Living Streets Program :: Liverpool, Sydney

Background to Living Streets

In 1997 the Department of Urban Affairs and Planning, through its Western Sydney Area Assistance Program, funded Liverpool Council for a community and cultural development project. The program focused on the inner city residents of Liverpool, and has become known as the Living Streets Program. This area had been identified by community workers and police as having special needs.

The aim of Living Streets
The aim of Living Streets is to use community and cultural development strategies within specific streets of Liverpool to create a sense of place, which promotes livability, safety and amenity. Place making, or sense of place, is about making opportunities for the community’s imagination and ideas to informal a public space. It examines the spaces we live in and the way we utilise space. It looks at lifestyle and the way people connect, reject or identify with the environment they live in. Place making is about improving an urban environment so people feel safer and happier. It looks at what can be done to make neighborhoods livable for communities. In this regard it’s about residents understanding their community and being able to direct change. Living is Streets a playmaking program that seeks to improve the livability of the southern CBD residential area by consulting and working with the people who live there.

Objectives of the Living Streets Project

    * To develop opportunities for members of the community to participate in community cultural development projects
    * To work with residents to highlight and take action about the issues that affect their everyday
    * To direct the project to NESB and at risk communities
    * To challenge the negative image of the area
    * To improve access to cultural or recreational facilities that the local community can use.
    * To develop communication networks within the community and between the community and outside agencies(including Council)
    * To develop a project framework which can be sustained beyond the project period and which is transferable to other communities

More on the Background
Living Streets has successfully conducted intensive consultations with the residents through its first year of the program. This took the form of direct interviews with residents, door knocking and conducting focus groups through key community agencies in the neighborhood and small developmental projects in close partnership with the Migrant Resource Centre, Casula Powerhouse and TAFE Outreach. Following an intensive establishment and networking year the project worked received funds to work with the community in developing an unused park into a community gathering space and creating community gardens for the residents use.

Living Streets has worked within a multidisciplinary team of designers, artists, residents, Urban designers, community and government organisations in establishing its framework for further work within the area. Since the establishment of the Living Streets project crime in the neighborhood halved, cleaner streets, a flourishing community garden, a creative park that has become a community gathering place and the opening of a Youth Centre in a disused preschool.

Since mid 2002 Living Streets has moved from the Community Planning team to the Major Projects team where it has worked closely with the involved in the CBD development plans. The focus of the team is development of Liverpool CBD in terms of, planning for housing development. Streets scope, parks and gardens development related issues such as traffic and so on. Living Streets has maintained its grass root focus within this team and has worked very closely with the community planning team and in particular with the Cultural Planner who is based in that team.

The Living Streets Heritage Walk
The most current of the Living Streets Project is the development of the Living Streets Community Heritage Walk. The project has worked in partnership with Liverpool Migrant Resource Centre and has been funded by the Department of Communications, Information, Technology and the Arts. The Migrant Resource Centre sees the project as playing an active role in their targeting of physically and socially isolated areas in Liverpool. For Liverpool Council the project adds a valued cultural dimension to pedestrian and traffic management strategies being developed as part of the Southern CBD development project. For this reason Living Streets Program has based itself in Major Projects team to work closely with the team in achieving the objectives of the different projects within the walk.

In its massive consultations with residents Living Streets has revealed the need for local orientation and information for newly arrived residents. The Speed and Nagle Streets Precincts are intensely multicultural. Although they have their share of long term residents, they also function as places of transition with a constantly changing population of people using it as a launching pad for life in Australia. Given the extremely diverse cultural mix among local residents there is an equal opportunity to celebrate migration and the many cultures that are now part of Liverpool

Living Streets Heritage Walk starts at the Railway Station and ends at Casula powerhouse, passing through a lively and rich contemporary, indigenous, European and industrial history with regards to natural and environmental sites, historic homes, and parks.

More on Living Streets Current projects

    * Living Streets Public Art Program
    * Heritage sculptures have been and will be placed as indicators to the site’s significance both culturally and in terms of heritage of the place
    * Mosaics at Rosebank House
    * Speed Street

Mosaic piece depicting the history of the area and the Rosebank House as a Heritage Home, which was the place of education for women. It was also called the Queens College.

    * The round about at Speed Street, and Mill Road

Art works will commence in early 2004 on the retaining wall at the round about. Local artists will be involved in creating the art works for the project.

    * Way finding for the Heritage Walk

Way finding signage will lead people from the station to different parts of Living Streets Heritage Walk. This is being developed as part of the Liverpool city’s way finding program to make it easier for the residents and visitors to follow the Heritage trail to the south of the CBD.

Place Making projects:
The Liverpool Public School/Childhood Memories of Migration Built in 1863, the Liverpool Public School houses students from 63 nationalities, which a large number come from the Living Streets Precinct. The proposed place-making project will be placed at the unused park next to the school, corner of Bigg and Railway Streets. The project will involve children and their parents in a series of consultation and art workshops to write about the migration memories, create art works for a series of public art works within the space. This project has now secured funding from the Western Sydney grants of the Ministry for the Arts, in addition to matching funds from the Council in developing the community gathering space adjutant to school.

Community Gardens at Lighthorse Park
Based on the consultations on the master plan developed for the Heritage Walk for Lighthorse Park and the Georges River, more community gardens are being developed at Lighthorse Park for residents use as part of Living Streets project and the Georges River corridor Program.

Gasworks Site
Living Streets has worked with local artist Helen Monday and local young people in partnership with LYNC, the Liverpool Youth Network Committee, in developing ideas and sketched for art works to be placed around a seating area for young people to watch basketball games. A proposed half court is on the way to create better recreation for young people in Speed Street and the surrounding neighborhood. Partnership with Lync. Local communities, local youth.

Living Streets in Warwick Farm
Living Streets has applied for funding through the Western Sydney Area Assistance Scheme to develop a Living streets model in the area of Warwick Farm which has great social and cultural needs for the diverse communities who live in the area. Council is supportive of the project in donating land and financial assistance in developing a site for community gardens involving the residents. This is in partnership with Liverpool Health Service, Liverpool Community Centre and appropriate bodies within the council.M

Living Streets community projects:
Community gardening training program funded by CDSE grants, Clubs NSW has enabled residents to learn new skills in gardening, safe work practice and water preservation to be launched on 18 December 2003.

Living Streets also runs a Community Radio Program in partnership with LMRC, and CCD NSW every Wednesday from 4to 6 pm on 2GLF, 89.3 fm. The Radio offers information to the local community and interviews artists and arts workers within Western Sydney in promoting Arts and Culture.

Artists Network happens every last Wednesday of the month at the School of Art from 6.30 pm to 8.30 pm. This network brings together professional practitioners, newly arrived migrant and refugee artists in a friendly and warm environment where ideas and inspirations are exchanged.

Contact:For more information on any of the Living Streets projects please contact Cinzia Guaraldi, Living Streets Coordinator, Liverpool City Council on 9821 7794 0408 279 872 or email Cinzia.