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Meet Jonathan
Conversations with a super star
Jonathan has lived in Kahibah for a few years, and joined the Greater Charlestown Sustainable Neighbourhood Group to get to know his neighbours.
We talked about how he is working to reconnect with community and nature. Jonathan tries to live life true to himself, and is driven by re-connecting with nature and each other.
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“I feel like disconnection – from nature, each other, and ourselves - is a big part of our global problems. I try to live my life by mending those disconnects, and Sustainable Neighbourhoods is a great way to do that.”
Jonathan’s favourite part about being involved is definitely the people. “Technically I’m the Chair of the group, but we try not to be so formal. We try to spread the roles around, so I don’t actually chair the meetings. We rotate that role for our meetings, so that everyone has a chance to be a bit more involved. It works really well, and increases conversation instead of just one person just talking all the time.”
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“When I moved here from Melbourne a few years ago, I wanted to get to know my neighbours on a deeper level – it seemed to be a lot harder to do that in Melbourne.”
“Sustainable Neighbourhoods gives you an opportunity to be involved with your neighbours on long term projects. We get to build relationships and support each other in and outside the group.”
“For each of our meetings, one of our members does a little presentation describing their life in 20 photos. It’s been a great way to learn a bit more about each other.”
“Following the summer bushfires, we got together and had a really nice conversation. We checked in with how everyone was feeling, and came up with a plan about how we could respond locally to support a bushfire impacted community near Elands.”
Jonathan is also a strong advocate for increasing the tree cover in our urban areas, otherwise known as Urban Forestry or Urban Greening.
“I’m really proud of getting an Urban Forest working group up and running with Council."
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Jonathan at the launch of the first local Community Renewable Energy project at Allambi Care.
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"Increasing the tree canopy in our urban areas is at the top of my agenda. The closer you are to nature, the more opportunity you have to connect.”
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“The benefits of street trees, and urban greening are so large – it solves so many problems all at once. They contribute to local habitat and stormwater management, relieve heat stress, and make us happy. Just 20 trees a year per person and we will have solved half our problems.”
“Walk down a street with big massive trees and compare how different it feels to a street without them. Why would you want to live in a street without trees?”
“Of course it’s easier said than done, and doesn’t happen as fast as you want to. But I’m pleased to see that it’s in Council’s operation plan this year. If we make it easy for people to plant their own trees, and they see their neighbours doing it, we’ll all take some ownership."
"I’d like for us to make Lake Mac a true tree city of the world.”
“I’d like to reach out beyond our engaged group, and get more people involved somehow. To get people to connect with their local environment, and take some responsibility for it."
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Enjoying a local clean up with the Greater Charlestown Sustainable Neighbourhood team
Jonathan was the first investor in the Allambi Care Community Renewable Energy project.
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"We’re responsible for more than our house. Why aren’t we all responsible for our verges, creeks, local parks? If we could invest more time in that, we’d be a lot better off, and close those disconnections.”
“I’d encourage anyone to come along and have a chat. You’ll find something you want to work on, or at least find someone you want to chat to. And if you have a good idea, we can support you.”
