Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plan

Greater Shepparton’s 10-Year Public Health Strategic Plan 2018–2028 is the long term public health strategic planning tool used to guide the direction of public health efforts across the community.

Greater Shepparton City Council has obtained an exemption from the Department of Health from producing a standalone Public Health and Wellbeing Plan, and instead has chosen to integrate public health and wellbeing matters into the Council Plan.

Learn more about the Council Plan

Council’s four year strategic plan reflects our medium term approach and incorporates health and wellbeing as part of its design shaped by the Environments for Health Framework.

The Environments for Health Framework aims to make public health a central focus for local government and to increase capacity to prevent ill health and increase wellbeing. It is based on a social model for health which recognises the impact of the social, built, economic and natural environments on community health and wellbeing.

Councils are required to complete annual monitoring of achievement of strategic objectives, as specified under the Local Government Act 2020.

Developed annually, this short term plan identifies key targets, actions and measures relevant to the achievement of public health outcomes aimed at addressing the strategic direction and priorities outlined in the Greater Shepparton Public Health Strategic Plan and Council Plan 2021–2025.

The VicHealth Local Government Partnership focuses on providing evidence-informed policy and practice change for councils to create healthy, active and connected communities for people who are 0-25 years of age.

Greater Shepparton City Council is dedicated to making health changes with and for the children and young people in our community. Council has worked in partnership with VicHealth as one of 16 ‘fast-track’ Councils to ensure the voices and needs of children and young people aged 0-25 years are included in public health and wellbeing planning using systems-based thinking and co-design principles. Council has undertaken this work across a broad range of health promotion modules that consolidate best-practice methodology, evidence and case studies to inform the planning and implementation of enhanced, equitable health policy, and practice changes tailored for our municipality. Health promotion modules include:

• Building active communities
• Connected and supported communities
• Building better food systems for healthier communities
• Strengthening tobacco control at a local level
• Increasing alcohol harm prevention at a local level
• Promoting everyday creativity at a local level

Recent Achievements in the VLGP

• Frame the Future Program
  • In collaboration with Swinburne University, the Frame the Future program engaged young participants, aged 13 – 25, in a dynamic film project during workshops held in June and August 2025. The initiative saw participants storyboard, film, and edit their own short films across three hands-on sessions. To inform their films, a lecture was provided on Victorian Public Health and Wellbeing priorities, tailored to provide relevant local data and context, in an age-appropriate format. It was from this foundation participants developed films centred on themes of environmental sustainability, mental wellbeing, and vaping awareness.
  • These films were presented at a community showcase in November 2025, screened at the local Village Cinemas. It was paired with an encore screening of “When the Dust Settles”, an independent documentary exploring the ripple effects of regional suicide and the journey to hope afterwards. 
  • Behind the Scenes Video
  • Short films:
    • Let's Stop Vaping - A Short Documentary
    • Raff and Vera Save The Trees - A Short Film About Environmentalism
    • The Breaking Point
• Vaping Co-Design Program
  • In partnership with Primary Care Connect and the Goulburn Valley Public Health Unit, two co-design workshops were held at Greater Shepparton Secondary College in November 2025 to engage young people aged 13–17 who are considered susceptible to vaping. The purpose was to create a safe and collaborative space for meaningful dialogue, surfacing their anecdotal experiences and testing what messaging and interventions resonate most with them. These sessions aimed to deliver actionable, hyper-local insights into young people’s experiences of vaping and the strategies they believe would be most effective in addressing it.
  • The first workshop focused on exploring participants’ personal and peer experiences through the lens of the socioecological model, mapping the influences at individual, interpersonal, community, and societal levels that shape vaping behaviours. Building on this foundation, the second workshop invited participants to design interventions they felt would work in their own context, generating ideas that ranged from peer-led campaigns to environmental changes within school settings.
  • Together, these workshops provided a rich understanding of the lived experiences and social dynamics influencing vaping among local youth, as well as practical, youth-informed concepts tailored to the Greater Shepparton community. The findings will be synthesised into a suite of actionable insights to guide future prevention efforts across schools and community settings.