A simple definition of community safety is the right of people go about their daily activities in an environment without fear, or risk of harm or injury.

Community safety is experienced in a range of settings and in all aspects of daily life: where we live, socialise, learn and work. Perceived levels of safety are as important as the actual levels of crime and risk of harm in communities.

The role of the Forum is to provide advice, refer and act on matters identified within the Framework. Membership is from City of Greater Bendigo businesses and organisations. Those businesses and organisations play an important role in improving community safety.

Representatives from the following sectors are regularly involved in the Forum

• Government Departments responsible for social justice
• Liquor Industry
• Victoria Police
• Health
• Family Violence and Sexual Assault response
• Youth

The Forum is committed to addressing the following priority areas:

• Reducing harm related to alcohol and other drug use
• Improving safety outcomes of young people (12 – 24 years)
• Preventing gender-based violence
• Supporting community strengthening and capacity building activities
• Creating and maintaining safe physical environments

A full description of each of these areas is in the Community Safety Framework in the document library.

How we make sure we have inclusive practice

The Forum recognises that the catchment area is large, and their impact cannot meet the needs of all community groups. There are several other working groups that exist across the municipality that have a strong community safety focus (Heathcote Safer Towns Working Group). The Forum recognises that these groups exist within their own right and seeks to understand their focus areas, gaps and opportunities to strengthen each other’s work and work in partnership.

The goal of the Framework is a safer Bendigo region through collaboration, action and capacity building.

The Principles

The work of the Framework will be underpinned by a set of principles including;

• A commitment to working collaboratively across multiple agencies
• Collaborative Leadership to achieve shared goals
• A proactive problem-solving approach
• Application of evidence and best practice in strategy and actions
• A commitment to preventative work, actions, measures and outcomes
• Applying an Equity lens, ensuring a focus on communities where there is the greatest need and potential benefits
• Integration and alignment with relevant local, state and national strategies and policies
• Positive and responsive engagement with the community
• Respect and equality for all members of the community

The Objectives

The creation of a safe environment is a shared responsibility across all sectors of the community. The objectives of the Framework are:

• To develop and implement a whole of community approach to improve community safety that is informed by the community
• To strengthen opportunities to work in partnership to build collaborative learnings and outcomes
• To support evidence-based approaches to community safety initiatives
• To advocate on behalf of the community, community agencies and all levels of government regarding community safety priorities
• To facilitate the development of partnerships and working groups to develop and implement initiatives that address community safety

Using tools such as the ‘Let’s Talk’ platform to be understand community concerns

The Action Areas

Priority areas for action build on the previous work of the Community Safety Framework and Strategic Plan 2017-2021. These priorities have been developed to respond to local issues and align with work being done at the regional, state and national level. The five key priority areas for action are;

• Reducing harm related to alcohol and other drug use
• Improving safety outcomes of young people and children
• Preventing gender-based violence
• Supporting community strengthening and capacity building activities
• Creating and maintaining safe physical environments

What is reducing harm related to alcohol and other drug use?

The cost of harm associated with alcohol and other drug use is significant. We see the impact of alcohol and other drug use throughout our community particularly in our health systems, law enforcement, family violence response and community perceptions.

It is important to understand the drivers/causes of alcohol and other drug use using evidence-based research to ensure response is both relevant and current.

Lessons need to be learned from the research and the experience of others in relation to the introduction of community interventions designed to prevent and reduce harmful impacts of alcohol misuse and other drug use.

What is improving the safety of young people and children?

The safety of young people and children requires attention, as they are more vulnerable than any other population groups in our community. This is represented by the overwhelming number of young people and children who are victims, witnesses or perpetrators of crime. The impact of this can extend across their lifespan with negative implications to their health, education, social, emotional and behavioural wellbeing, and housing. An investment in preventative and protective measures for young people and children can have long term benefits for the whole community.

What is preventing gender-based violence?

For women aged between 15 and 44 years, gender-based violence is the leading cause of death, disability and illness in Australia. The Victorian Women’s Health Atlas data shows women living within Greater Bendigo Region experience higher rates compared to the State average of sexual violence, intimate partner violence, and family violence incidents. The impact is widespread and long lasting with personal, social and economic costs to individuals and communities.

Women, children and young people, people with disabilities, the LGBTIQ community, cultural and linguistically diverse communities, older adults and Aboriginal people are also disproportionately victims of sexual assault and family violence in the Greater Bendigo region.

