About Living Smart >> Success

The Living Smart Program is a winner!

The program has won these prestigious awards:

• Department of Environment and Conservation Allen Strom Eureka Prize for Sustainability Education (2004),
• Adult Learner’s Outstanding Environmental Education program (2003); and
• contributed to the City of Fremantle winning the Western Australian Environment Award (2003) for Government Leading by Example.

These awards were received for achievements reached in developing the program through Pilot Programs in 2003 and 2004.

These outcomes were identified through extensive evaluations, which helps us and others learn what does and doesn’t work. Some outcomes are shared as follows:

Living Smart Pilot 2003

During 2002, the steering committee spent several months developing the first Living Smart pilot program. Held over a seven-week period in February-March 2003 at The Meeting Place, it featured environmental information, numerous workshops, goal-setting and sustainability incentives and field trips.

Evaluation of this pilot identified the strengths of the program, along with areas where it could be improved. The main outcomes were:

• Participants significantly increased their environmental knowledge and sustainable behaviours, as well as their frequency.
• Participants were highly satisfied with the program and felt it met or exceeded their expectations.
• 63% of participants said it was very important for them to reach their goal and the majority thought setting goals increased their motivation, was reinforcing and made them more likely to act in a positive manner.
• In all topics, participants increased their efforts to be more environmentally positive by 17-22%.
• 68% said the program changed the way they think about lifestyle and environmental issues.
• Half of the participants felt what they had learnt in the program would influence them for a very long time and 41% said it would influence them forever.
• As a result of attending the Living Smart program at The Meeting Place, 91% of participants felt more a part of the community, 95% increased their knowledge of community resources and services and 82% increased their sense of well-being.
• Participants felt the program could be improved by allowing more time to cover topics in-depth, particularly by having more group discussion and exchange.

Living Smart Pilots 2004

A second pilot, incorporating the evaluation outcomes of the first, was conducted in February 2004. This second pilot was a 12-week program with the same components as before but incorporated information lectures and neighbourhood workshops.

A third pilot was held over four weeks in June 2004 to test the value of workshops and group discussion in Pilot 2 through a lecture only delivery mode in this final pilot.

The evaluation results of Pilots 2 and 3 showed the 12 week program was successful at significantly increasing the specific environmental attitudes and the number and frequency of its participant's environmental behaviours. In contrast, the 4-week lecture course only achieved a significant increased their environmental knowledge. The new element of neighbourhood workshopping was found to be successful and should be used together in future programs to maximise significant environmental behaviour change.

Materials used in our Living Smart pilots are in How to do it.

Their evaluations reports are given in Publications.