Mainly for Students

What is Tasmania Together?

Tasmania Together is a unique project that allows the people of Tasmania to say what they want, and work together to achieve their long-term social, economic and environmental future. The project sets goals for the future, sets targets and monitors our progress towards these targets.

There are 12 goals and 143 benchmarks that reflect the concerns people expressed during two of the biggest community consultation processes ever undertaken in Tasmania (in 2000 and 2005).

Your Life in 2020

How old will you be in 2020? What will you be doing? Will you still be at school, or maybe working, travelling or at TAFE or University? Will you be old enough to drive and to vote? Might you have children of your own by then?

If you could see into the future, how would you like it to be for you? Would you keep everything just the same as it is now or would you change some things?

When the Tasmania Together Progress Board consulted with the Tasmanian community in 2005, people thought about what they liked and what they wanted changed. They said they were concerned about things like:

These are some of the issues that were raised in 2005. What issues are important to you, your family, friends or community now? What do you think might be new issues that arise between now and 2020?

So what is Tasmania Together about?

Tasmania Together is a plan that identifies what is important, and what we need to work on if we're going to have the Tasmania we want by 2020. This is the vision of the community:

Tasmania is an island community, unique for its natural and cultural environment, where people enjoy a prosperous lifestyle based on quality, creativity and opportunity.

There are also 12 goals, and 143 benchmarks (or ways to measure) our progress so far. For example:

Goal 4 is "Active, healthy Tasmanians with access to quality and affordable health care services". We use many different benchmarks to measure our performance about this goal, but one key measure is "the proportion of Tasmanians over 18 who eat at least 2 serves of fruit and 5 serves of vegetables a day."

How many serves of fruit do the adults in your family eat?
How do you think you could help us improve on this?
What could you do to increase the amount of fruit and vegetables that you and your family eat?
How could you make a difference to the amount of fruit and vegetables eaten by the people in your school?

Goal 12 is "Sustainable management of our natural resources" and one way we can achieve this goal is by mitigating the effects of greenhouse gases, and where possible, reducing their emissions.

There has been much media coverage lately about our "carbon footprint" and our need to reduce the amount of greenhouses gases we use. How could you reduce the amount of greenhouse gases produced in your home and in your school? How could you measure this?

There are lots of good ideas in 51 Ways to Get Involved

Why get involved in Tasmania Together?

There are many good reasons to be involved in Tasmania Together.

1. Students are the future citizens of this state; learning more about the community and becoming involved benefits both young people and the community.
2. Young people are an important part of the community. Tasmania Together is about consultation with the community.
3. Many of the benchmarks and goals in Tasmania Together affect young people, both now and in the future.

How can I get involved in Tasmania Together?

There are many ways to find out more about, or become involved in, Tasmania Together.  Explore some of the suggestions below:

51 Ways to Get Involved

Using the Tasmania Together brochure - 51 Ways to make Tasmania a better place - as a starting point:

  • Investigate and take action to put some of the 51 ways into action in your school or local community. Explore the included weblinks.
  • Rewrite the brochure to reflect the needs and interests of your school and/or local community.

51 Ways: 51 Ways- word version
51 Ways: pdf_file

Use or add to Tasmania Together data

Tasmania Together goals and benchmarks relate to a wide range of issues. Investigate existing Tasmania Together data or generate new information about your local community that is directly relevant to specific benchmarks or goals. Much information is accessible on the Tasmania Together website and additional or hard copy resources are available on request.

Post an idea to the Tasmania Together Progress Board

Got a good idea for Tasmania Together or the achievement of the benchmarks or goals?
Why not send it to Tasmania Together or invite a member of the Board to talk more about Tasmania Together with your community, class or school?

Email to:secretariat@tasmaniatogether.tas.gov.au

Conduct a school or community forum or develop a community partnership

Is there an issue in Tasmania Together you want to discuss with others, find out more about, or take action on in your school or community? Maybe a forum or community partnership could be a powerful starting point for change and improvement. You could use an existing student leadership or citizenship forum and focus on issues from Tasmania Together or organise a specific discussion forum or conference to discuss issues of importance to you, your peers or your community. This could be held in your school, the local council or at another venue if you are planning a regional forum.

Where can I go for additional resources or ideas?

This site is managed by the Tasmania Together Progress Board and was last updated on Friday, 10 September 2010.
The URL for this page is http://www.tasmaniatogether.com.au/schools/student_and_teacher_guide/mainly_for_students.
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