Greater Whitsunday Communities
Here at Greater Whitsunday Communities, we are working towards a future where our regional communities achieve and enjoy a high level of social wellbeing. We know that when people feel connected, safe and supported – our communities thrive.
As social development practitioners and the peak regional body, we amplify the Greater Whitsunday community’s voice on important issues and continue to promote the social sector as a major contributor to economic growth and prosperity for our region, making our communities better places to live.
In this newsletter edition we are thrilled to launch a brand new www.greaterwhitsundaycommunities.org.au. It provides information, profiles community stories and offers learning and development for community groups and members.
It is essential that we continue to support an active regional voice that connects community members with their local leaders, groups, service providers and government. Communication and connectedness are a key part of this work and the new website will support greater reach and greater awareness of the important work happening across the region.
The website forms part of the 2020 revisioning process that our organisation has undertaken including a new name and look, a new governance structure and the new website.
I would like to acknowledge the great work our team has done over the past 6 months. Dorne, Antoinette, Lauren, Kate and Ashton have been extremely busy working across the Greater Whitsunday region with a variety of community organisation and stakeholders.
I would also like to acknowledge the support of our coordinating committee members, the structure review committee members and our interim executive office Jennifer Emmett who have all invested greatly with their time and expertise to lead this organisation through our restructure process while keeping the organisation running efficiently with business as usual.
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ClermontCONNECT
In April a group of likeminded Clermont community members met for the ClermontCONNECT Directors Information Session. ClermontCONNECT is a concept that enables Clermont community members to make changes in their community and contribute to the future of the town and help keep the community viable and vibrant. The Thumbprint People was written by John Burnett about ClermontCONNECT and the logo.
This project has been made possible with funding received from Glencore Coal Assets Australia.
Read more >
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Nebo community "Welcome Wagon" Activity
On Sunday 30 May we attended our first Nebo Community “Welcome Wagon” connection activity with 20 people new and long term residents. A number of attendees shared that it was 'a good opportunity to meet new people' and interest in future events.
The event was a good sign of things to come, with the group motivated and planning another event for August 2021. Thanks to IRC Community Relations Officer & Glencore Community Relations Officer for their support.
Read more >
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'Wire N Rust' Workshops and Collinsville Community Health Day
Through the support of the Australian Government Building Better Regions Fund Drought Recovery (Round Four), a Women's Health Day was held in Collinsville on 1 June 2021. Greater Whitsunday Communities - in partnership with Collinsville Community Association and Youth Coalition hosted this inaugural event for local women.
Greater Whitsunday Communities, with support of Glencore, also hosted the "Wire N Rust and H’s Hats" workshop in Glenden on the 31 May. The Glenden community thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to have something unique come to their community, as well the chance to come together, build connections and networks.
Read more >
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Better Together Housing
Greater Whitsunday Communities commenced as the Mackay Regional Host for the Better Together Housing program (BTH) in March this year. BTH is an early intervention, peer support model for women over 55 facing housing insecurity and homelessness. It is a platform for participants to find someone to share with, it does not provide housing but does link people together who are interested in sharing their home or rental, and benefit from a shared housing situation.
In April, project worker Lauren Pettie and senior coordinator Dorne Wallace began to connect with organisations and groups who were identified as necessary community partners to support the program and participant throughout their BTH journey.
Read more >
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Socio Economic Forum 2020
In September 2020, we convened and facilitated a forum attended by 60 key stakeholders including, LGA's State Government representatives, industry and business groups and community partners to:
- Build capacity and greater understanding of the link between social and economic development.
- Increase understanding of the role the social sector plays in the economic profile of the region
- Position Greater Whitsunday Communities as a key player in the socio-economic agenda of our region.
We have applied to the Australian Governments Building Better Regions Fund to develop a regional Community of Practice in this space
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Community Leadership Programme
The Community Leadership Programme has been funded as a pilot for our region. The goal is to develop knowledge, skills and capacity for emerging leaders in the Greater Whitsunday region.
Twelve emerging leaders from all over the Whitsunday, Isaac and Mackay Regions were challenged with a comprehensive programme including a mentoring programme and an intensive weekend retreat. Read more >
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From the skills and experiences gained throughout the programme, a couple of the emerging leaders are really thriving as leaders in their community. Read more to hear how this programme has impacted their work.
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Collaborations and Partnerships in Bowen
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IRC Youth Unmet Needs
We have been working in partnership with Isaac Regional Council on a research project to identify the unmet needs of young people across the region. We have collected the data from approximately 300 young people, 55 parents and 50 service providers through an online survey, focus groups and feedback sessions.
Read more >
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Mackay Youth Out Loud
Greater Whitsunday Communities (GWC) continues to support the collaborative project -Youth Out Loud 1000 (YOL1000) which aims to hold 1000 conversations with young people to explore strengths as well as needs, as identified directly from the young people themselves.
the YOL1000 Engagement Group have held 600 out of the target of 1000 conversations with young people between 10-21 years. From these 600 conversations, clear trends are beginning to appear.
Read more >
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Managing Disruptions – Peer 2 Peer Networking Approach
Funded by the Commonwealth/State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements CQ Bushfires Flexible Funding Grant, the aim was to work alongside not for profit community-based organisations in the Isaac and Mackay & Whitsunday regions to build awareness and encourage uptake of user-led business continuity planning.
From November 2020 to March 2021, we facilitated five half-day workshops where a number of organisation were able to plan more effectively for future events.
Read more >
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CSIA Event
On the 20th of May 2021, Greater Whitsunday Communities hosted CEO Belinda Drew and General Manager Matthew Gillet of Community Services Industry Alliance (CSIA), in Mackay. They met with community services from across the WIM region to give an update on what CSIA has been working on and hear what the issues and concerns are currently for the WIM region.
Read more >
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Portable Long Service Leave
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COVID-19 Taskforce Update
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Part of our focus is bringing affordable, accessible professional development to the community sector. In 2020 and 2021 Covid-19 has impacted our ability to do this, but we are looking at resuming these activities in the new financial year.
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