More Than Community Art: How Creative Place-Making Can Help Achieve Victoria's Social Inclusion Action Group Vision
- Kyle Brightside
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Across Victoria, local governments are being asked to think differently about mental health and wellbeing.
The Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System recognised that communities themselves play a vital role in creating the conditions for good mental health - not through clinical services alone, but by strengthening social connection, participation and inclusion. This recommendation led to the establishment of Social Inclusion Action Groups (SIAGs), with a long-term vision of supporting community-led collectives across all 79 Victorian local government areas.
Rather than asking "What services do people need?", SIAGs ask a different question:
"How do we create communities where people feel they belong?"
The SIAG Vision Is About Building Stronger Communities
The SIAG Guidelines describe four consistent themes:
Increasing social connection
Strengthening community participation
Promoting social inclusion
Supporting community-led action
Importantly, SIAGs are designed to fund and support initiatives that are shaped by local communities, build on local strengths and leave communities better connected than before.
These aren't simply community engagement goals.
They are recognised as important contributors to mental health and wellbeing. LINK
This Is Where Creative Place-Making Can Contribute
Creative Sparks Projects was founded on a simple belief:
Communities become stronger when people create together.
Every Creative Sparks Projects' initiative brings together young people, councils, community organisations, local businesses and residents to create something that reflects the identity of their community.
The mural is the visible outcome.
The more significant outcomes are often less visible:
New relationships between organisations
Greater youth participation
Increased community pride
Stronger connection to place
Shared ownership of public spaces
These are the same kinds of community outcomes SIAGs are designed to strengthen.
Four Ways Creative Sparks Projects Supports SIAG Objectives
1. Community-Led Participation
SIAGs recognise that communities are best placed to identify local priorities and create local solutions.
Creative Sparks Projects begins every project with community voices—working alongside young people, residents and local partners to co-design artworks that reflect local identity.
2. Social Connection
The SIAG Guidelines highlight social connection as a foundation for good mental health.
CreativeSparks Projects creates opportunities for people who may never normally meet to work together towards a shared outcome.
Students, artists, councils, businesses, community organisations and residents all become part of the same story.
3. Social Inclusion
Every Creative Sparks Projects' program is designed to create opportunities for participation.
Young people are not passive recipients.
They become contributors, decision-makers and creators within their own community.
That sense of contribution is often one of the most powerful outcomes of the project.
4. Lasting Community Legacy
Many community programs end when funding finishes.
Creative place-making leaves behind something communities continue to experience every day.
The mural becomes more than another public art piece.
It becomes a shared reminder that local people created something meaningful together.
That physical legacy continues reinforcing local identity, community pride and belonging long after the final brushstroke.
Why This Matters for Local Government
The SIAG Guidelines encourage councils to support initiatives that strengthen participation, inclusion and community connection while informing Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plans. They also emphasise that communities are experts in their own strengths and should lead local solutions.
Creative Sparks Projects provides councils with a practical way to bring these principles to life. Rather than delivering a project to a community, Creative Sparks Projects works with communities to create visible improvements while strengthening relationships, encouraging participation and celebrating local identity.
For councils, the value extends beyond a completed mural. It is an opportunity to activate public spaces, strengthen partnerships across sectors and create lasting opportunities for community connection.
Looking Ahead
As Social Inclusion Action Groups continue to grow across Victoria, there is an opportunity to think differently about creative participation. Not simply as public art.
But as community infrastructure - bringing people together, strengthening belonging and creating places that reflect the identity and aspirations of the people who live there.
For Creative Sparks Projects, that has always been the goal.
Because the greatest legacy isn't the artwork.
It's a community that feels more connected because it created something together.
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