Canning

Perth

The City of Canning is located in the south-eastern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, about 10km from the Perth CBD. The City is made up of 16 suburbs and covers a total of 65km2. Canning is fortunate to have the beautiful Canning River (Djarlgarro Beelier in Noongar) snaking its way through its borders. The City recognises the strong and enduring connection the Noongar peoples have to the Djarlgarro Beelier, recognises the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the lands in Canning and pays respect to Noongar Elders past, present and future.

Canning has significant diversity in land use with residential, commercial and industrial areas. The City of Canning contributes approximately $11.2 billion to the Gross State Product, providing over 77,000 full time jobs (Economy.id, 2021). Approximately two-thirds of the City's economic activity stems from Canning Vale and Welshpool, two of Perth's premier industrial areas. The City of Canning is also home to WA's largest shopping centre located within the Canning City Centre. With the most economically diverse local economy in Western Australia and forecasted growth in population, employment, businesses and gross regional product; Canning's economy is set to continue as one of the highest performing local economies in Western Australia.

Over 94,000 people live within the City of Canning, with over 50% having been born overseas. Our community is one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse in the state with 45% of the community speaking a language other than English.

Despite overall prosperity, the City of Canning has a dichotomy of socio-economic conditions with individual suburbs reflecting significantly differing levels of advantage within their communities. Detailed demographic information about Canning’s population forecasts, social atlas and community and economic profile can be accessed at the informed decisions website.

Formal and Non-formal Learning Infra-structure

The City of Canning student population is one of the highest per capita in the metropolitan area driven by the proximity of significant formal learning infrastructure. At tertiary level, two of Australia’s leading universities border the City of Canning - Curtin University and Murdoch University. The City has working relationships with both, and a particularly strong relationship with Curtin University, working formally and informally together on a range of initiatives and partnerships, covering many mutual focus areas. Outcomes achieved have included the development of the Switch Innovation program to foster innovation within government; incorporation of the Ignition program into the suite of City of Canning Business Development Mentoring offerings; play-based research informing the City’s Public Open Space use strategy; and varied community learning programs focused on Smart Cities and Internet of Things through the libraries in partnership with Curtin’s Innovation Central. Similarly, tertiary studies are offered locally through the Bentley campus of South Metropolitan TAFE. Primary and secondary education is supported through learning infrastructure consisting of 22 primary and pre-primary schools, five senior high schools, five colleges, one purpose built special school and three education support centres. There are significant clusters of employment focussed organisations based within the boundaries of the City of Canning offering learning opportunities as well as NFP organisations advancing social issues including disability support, family domestic violence support etc.

The City of Canning provides community learning opportunities with extensive programs delivered through two youth centres and four public libraries resulting in over 20,000 community members participating in 20/21 learning opportunities. Additionally Canning has the Canning River Eco Education Centre, known locally as CREEC, based on the banks of the Canning River. This centre provides sustainability and environmental education through its programs to support children, adults, schools, community groups and the general public. The Centre aims to raise awareness and create positive action for the health of the waterways and the surrounding natural environment. CREEC works collaboratively with local environmental groups, not-for-profit organisations, schools, government agencies and private businesses.

Learning City Developments

In 2017, the City of Canning adopted its first Learning City Strategy, with Council committing to the City’s vision to grow as a dynamic learning city and to foster an inclusive, connected, innovative and vibrant community.  The motivation behind adopting the Learning City Strategy was a desire to support the Canning community to navigate the changing social, economic and technological environment in which we all live.

The City recognized that through developing partnerships, we would be able to improve our community’s access to learning opportunities and through learning, have a positive impact on the health, employment and social connectedness of individual’s within our community.

The first Learning City Strategy 2017-2019: Learning City. Discover. Learn. Engage. Grow achievements included;

• transformation of the Riverton Library and activation of the Bentley Hub;
• development of targeted programs for young people
• initiation of business mentoring program and business development training
• Canning’s first Reconciliation Action Plan implemented;
• increase in volunteering opportunities and support;
• development of partnerships with over 50 other agencies; and
• improved relationships with Canning’s multicultural community.

The City recently recommitted to this strategic direction, through endorsing the second Learning City Strategy – Enriching Your World 2020-2024 in December 2020. This reaffirms the City’s dedication to:

"Support our community to adapt to change with resilience, grasp opportunities with ingenuity, and respond to challenges courageously and innovatively. We will work collaboratively to facilitate access for all community members to a range of learning initiatives, fostering social harmony through inclusion, connection and celebration of our diversity".

Implementation of the strategy integrates the work of a number of internal business units, including Business Development, Community and Culture, Community Learning, Sustainability and Youth Services. Working interconnected within large networks and through direct partnerships, the City acts as a backbone bringing together partners and organisations with aligned purposes.

Key Activities in the LC field

Since adopting the first Learning City Strategy in 2017, the City has implemented a suite of lifelong learning opportunities across the City’s libraries, Youth centres and Canning River Eco-Environmental Centre (CREEC), as well as online.

Working in collaboration with a range of partners and stakeholders, the City has extended programming with a focus on the development of multi-literacy areas; health literacy, digital literacy, employment literacy, volunteering literacy, financial literacy and language literacy.

Many programs have involved community partnerships and engaged local community facilitators/ volunteers who have the opportunity to share their knowledge, skills and experience.

Business learning and support opportunities have been fostered with the development of the Canning Business Mentoring Program. This segmented program takes participants through a learning journey, matching their learning needs to the current stage of their business’s development and growth.  The City has partnered to deliver extensive sustainability education programs, youth initiatives and expanded the range of literacy learning programs to school aged and pre-school aged children and families.

Alongside formal learning opportunities, our City has fostered access to informal and ad-hoc learning with the addition of a range of innovative, experiential sessions utilising newly emerging and playful technologies designed to enable curious exploration and spark creativity.

To facilitate the creation of suitable environments to support learning, two of the City’s library sites have been transformed: Riverton Library into a flexible, innovative learning hub; and Bentley Library into a community hub, with a focus on inclusion, access and connection. In early 2022, the City will be opening a new facility, the Hillview Intercultural Community Centre. Focussed on enhancing the positive learning opportunities presented by Canning’s high levels of cultural diversity, the centre will offer additional learning opportunities that focus on sharing cultural experiences and interconnected social cohesion building learning opportunities.

Key Priority Areas for Future Development

Strengthen informal learning programs utilising community led principles, while aligning learning opportunities to support transitioning from informal to formal learning through creation of learning journey pathways.

Extend initiatives to ensure equitable access and inclusion including opening of Hillview Intercultural Community Centre and internal cultural change program focussed on enhancing welcome to our CALD community.

Continual refinement of programs that appeal to the business community to build their capacity and capability whilst instilling a culture of life-long learning

Providing opportunities for the community to understand and pursue their own business as a sustainable outlet for creativity

Our goal is for the City of Canning to strive for sustainability in all aspects of its programs, projects and practices, through best practice impact management, knowledge brokering and capacity building.

Our significant program of staff and community skill building opportunities creates and enabling environment for our citizens to address the challenges of a changing world, and to understand their impact on the social, environment and economic fabric of their community.

Beyond its sustainability and environment learning offerings, which span early learning, school and adult learning programs in partnership with local learning providers, the City presents or hosts a range of major sustainability focussed events (Changing Your World Conference, Electrikhana, Earth Week Expo, Climate Clever Neighbourhoods, Your Move and more).