Facilitated by Borderlands Cooperative, in partnership with Angliss Neighbourhood House & South Sudan Child First Education.
Footscray has been especially affected by market driven trends and government policies that have massively decreased housing affordability and increased displacement, breaking up communities and increasing hardship and inequity.
The gentrification of Footscray and the inner west over the last three decades has eroded the social fabric, creating class and cultural antagonisms, decreasing community connectedness and increasing exclusion. These trends will likely be exacerbated by plans to significantly increase Footscray’s population over the next 25 years. The availability of low cost housing, retail and services has been replaced by land banking, and short–term fixes that substitute for people-driven urban planning.
The People’s Plan for Footscray will develop a platform and practice to advocate for and help activate democratisation in public decision making, and build community capacity and institutions that will sustain popular power.
The People’s Plan will engage and support local organisations, neighbourhoods and communities to capture and connect public conversations, citizen-led research and living campaigns, tackling issues such as food insecurity, housing and homelessness, public and green space, the built environment, climate resilience, First Nations’ history and concerns, unemployment, cultural and language diversity, and community wellbeing and solidarity.
The People’s Plan for Footscray is about bringing people back into public decision-making: going beyond token government consultation and building an example of how organised communities working together can build skills and capacities, and public power to make change.
The People’s Plan for Footscray is grateful for the support of Greater Melbourne Foundation in bringing this project alive and helping our local community gather our ideas and hopes for the future of Footscray and the West.
