Introduction by Croakey: With so much of the public discourse dominated by divisive and often hateful political rhetoric, it’s easy to lose sight of the solid work being done in communities, and of the many people and organisations working for the greater good.
VicHealth recently launched a new place-based prevention initiative, Partners in Place, which supports partnerships with 17 rural and regional councils and six community coalitions across Victoria to address local conditions that shape health – “where prevention lives”.
Each partnership responds to local priorities – from improving food security in Melbourne’s north and west to creating more opportunities for young people to connect, move and play in regional areas.
Below, VicHealth CEO Professor Anna Peeters AM pays tribute to the courage found in communities working for change, and the importance of supporting the leadership of children, young people, First Peoples and culturally and racially marginalised communities.
“VicHealth has spent decades learning that prevention depends on relationships,” Peeters writes. “Our role is not to prescribe solutions from a distance, but to back community leadership with funding, evidence and connections so local efforts can build over time.”
Anna Peeters writes:
Sometimes it feels like we’re living in two versions of the same country at once.
In one, the national conversation swings from one flashpoint to the next. Climate change gets pulled into culture wars. Inequality is framed as individual failure, rather than the result of decisions we’ve made over time. People and communities become scapegoats for problems caused by systems. The loudest voices tend to dominate.
In the other country, away from the headlines, local people are steadily building a different future.
In council chambers and community halls, on sports fields and in neighbourhood houses, they work together so children can grow up healthy, families can afford good food, young people feel welcome and valued, and First Nations communities can create the solutions that work for them.
VicHealth’s Partners in Place initiative belongs in that second country, where change doesn’t arrive shouting but grows out of long‑term relationships, local knowledge and people backing each other in.
Over the next five years, VicHealth will be working alongside councils and community coalitions to strengthen health and wellbeing through locally led prevention.
This investment backs people who see the pressure on their communities up close: young people facing mental health challenges, climate shocks disrupting local food systems, and the compounding effects of racism and exclusion on people’s health.
The people living with these realities every day are also the ones best placed to design the answers.
Starting point
Prevention starts from a simple truth: health isn’t made in hospitals.
It is shaped by the places where we live, learn, work and play, and we downplay that reality at our cost. Whether a young person has somewhere safe to go after school, whether an Elders group has stable funding to keep cultural connection strong, whether a town can rely on access to nutritious food. These are health decisions, even if they are almost never treated that way in national debates.
When we listen to communities, we do not hear apathy. We hear determination. Local governments understand the pressures affecting health and wellbeing in their communities. Community organisations know which programs have earned trust over time, and which approaches fall flat because they ignore local realities. Any prevention effort that sidelines this experience will always be fragile.
Partners in Place is built around that understanding. Funding runs longer term, giving councils, coalitions and community organisations the time to test ideas, adapt and deepen impact. The focus is on children, young people, First Peoples and culturally and racially marginalised communities. People whose health is most heavily constrained by structural barriers, and whose leadership is essential to shifting those structures.
This is prevention that feels practical rather than abstract. It might look like strengthening local food systems so families can access affordable, nutritious food close to home. It might be a youth-led program that builds connection, confidence and collective strength. It might be an Aboriginal-led initiative that treats culture as a protective force across generations.
Each of these investments helps build the conditions for better health.
Relationships matter
VicHealth has spent decades learning that prevention depends on relationships. Our role is not to prescribe solutions from a distance, but to back community leadership with funding, evidence and connections so local efforts can build over time.
Partners in Place is a clear expression of that approach. It empowers councils and coalitions to lead, and recognises that meaningful change in complex systems is almost always incremental rather than dramatic.
There is courage in this kind of work. It asks people to hold both the urgency of what they see around them and the patience needed to build new systems. It keeps our attention on children and young people across Victoria who deserve a fair chance at health, whatever their postcode or background. It reminds us that equity is not a distant ideal, but something you can see, or not see, in school playgrounds, main streets and community kitchens.
Prevention is often the work you only notice when it disappears. A sports club that quietly welcomes every child. A local community centre that keeps people connected through a difficult winter. A food initiative that means the supermarket closing does not end fresh produce in town.
Partners in Place exists to make that kind of work visible, valued and secure for the long term.
If we want a future where those two countries feel more like one, the path will not run through the next combative media cycle. It will run through council meetings, community forums and kitchen‑table conversations where people are already working on it. That is where prevention lives. Partners in Place is there with them.
See Croakey’s #PHCmatters portal, which puts a focus on primary healthcare and communities
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