VillageFirst Website - Smiths Lake
The online community engagement platform for Smiths Lake Village, a Pacific Palms community
The Platform
More than a website - a progressive community platform for communication, project and engagement activity, focused on Smiths Lake Village and surrounding areas.
VillageFirst (villagefirst.org.au) is the community website, administration and engagement platform for Smiths Lake Village, in the Pacific Palms area of the Great Lakes region, NSW. It is run by the Pacific Palms Community Association (PPCA) – Smiths Lake Subcommittee and gives the village’s roughly 1,300 permanent residents, plus visitors, one place to stay informed, follow local projects, find community programs, events, and activities to match their interests, and have their say.
The VillageFirst homepage at villagefirst.org.au.
The platform draws community news, project consultations, environment and emergency information, group activities, and PPCA issues and meeting minutes together into a single, mobile-friendly site. Day-to-day it is maintained by PPCA volunteers working through the Smiths Lake Subcommittee.
What You Can Do Here
- Have your say — browse the background or status of community projects, and comment. Open and read project descriptions, inclusions, intentions, and submit feedback through the Project Hub.
- Follow local projects — track initiatives across recreation, environment, arts, and safety, each shown with its current status and supporting documents.
- Access PPCA documents — meeting minutes, agendas, the Community Plan, the demographic snapshot, an interesting history and story timeline of the village, and a map of Smiths Lake.
- Stay informed — subscribe for email updates when new projects open or comment deadlines are approaching.
- Find essential information — environment and lake-health programs, community groups and activities, local history, and emergency and safety resources.
- Connect — find activities and services of interest, provide feedback, signup for two-way contact with the PPCA – Smiths Lake Subcommittee, volunteer, contribute, and participate in any of the community projects.
How It Is Run
The VillageFirst website is a not-for-profit initiative by the PPCA – Smiths Lake Subcommittee which represents the Smiths Lake village and the surrounding Pacific Palms area, and works with MidCoast Council on matters affecting the area. The Smiths Lake Subcommittee operates on a volunteer task-force model, with residents contributing to projects based on their availability, interests and skills. The site is built and powered by Agility Ops Business Pty Ltd, and community administration and the document library are managed through an easy-to-use Notion-linked system.
The Website Project Status
Stage: Live. The platform is published at villagefirst.org.au and in active use, with the Project Hub currently open for comment on multiple community projects, and community surveys on a project needs basis. A ‘Participation Hub’ is in development, and on it’s way soon, to provide easy access community contribution, and project participation.
Funding: VillageFirst is volunteer-run, Not-for-Profit, developing this PPCA community initiative, providing development funding, supporting hosting, and ongoing-cost arrangements.
Related Pages
We acknowledge the Worimi people as the traditional custodians of the land on which Smiths Lake Village is located. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.