Council launches wellbeing survey

Council wants to understand our community’s perception of their own wellbeing and quality of life

If you needed to, could you access or raise $2,000 within two days in an emergency?

And would you ask your neighbours for emotional support or for food or money in an emergency?

Central Coast Council wants to know how you’re feeling.

On April 8, it launched a wellbeing survey that takes about 15 minutes to complete.

“Following the global pandemic and the rising cost of living, Central Coast Council is keen to establish a baseline of how our community thinks and feels about living in the Local Government Area (LGA),” Council said.

“This is something other councils also conduct on a yearly basis to see how their community is going and its links with the Community Strategic Plan.”

Along with the above questions, Council also wants to know how confident you are that you are achieving your life goals.

Have you received a charity donation in the past 12 months?

Or, have you helped out with a charity?

Have you seen or experienced any discriminatory attitudes because of race, religion, age, sexuality or gender identity?

How do you define your local area: is it only the street you live in or does it include the entire council area?

Council wants to know what services you use or can’t use; where you walk or don’t walk; how you sleep, how much exercise you do and how many times a week you eat five veggies and two fruits.

And this:

During the past few weeks, how often, if at all, have you experienced positive emotions such as calmness, compassion, forgiveness, contentment and generosity?

And do you feel there are enough opportunities to have a say on local issues that are important to you?

Council says a baseline of how the community thinks and feels about living on the Central Coast would allow it to compare future results and highlight the changing needs of the community while finding links to the Community Strategic Plan.

“Central Coast Council is pivotal in delivering and advocating for services, infrastructure and events that connect our communities and make the Central Coast a great place to live,” Council said.

“The results from this survey will highlight where we need to focus our efforts in terms of service delivery improvement and/or advocacy to other tiers of government and develop strategic documents to address problems.

“All responses will be anonymous and will not be traced back to you,” Council said.

The survey is open until May 10 at https://www.yourvoiceourcoast.com/wellbeing

Merilyn Vale