the installation of 18 temporary floral decals designed by a local artist. A new aspect to the program, called Street Sounds, was added in November 2021 with roving musicians serenading in and around the shopping precincts that Bare to Beautiful participating properties were located. The objective was to re-invigorate and assist in the economic recovery of Boroondara’s shopping precincts following the COVID-19 pandemic.

The decals also provided vibrancy and an attractive feel back to some of the precincts where vacant shops can have a negative impact. There was also no record of any vandalism or graffiti to any of the shops included in the program during the activations which was a positive outcome. The engagement of a local artist to design the decals and roving musicians provided a unique employment opportunity during a time where the creative and entertainment sector was heavily impacted by the COVID lockdowns. Overall, the project improved community and business wellbeing and community connections.

Read the Bare to Beautiful City of Boroondara Final Report PDF, 3958.69 KB.

Digital Pathways was a digital marketing short course designed for small business owners and sole traders across the Bayside, Boroondara, Glen Eira and Stonnington City Council areas. Having an online presence is important for all businesses. The economic impact of COVID-19 on small businesses placed an even greater emphasis on the need to develop digitally. Impressively 83% of participants reported a significant increase in their digital literacy and confidence in navigating digital spaces.

The project was delivered by a digital marketing specialist over 12 weeks with over 140 businesses participating. Each week included one seminar (presented live and published on YouTube) covering a different digital marketing topic as well as workshops where small groups of participating business owners worked closely with the digital marketing specialist to discuss digital marketing principles in greater detail, workshop their digital marketing plans and receive detailed feedback on their existing digital presence.

Read the Digital Literacy Program Final Report PDF, 534.17 KB.

A series of webinars are now available as a free resource to the wider business community, accessible via the City of Glen Eira website. Seminars available to watch include:

1. Introduction to digital strategy and brand definition
2. Defining your digital marketing goals
3. Digital audience analysis and buyer personas
4. Understanding the digital sales cycle
5. Cultivating audience awareness
6. Piquing audience interest and building trust
7. Encouraging customer desire and consideration
8. Delight part 1: The action phase
9. Delight part 2: Cultivating loyalty
10. How to measure your success
11. Evolving your digital marketing plan
12. Course in review

The Inner South-east Regional Framework identifies and aligns the priorities of the region’s local governments in order to secure funding and drive collaborative action across the local government areas of the inner south-east.

A supplementary report PDF, 771.69 KB was also published to provide further detail on the work undertaken to identify the priority outcome areas and key actions of the framework.

With social connection identified as a priority area of the region, the Partnership commissioned the Infrastructure for Social Connection Report PDF, 1826.72 KB to explore what a place-based approach to reducing social isolation looks like and how prosocial connection can be encouraged.

The report provides six recommendations to the Partnership to inform its advice to government.

The Partnership commissioned research to support its focus upon opportunities for new enterprises and for people to live and work locally. The Strategy for Vibrant Local Economies in the Inner South-east Region provides an evidence base to support the revitalisation of local economic precincts in the region.

Read the Vibrant Local Economy in the Inner South East Region Strategy PDF, 14791.92 KB.

The Inner South-east Partnership’s Social Isolation and Loneliness Project seeks to build an evidence base of the experiences of community members in the region of loneliness and social isolation.

A series of consultations were undertaken to understand the experiences of 30 community members representing three demographics: people above the age of 60 years; stay at home mothers and young people aged 17 to 25 years.

The report provides an understanding of the causes, barriers and enablers to overcoming social isolation and loneliness.

Read the 2019 Social Isolation and Loneliness Project Report PDF, 1315.69 KB.

Communities of the inner south-east have raised concerns on the affordability of housing, and the high demand for rental properties, in engagements in 2017 and 2018. To better understand this complex issue, the Partnership commissioned an independent report into the challenges and opportunities in housing in Bayside, Boroondara, Glen Eira and Stonnington local government areas.

The report was contributed as a submission to the Government’s 10 Year Housing Strategy and was shared with Homes Victoria and briefed to the Minister for Housing and the Minister for Planning.

The Inner South-east Metropolitan Partnership developed a strategy to advocate on the need for open spaces.

This advocacy demonstrated the need for the Suburban Parks Program which invested $154 million across Melbourne to create more than 6,500 hectares of parkland including 25 pocket parks benefiting communities across Melbourne, four of which are to be located in the Inner South-east.

The strategy has also informed the Inner South-east Regional Framework.