Community Fellowship Award - University of Wollongong

Recognising relationships between the University and our community

The University of Wollongong launched the Community Fellowship Award in our 40th Year of Independence to celebrate and recognise relationships between the University and our community. Since its launch the Community Fellowship Award continues to recognise the ongoing relationships between the University and its communities. The Award is the highest honour the University of Wollongong can bestow in recognition of a community organisation.

2021 Community Fellowship recipient

As the devastating bushfires approached Far South Coast communities on New Year’s Eve 2019, selfless volunteers from the Surf Life Savings Clubs put everything on the line for their communities. Their actions embodied the organisation’s commitment to protecting and saving lives, and demonstrated great courage, resilience and community spirit.

Music: Photo Album from Bensound.com

Speaker 1 [00:00:18] The University of Wollongong has been a part of the South Coast communities for more than 20 years and has thriving campuses in Batemans Bay, Bega and Nowra. Like the Far South Coast Branch, we recognise that this is a very special part of the world and we look forward to the exciting future for the region as we grow together and make positive change. UOW and the Far South Coast branch are very much aligned, and we both recognise that there is little distinction between our organisations and the communities. Rather, we are part of the communities we serve and we come together when times are tough. As Deputy Chancellor on behalf of the Council of the University of Wollongong, I congratulate the Far South Coast branch on their commitment, dedication and unwavering generosity in the face of adversity. The seven clubs that work as a united team are Batemans Bay, Broulee, Moruya, Narooma, Bermagui, Tathra and Pambula. The support that these clubs provided during the devastating bushfires of the 2019/2020 summer was nothing short of remarkable. As a devoted and resilient organisation, the Far South Coast Branch is a most deserving recipient of the University of Wollongong Community Fellowship Award.

Speaker 2 [00:01:54] Deputy Chancellor, local surf lifesaving clubs are the beating heart of every coastal community in Australia, providing so much more than just an on beach safety service. Nowhere is this truer than the Far South Coast Branch of Surf Life Saving New South Wales, whose comparatively small volunteer base, amongst them numerous UOW alumni, not only keeps residents and visitors safe on the beaches, but provides an exceptional leadership and support in times of crisis. As the devastating bushfires bore down on the far south coast on New Year's Eve 2019, these selfless volunteers once again put everything on the line for their communities, and their actions embodied the organisation's belief of protecting and saving lives. With the bushfire emergency unfolding around them, Bermagui Surf Life Saving Club and clubs up and down the South Coast mobilised response teams and opened their doors to become makeshift evacuation centres, even when both Broulee and Batemans Bay Surf Lifesaving clubs were under threat from ember attacks. Their brave volunteers evacuated thousands of people down to the beach, then took to the streets searching for people in need of assistance, going door to door to help those who had not yet been able to evacuate. The surf club network of evacuation centres were soon filled with residents, visitors and even beloved pets. Few would forget those enduring images of thousands of people crowded onto the foreshore whilst the fires approached, with dogs and livestock amongst them. Once the immediate emergency had passed, but with roads closed, electricity cut off and phone services down for several days, the clubs transitioned into support centres providing food, water, shelter, first aid and much needed emotional support for weeks on end. Branch volunteers across the region rallied around those in need, securing donations of oxygen tanks, medical supplies, food and bedding. And throughout this devastating period, the volunteers of the Far South Coast branch played an essential role in saving the lives of so many bushfire victims across your communities and continued to provide support well after the fires had subsided. The University of Wollongong is forever grateful to the Far South Coast Branch volunteers for their brave and tireless work, protecting and rehabilitating our communities. In conferring this award, we honour their commitment to our shared vision for a thriving, resilient and connected region. For its outstanding contribution to the safety and well-being of the communities it serves and for the lives it saves throughout challenges at every scale, it is a privilege to present the Far South Coast Branch of Surf Life Saving New South Wales as the recipient of the University of Wollongong Community Fellowship Award.

