Council purpose, direction and approach

Our Purpose and Our Direction are the external statements about why we exist and the type of organisation we aspire to be. 

Our Approach is an internal statement about the way in which we will work – it encompasses our values and speaks to our employees and prospective employees about what it means to work for Council.

Council purpose

We exist to: 
Help our community and environment to thrive.

Help
Council recognises the inherent strength of the community and our environment. Our primary role is to assist people to achieve their goals, while recognising this must not be at the expense of the broader community. Sometimes this involves leading, other times standing alongside and often following or getting out of the way. We are here to help.

Community
Community is about people and places. We see one community (the Surf Coast Shire) and we see many individual communities (townships, interests, age).

Environment
We are lucky to live here. Our environment was here before us. It is precious and is something that defines and shapes us all. We have a critical stewardship role to protect what is so special.

Thrive
Thrive is an inspiring word – it means more than better or improve but it doesn’t suggest that we are in a bad place to begin with. Our position at this point of time is good but we strive for better. Thrive means to grow, flourish, prosper.

Our direction

Our organisation will be:

An innovative and flexible leader,
and a constructive partner,
that values the strengths of others;
a place where people can do their best
and be proud of their achievements.

An innovative and flexible leader
We will proactively change, seeking opportunities to do things in better ways. We will need to be more nimble than government has traditionally been. We want to be known as a leader in local government and beyond.

and a constructive partner
We recognise that by working together we achieve better outcomes. We will partner with others and others will want to partner with us because of who we are and how we work. We will partner with people, groups, organisations and governments. 

that values the strengths of others
We see what people can do, not what they can't. We look for the skills, resources, expertise and commitment that others have and ask - how we can we complement this? If possible we prefer to help others to achieve their goals rather than doing it for them.

a place where people can do their best
We will be most successful if this is a great place to be, full of people committed to our purpose and direction and where everyone has the tools and opportunities to do their best.

and be proud of their achievements
We are about getting things done and delivering outcomes. We feel proud to wear the Surf Coast Shire Council logo and can explain the role we’ve played in fulfilling Council’s purpose – to help our community and environment thrive. 

Our approach

We do what we say
We work together
We see opportunity
We make a difference

We do what we say
We set clear expectations, we are accountable for our actions, and we get things done.

We work together
We value strengths and differences, we seek to work with others, and we help people to succeed.

We see opportunity
We look for better ways, we are open minded, and we learn from our experiences.

We make a difference
We proudly represent Surf Coast Shire Council, we act with the future in mind, and we go the extra mile.