"My Living Smart course attracted a group of inspiring people that want to make a real difference to the world we live in. It encouraged me to make small changes to my lifestyle, but also gave me the confidence to make extraordinary changes too.” – Participant 2013.
What is Living Smart?
Living Smart is an award-winning 7 week course focused on promoting behaviour change. The course is hands-on and provides skills and knowledge to take action in your own home to improve quality of life and reduce environmental impact.
The Living Smart program consists of ten key modules that provides participants with a very broad understanding of what it means to be sustainable:
- Simple Living
- Water
- Power
- Waste
- Gardening for Biodiversity
- Gardening for Food Production
- Transport
- Healthy You
- Healthy Home
- Community
What makes Living Smart so unique?
People who enrol in the course are generally motivated and committed to create change in their own lives and community, who often progress to become sustainable champions in their own communities. Rather than just developing an awareness of issues and hoping people change their behaviour, Living Smart is based on sound methods to encourage behaviour change in individuals. There is an assumption that people are aware of the issues and want to make changes.
Living Smart facilitators are trained in adult learning principles. The course is not a “chalk and talk” lecture style experience but uses cooperative learning, the sharing of participant knowledge and hands on activities to encourage both sustainable changes and community development.
Each Living Smart course is designed by the facilitator based on the needs of each individual group. Besides the 10 key modules, Living Smart does not have a set curriculum. Each course takes into consideration the needs and interests of the group, as well as utilising expertise within the group to further develop community. Most Living Smart participants express a desire to continue to meet with fellow participants and the wider Living Smart community, and so many post course Living Smarties groups now operate, further supporting sustainable changes. Courses are run throughout the year around Fremantle.
Next available Living Smart course
Who wouldn't want to be Living Smart?
Start living smarter at home by learning how to reduce water use and waste to landfill, grow your own food, swap to no-chemical cleaning and live more simply. Living Smart is an award-winning seven week course that will inspire you to make sustainable changes in your own home. Meet other like-minded community members and discover practical ways to live a healthier lifestyle and be more gentle on the planet. This is an interactive course, with lots of hands on activities.
For more information about the next Living Smart course, and other programs of interest, check out the City's What's On web page.