Empowering the Mornington Island Community

Mornington Shire Council has a vision to empower their people and maximise opportunities for their community to improve employment and health outcomes. So, when Move It NQ offered an exciting opportunity for Western Queensland councils to upskill individuals, Mornington Shire was the first to sign up.

After comprehensive consultation with councils, Move It NQ in partnership with Western Queensland PHN made a commitment to invest in building regional capacity to further promote long-term health and wellbeing programs. “By offering traineeships in becoming a certified fitness provider, this program not only contributes towards positive health outcomes in the community but also creates employment opportunities and upskills individuals” said Megan Taylor, Move It NQ Senior Program Coordinator.

In line with traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural beliefs, Mornington Shire identified both a male and female candidate to improve health outcomes and increase long term engagement in the program for the whole community.

“In our Indigenous community there is limited access to health promotion and wellbeing benefits, therefore I would like to play my part as promoting healthy lifestyle towards the youth and adults within the community” said Salote Vugakoto, Move It Mornington Capacity Building Program trainee.

Identifying that the local needs and unique situations of individual communities was key to building a sustainable program, Move It NQ offered flexible options based on the trainee and needs of each council. “Mornington Island proudly intertwine culture to physical activity through traditional language and promotion of respectful behaviours in all their current Move It Mornington programs” said Ms Taylor. “This program is designed to provide long term, place-based solutions so it was essential that we worked alongside councils to ensure their needs were met.”

Other Western Queensland regions who have also committed to upskilling individuals in their community include Carpentaria Shire Council and Cloncurry Shire Council. Recognising gaps in their current resources and attracting trainees is a substantial step to ensure they can deliver a range of physical activity sessions into the future.