Compelling Case for Wellington
The vision A community and disaster resilient Wellington.
A city is disaster resilient if it is first community resilient when a holistic and sustainable approach is taken to ensure the resilience of its people.
The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members. A resident, particularly a vulnerable one, is more confident if their community is resilient.
I aspire to a city where people find fulfilment in community relationships, understand their role within society, are free to help others, there is healthy competition and sustainable cooperation, and the focus is on community wellbeing rather than simply material wealth.
The outcome objective is to make Wellington resilient by maintaining the capabilities and eliminating vulnerabilities, so all resilience indicators are at least 80% by 2030.
The current trends [1] indicate that capabilities and vulnerabilities are static or declining. The vulnerabilities are a lack of:
· confidence in finding a job. Economic
· helping in the community and feeling safe walking alone. Social
· engaging in cultural activities. Cultural
· confidence land is being used for optimal purpose. Environment
· confidence in Council and Parliament. Governance
· connection with neighbours and preparation for a disaster. Disaster .
If the objective is achieved the benefits[2] are that people have more confidence in finding a job, feel safer, are more engaged in their community, have greater trust in Council and Parliament and are more connected with neighbours and prepared for a disaster. And we will save $100m per year through a reduction in Government services such as mental health, benefits and criminal justice etc.
The benefits will be achieved when we:
· engage well with residents by building community, connections and trust so the risks are mitigated, and
· influence central government decision making at the right-time, so constraints and dependencies are managed.
Next steps
In my following thought pieces, I will explain the choices we have to improve economic, social, cultural, environmental outcomes and then the associated infrastructure and how the choices could be phased over 10 years to survive, then revive and then thrive. My next thought piece will focus on improving economic outcomes.
I would love to collaborate with others who are working in this space, trying to solve similar problems, please leave a comment.
Previous thought pieces
To date, my thought pieces have covered what’s needed to achieve a better society, what many recent publications are saying about this, my favourite quotes about this, and that all ideologies have elements about the improvement of society through participation in decision making. I also covered that communities need investment to be resilient and speak with their voices to influence Government decision-making, and that Government seems to recognise the need for place-based solutions drawn from local intelligence. I also went through what I am doing to be part of the solution with my Better Decisions Better Outcomes approach to develop a Portfolio Business Case to inform a start-up decision on the best public value, commercially viable, affordable and achievable initiatives to achieve a better society. See here for my past thought pieces,
[1].The trends from survey data within a Wellington suburb have been gathered each October since 2019 through a community survey which asks questions of residents based on the wellbeing indicators in the Governments Living Standards Framework here, which have been aligned to the Governments resilience areas here. A score trending less than 60% is a vulnerability and a score trending greater than 60% is a capability. Here is the Wellington suburb survey data showing the trend lines https://newlandrg.weebly.com/result-2019-2024.html
[2] Using the wellbeing indicators in the Governments Living Standards Framework and attaching monetary values to, from The Treasurys; CBAx data set.