Population Health
Community Engagement
The Western Public Health Unit (WPHU) Community Engagement team proactively works with community leaders, networks and partners to understand emerging health issues and to work together to find appropriate ways to provide support.
Groups include but are not limited to:
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
- persons living with a disability
- culturally and linguistically diverse groups
- faith and community leaders
- community members and groups
- refugees and asylum seekers
- LGBTQIA+ communities
- seniors.
Community engagement projects and campaigns are developed using a strength-based approach which begins with first listening to community members, identifying key local influencers in the various community networks and working together to create supports and resources to meet community needs.
How WPHU deliver community engagement
The Community Engagement team works with local networks and key community organisations including, community health service providers, councils, sport and recreation, faith, gender, language and cultural groups to gather community voice and perspectives to deliver timely and practical public health information directly to communities in the WPHU catchment.
The team meet the community where they are, distributing accessible and easy-to-understand health messaging through community centres, libraries and diverse community networks via interactive sessions.
Community engagement in practice
The WPHU Community Engagement team has a pivotal role in engaging priority populations in targeted health programs.
WPHU’s community engagement team has been supporting the connection of families from diverse cultural backgrounds with the INFANT program, an evidence-based intervention to improve healthy eating and active play for young children.
Key activities include:
1.
Facilitating the inclusion of images of local families in program information resources and video content to strengthen diversity of representation.
2.
Delivering information sessions and providing in-language resources to young families through local early years services.
Click here to learn more about how WPHU is engaging the community in an evidence-based health promotion program for young families.
Contact WPHU’s Community Engagement team
Get in touch with the WPHU Community Engagement team to learn more about our current campaigns by emailing wphu@wh.org.au for the attention of the Community Engagement team.