“When [MCAG president] Heather talked about the Practitioner Training she’d done in 2023, I thought it sounded interesting,” Peter recollects.

He was keen to learn more, so he decided to attend our four-session, capacity-building Practitioner Training program in Melbourne in May 2024.

He left as a Resilience Canopy Practitioner, complete with community engagement skills, resources and support to help him guide his community to deepen their connections and be better prepared for whatever the future brings.

In the 18 months since Peter completed the training (with flying colours, we might add), he has helped facilitate Marong’s immersive Deep Dive workshops, spending time with its diverse community members and hearing what they have to say, what their priorities are, having constructive discussions.

Their first community engagement Deep Dive session attracted more than 50 locals – roughly 2.5% of the 2,000-strong population!

Peter attributes this impressive turnout to people in MCAG being involved in other aspects of the community. “It wasn't the advertising that got people along, it was more the word of mouth and the encouragement, ‘love to see you there’, ‘come and talk about this’.”

They have since held two more productive, inclusive Deep Dive sessions, which have covered key priorities, including fixing a dangerous intersection, organising community events like their annual Christmas carols (in 2024, this attracted 500-600 people), and a desire to improve Marong’s public transport networks.

These community sessions have given Peter an opportunity to reflect on the role.

“I like the idea that, as a Practitioner, you're keeping things on the straight and narrow. You're not necessarily directing or guiding or whatever. You're letting things flow.”

He also likes our emphasis on helping communities make their own decisions, to lead the process themselves and feel empowered.  

“The Resilience Canopy model is very community based and my model of leadership has always been to let the situational leaders come out. I'll try and encourage them and support them... It’s great when the community moves ahead and you've helped facilitate that, been the conduit.”

Peter and MCAG have been aided by their local council. The City of Greater Bendigo has enabled five community members from towns across the region (Peter included), and two council members, to complete our training.

“The City of Greater Bendigo have been a great help to our community action group,” says Peter. “They support everything.”

Crucially, this has created a shared knowledge and understanding between Marong’s community group and the council about resilience building, such as our Six-Step community engagement model and our emphasis on Connection, Respect, Empowerment and Wisdom (CREW).

And because community members in nearby towns also completed our Practitioner Training, Peter and the MCAG members make a concerted effort to include them in their resilience efforts too.

“Whenever Marong is doing something, we invite those practitioners who were on our course. Some of them are nearly ready to start, some are still thinking about it, so what we always say is: ‘We're in it together, we'll help each other. If it's your community, you will lead but we'll come and help. If it's our community, we'll lead and you can help us’. And the couple of things we've done have been really good.”

Despite these numerous benefits, Peter admits that being a practitioner can have its challenges too.

“In some ways, we're moving at the pace of the slowest. But we've had a number of obstacles put in the way. And we're a community the size that we can really only focus on one thing at a time.”

One major obstacle Marong has been battling for some time is their embedded gas network.

As embedded systems are unregulated, the cost of gas in Marong has skyrocketed; residents pay somewhere between 180%-250% more than what it costs in Melbourne. In winter, families can pay $1,000 a month just for heating and cooking.

Residents have been informed that their gas supply will be cut off next year (2026), which has caused panic in the community; households will need to convert to LPG or electricity, both of which are unaffordable for many. The battle is ongoing.

“We were planning our next community session when the gas crisis occurred and that put things off the rails,” says Peter. “MCAG has organised an expo to provide the community with information. Once the gas issue is out the way, things will move along a bit more quickly.”