Last Monday night, more than 70 community CEO’s, business leaders, decision makers, academics and members of the public attended a Public Health Forum asking How do we have a healthy and wealthy community? The forum was the first in a series of two hosted by G21 Health & Wellbeing Pillar in partnership with Deakin University, the Department of Health and Department of Human Services. The highly esteemed key note speaker, Professor Rob Moodie, presented a powerful lecture on why we need to change some of our behaviors for better health. A podcast of the lecture will be available on the G21 website soon.

During the forum, Professor Moodie officially launched the new G21 Health and Wellbeing Community Profile. He commented that the development of the profile has been a fantastic achievement for the G21 health and wellbeing pillar and will prove to be influential evidence for future service and community planning in the region. The Profile is available either online or in print and brings together for the first time latest available Geelong region data on:

• community capacity (including population growth, age and structure)
• socio economic factors (including employment, unemployment and education statistics, early life measures, the impacts of stress, social support & connection, access to transport and food, and addiction issues)
• environmental factors (such as water use, reuse, pricing and storage, air quality and climate change impacts)
• health behaviours (including rates of obesity, family violence, workplace injuries, hospital admissions, mental health issues, drug and alcohol related issues)
• health status (including dental health, prevalence of chronic disease, life expectancy and causes of death).

The second forum in the series will be presented on Monday 12 October at the Blakiston Theatre, Geelong Performing Arts Centre 5.30 – 7pm, and is open to the public. It will be titled Looking at the future impacts on child health and wellbeing in our community and will question why some G21 communities are growing, when others are experiencing entrenched disadvantage that has devastating effects on our children. Key note speakers will be Mr Bernie Geary, Victoria’s Child Safety Commissioner and Dr Mark Kennedy, local General Practitioner. Contact Megan Somerville at G21 on 5227 4011 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to register.

Click here to download a copy of the G21 Health & Wellbeing Community Profile.

Click here to browse the G21 Health & Wellbeing Community Profile online.