Speaker 3 [00:05:26] I'm so proud to be the leader of this branch and also proud of our 2,500 members. All are hardworking volunteers and contribute so much to this community. We certainly had a lot of souls crushed at that time and what surf lifesaving clubs did, for those people in the community, was just amazing. They supplied evacuation points, medical support, community hubs, a place of comfort and relative safety. Surf lifesavers from all over pitched in as one team. With the commitment from our Branch, I also appreciate the commitment from the University of Wollongong and the campuses in Batemans Bay and Bega. What you do for us, to be able to have our young lifesavers in our branch, in Eurobodalla and Bega, to be able to stay in the area and pursue their dreams and study, is just fantastic. Other than that, we do, we just lose them at an age where we would really like to keep them, at about 18 years of age when they leave Year 12. So what you contribute there, to be in our area and do so much for the area, really helps us as individual surf clubs a hell of a lot. All it probably leaves me to say now is just how proud we are in the Far South Coast of what we have done and how proud I am of what we have done on the Far South Coast. And it's so amazing to be only the fourth recipient, I believe, of this award from UOW. So that says a lot in itself of the gravity of this. So it is, it is much appreciated. So on behalf of the Far South Coast and all of the men and women and children in our branch, I'd like to say thank you for this award and we will keep doing our stuff as we do it as best we can. Thank you.

Music: Photo Album from Bensound.com

Speaker 1 [00:00:18] The University of Wollongong has been a part of the South Coast communities for more than 20 years and has thriving campuses in Batemans Bay, Bega and Nowra. Like the Far South Coast Branch, we recognise that this is a very special part of the world and we look forward to the exciting future for the region as we grow together and make positive change. UOW and the Far South Coast branch are very much aligned, and we both recognise that there is little distinction between our organisations and the communities. Rather, we are part of the communities we serve and we come together when times are tough. As Deputy Chancellor on behalf of the Council of the University of Wollongong, I congratulate the Far South Coast branch on their commitment, dedication and unwavering generosity in the face of adversity. The seven clubs that work as a united team are Batemans Bay, Broulee, Moruya, Narooma, Bermagui, Tathra and Pambula. The support that these clubs provided during the devastating bushfires of the 2019/2020 summer was nothing short of remarkable. As a devoted and resilient organisation, the Far South Coast Branch is a most deserving recipient of the University of Wollongong Community Fellowship Award.

Speaker 2 [00:01:54] Deputy Chancellor, local surf lifesaving clubs are the beating heart of every coastal community in Australia, providing so much more than just an on beach safety service. Nowhere is this truer than the Far South Coast Branch of Surf Life Saving New South Wales, whose comparatively small volunteer base, amongst them numerous UOW alumni, not only keeps residents and visitors safe on the beaches, but provides an exceptional leadership and support in times of crisis. As the devastating bushfires bore down on the far south coast on New Year's Eve 2019, these selfless volunteers once again put everything on the line for their communities, and their actions embodied the organisation's belief of protecting and saving lives. With the bushfire emergency unfolding around them, Bermagui Surf Life Saving Club and clubs up and down the South Coast mobilised response teams and opened their doors to become makeshift evacuation centres, even when both Broulee and Batemans Bay Surf Lifesaving clubs were under threat from ember attacks. Their brave volunteers evacuated thousands of people down to the beach, then took to the streets searching for people in need of assistance, going door to door to help those who had not yet been able to evacuate. The surf club network of evacuation centres were soon filled with residents, visitors and even beloved pets. Few would forget those enduring images of thousands of people crowded onto the foreshore whilst the fires approached, with dogs and livestock amongst them. Once the immediate emergency had passed, but with roads closed, electricity cut off and phone services down for several days, the clubs transitioned into support centres providing food, water, shelter, first aid and much needed emotional support for weeks on end. Branch volunteers across the region rallied around those in need, securing donations of oxygen tanks, medical supplies, food and bedding. And throughout this devastating period, the volunteers of the Far South Coast branch played an essential role in saving the lives of so many bushfire victims across your communities and continued to provide support well after the fires had subsided. The University of Wollongong is forever grateful to the Far South Coast Branch volunteers for their brave and tireless work, protecting and rehabilitating our communities. In conferring this award, we honour their commitment to our shared vision for a thriving, resilient and connected region. For its outstanding contribution to the safety and well-being of the communities it serves and for the lives it saves throughout challenges at every scale, it is a privilege to present the Far South Coast Branch of Surf Life Saving New South Wales as the recipient of the University of Wollongong Community Fellowship Award.