Gender-based violence is preventable. The ‘problem’ of gender-based violence is not the result of any single factor, but rather an outcome of multiple risk factors and causes (individual, community and societal factors) that create the conditions for the occurrence of gender-based violence. Therefore, prevention efforts must challenge inequity on a range of levels.

What is supporting community strengthening and capacity building activities?

Feeling safe, stable and secure is central to our health and wellbeing. Focusing on those activities that build our strength and capacity ultimately increases our sense of wellbeing and community connection.

People feel safe when there are high levels of community engagement, participation, inclusion and effective ways to deal with crime and violence and alleviate anti-social behaviour. When people feel safe in their homes and communities, they are more likely to engage with others, walk around the streets, use parks and public spaces and public transport.

Focusing on activities that eliminate risk factors and enhance protective factors of priority groups where this the greatest need and potential to reduce criminal activity and increase satisfaction within local communities.

What is creating and maintaining safe physical environments?

The structure of the built and the natural environment and the way that neighborhoods and retail precincts are designed and maintained impact greatly on perceptions of safety, and the incidences of crime. People’s sense of safety will also be influenced by a range of factors including their gender, age, ethnicity and physical ability. The time of day or night, the presence and the behaviour of others and the appearance and amenity of the area are also important.

Safe physical environments need to be considered in the context of accessibility. Reduced mobility can impact anybody at any point in their life making it critical that we provide physical environments that are safe, accessible and inclusive for all.

Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) is based on the theory that the proper design and effective use of the built environment can reduce crime, reduce the fear of crime, and improve accessibility and quality of life. Built environment responses seek to dissuade offenders from committing crimes by manipulating the built environment in which those crimes could occur and emphasising the perceived risk of detection and apprehension.

Note: It is recognized that COVID-19 has had a significant impact on our community and therefore a COVID-19 lens will be applied across all the strategic priority areas.

You can view the feedback summary from the Community Safety Feedback on the news page below

Community Safety Survey Feedback Update

You can read the Community Safety Framework by clicking on the link below

Community Safety Framework document

Healthy Greater Bendigo 2021 - 2025

Bendigo Safe Forum

Four Greater Bendigo Liquor and Drug Forums have been held. A Liquor and Drug Forum is a meeting between licensees, police, local government and liquor industry representatives. It provides the opportunity to identify industry trends, issues and opportunities.

Greater Bendigo Alcohol and Drug Accord has been reviewed and licensees will be asked to show their commitment to the Accord by becoming a signatory.

The Liquor and Drug Acord is a written document that sets out specific aims, actions, objectives and strategies addressing alcohol and drug related problems.

The City of Greater Bendigo inducted a new Youth Council in 2024. One Youth Councillor was appointed to the Forum to represent views of young people.

Greater Bendigo Against Family Violence is a working group of the Forum and develops/delivers a calendar of events for the 16 Days of Activism to end gender-based violence from November 25 to December 10, 2023.

• 15 Events were run across the 16 days.
• Campaign highlights included 115 attendees to the Chanel Contos Affirmative Consent webinar, over 100 community members attending the launch event at Bendigo Town Hall and a social media campaign that shared event details and information.
• For the period November 1 to December 31, 2023 the Facebook page had 1,100 visits and reached 1,700 people and the Instagram page had 56 visits.

Five Coffee with a Cop events were held across Greater Bendigo. Coffee with a cop provides the opportunity for community members to meet local police officers in a relaxed environment to build connections and ask questions.

59 community requests were received and referrals made for rough sleepers/homeless in Greater Bendigo.

The Forum was successful in obtaining a grant to employ a Community Connections Practitioner. The Community Connections Practitioner commenced in June 2023 and is based at the Bendigo Library to provides outreach support to diverse library users, whilst upskilling library staff. Since commencing library staff have reported a significant improvement to staff wellbeing. The Practitioner has also recorded from August 2023 to March 2024 867 interactions with people with complex needs who access the library or area around the library.

Place Naming is a statutory process and must be undertaken in accordance with the Geographic Place Names Act 1998 and the Naming Rules.

The registration of Place Names is essential to ensure the public and the safe operation of emergency response is not put at risk.

The Place Naming registration process was undertaken for Strathfieldsaye Community Hub, Wanyarra Dum (frog ponds) in White Hills and Bendigo Botanic Gardens, White Hills.