Schools as Community Hubs

About

This engagement is now closed. Thank you for your interest.

Youth engagement consultation

SURVEY: If you are aged 12 to 25, the Youth Affairs Council of South Australia (YACSA) is seeking your feedback on how young people think schools could be used outside of school hours.

Take the survey

YACSA also held a consultation session for young people on Wednesday 7 May 2014 from 6.00 to 8.00 pm. Find out more about the event.

Forum outcomes

Over 120 people from local council, government, sport and recreation, not for profit, social services, Members of Parliament and various community groups gathered at Adelaide High School late last year to know more about how we can all better share school facilities with our community.

Eight school leaders shared their experiences of sharing facilities with the community addressing the:

• benefits they have observed;
• what challenges their school experienced; and
• how these were addressed or overcomed.

They also gave their tips on the best strategies for establishing schools as community hubs.

Participants were eager to explore the issues important to them and to be part of the solutions and strategies needed to move forward. Here are some of their observations and strategies from the forum.

So what’s next?

Forum participants, online bloggers and emailers have identified the need for:

• a clear policy position on sharing school facilities with the community
• a collective approach from all stakeholders to address the solutions and barriers
• clear guidelines and a consistent approach to mandatory requirements to assist both schools and the community to share school facilities easily
• information to be readily provided to all potential users of school facilities, and support material on how to manage school facilities to be available to schools.

It is important that we continue to build community awareness so we have established a Schools as Community Hubs LinkedIn group.

We are developing a youth engagement strategy in partnership with the Youth Affairs Council of South Australia (YACSA).

Working collaboratively with stakeholders to assist with the delivery of a proposed action strategy will now be our focus.

To ensure you stay informed and to have your say, join our LinkedIn group at Schools as Community Hubs: Engagement Group

Sharing school facilities with our communities

Our schools have high quality sporting, recreational and learning spaces. These should be accessible to people in local communities.

We want to ensure that schools are vibrant places where the community gathers to enjoy sports and other activities once the classroom door shuts for the school day.

Schools as Community Hubs is a priority for the South Australian government. It’s also important for local government and sports and recreational organisations who would like to make greater use of school facilities.

Why is this important?

Schools can play a vital role in building strong, connected communities in South Australia – the kind of communities that are great to live in.

School facilities are also community assets and sharing them has benefits for everyone including creating:

• better connected and healthier active communities
• goodwill and cooperation between schools and community; and
• a positive role in the safety and care of children.

Why would you get involved?

Many schools are already sharing facilities with their community.

We want to hear from you about your experience. What are the issues, barriers and opportunities?

We want your ideas on how we can work together to increase the community’s awareness of what is possible and how schools have been successful in sharing school facilities.

Latest media

Check out the latest news coverage of this project here.