Speaker 3 [00:05:26] I'm so proud to be the leader of this branch and also proud of our 2,500 members. All are hardworking volunteers and contribute so much to this community. We certainly had a lot of souls crushed at that time and what surf lifesaving clubs did, for those people in the community, was just amazing. They supplied evacuation points, medical support, community hubs, a place of comfort and relative safety. Surf lifesavers from all over pitched in as one team. With the commitment from our Branch, I also appreciate the commitment from the University of Wollongong and the campuses in Batemans Bay and Bega. What you do for us, to be able to have our young lifesavers in our branch, in Eurobodalla and Bega, to be able to stay in the area and pursue their dreams and study, is just fantastic. Other than that, we do, we just lose them at an age where we would really like to keep them, at about 18 years of age when they leave Year 12. So what you contribute there, to be in our area and do so much for the area, really helps us as individual surf clubs a hell of a lot. All it probably leaves me to say now is just how proud we are in the Far South Coast of what we have done and how proud I am of what we have done on the Far South Coast. And it's so amazing to be only the fourth recipient, I believe, of this award from UOW. So that says a lot in itself of the gravity of this. So it is, it is much appreciated. So on behalf of the Far South Coast and all of the men and women and children in our branch, I'd like to say thank you for this award and we will keep doing our stuff as we do it as best we can. Thank you.

The Far South Coast Branch of Surf Life Saving NSW (SLSNSW) was selected as the 2021 recipient of the Award, recognising its outstanding contributions in supporting communities during the unprecedented bushfire crisis of the 2019/2020 Summer.

Deputy Chancellor Dr Liz Magassy conferred the award on the organisation on 30 September. Dr Magassy congratulated the Far South Coast Branch on their commitment, dedication and unwavering generosity in the face of adversity.

“UOW and the Far South Coast Branch are very much aligned, and we both recognise that there is little distinction between our organisations and the communities. Rather, we are part of the communities we serve and we come together when times are tough” - Deputy Chancellor Magassy.

Community Fellowship Award 2019 recipient AIME

View photos from the event

The Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME) was selected as the 2019 recipient of the Award, recognising AIME’s significant services to improving educational outcomes for Indigenous students in Australia, including in the Illawarra, Shoalhaven and far South Coast regions.

AIME has demonstrated outstanding passion, leadership and integrity, working fearlessly to transform lives and close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities through educational opportunity.

Chancellor Ms Jillian Broadbent AC conferred the award on the organisation on 20 June. Chancellor Broadbent said AIME was an organisation that had truly made a tangible impact on the lives of students throughout the world, helping to end the cycle of disadvantage.

“AIME’s impact has been profound and far-reaching; they have helped thousands of Indigenous students to believe in themselves and put them on the path to achieving their dreams,” Chancellor Broadbent said.

Community Fellowship Award for Community of Mudgee

The Community of Mudgee was selected as the 2017 recipient of this award to celebrate the outstanding civic leadership of Mudgee, Gulgong and surrounding communities and to recognise their exceptional contributions in sponsoring initiatives to support the University of Wollongong’s Graduate Medicine students.

These communities worked tirelessly to support initiatives to attract and retain health care professionals to provide the region with continuous access to quality healthcare. This is a vision shared by the University of Wollongong and the Community Fellowship Award honours those that gave their time, energy and resources to strengthen regional communities.

In conferring the award, the University of Wollongong thanks the people of Mudgee, Gulgong and surrounding communities for their dedication, commitment and generosity of spirit in welcoming UOW medicine students into the community and making their placements a positive experience.

Lifeline South Coast

Lifeline South Coast is the inaugural recipient of the Community Fellowship Award. The award acknowledges the life-saving work done by Lifeline South Coast as well as its 20 year long relationship with the University.

“Our relationship is multi-faceted: psychology students volunteer as telephone crisis support counsellors; we assist with research to strengthen Lifeline South Coast’s ability to undertake its suicide prevention activities as well as best professional development activities; and some library staff even help out at the Book Fair.”

Upon receiving the award, Lifeline South Coast Executive Director Grahame Gould said: “It’s not easy work to help a caller find a way forward when considering life or death … at times we become fatigued by the challenge.”

“However, Chancellor, we are nourished by the fact that we are working together to play our part in building a world where there is a sense of hope for everybody.”