CareSouth’s Community Relations Team is a key driver in keeping our staff and the communities we work in informed and engaged.

As CareSouth continues to grow, so does the need for effective communication and in the past 12 months our team of five staff has travelled far and wide to organise events, manage media and ensure we communicate with new audiences across CareSouth’s footprint in NSW and the ACT.

Our Community Relations team has been pivotal in developing new marketing initiatives and strategies, managing engagement within the wider organisation and liaising with our partners and the many external stakeholders with whom we work.

CareSouth’s Community Relations team ensures CareSouth has a voice at Child Protection industry forums and working groups and has developed strong partnerships with ACWA – the non-government peak body representing vulnerable children, young people and their families – and a range of government departments including Family and Community Services.

CareSouth is proud to be a founding member of the South Coast Child Wellbeing Network, a collaboration of non-government and government organisations in the Illawarra and Shoalhaven who have come together to help keep children safe in the region and beyond.

CareSouth is also a key partner in Foster Care Week celebrations where we recognise the tireless work of our foster carers, who provide a safe, loving environment for children and young people who are unable to live at home.

We work in partnership with NAPCAN to ensure the safety and wellbeing of Australia’s children and young people by raising public awareness of child abuse and neglect and its impacts, and promoting and participating in events during Child Protection Week.

CareSouth would like to acknowledge and thank those who have kindly contributed, whether through funding grants, donations or time, to help us create a positive future for all those whose lives we touch through our everyday work.

In 2015/2016 CareSouth was awarded almost $100,000 in community grants and donations.

Our major donors and funders include:

The NSW Department of Family & Community Services

Ansvar Insurance

Bomaderry RSL Charity Trust

CMD Solutions

Community Grants

Commonwealth Bank Community Fund

IMB Bank Community Grant

IRT Foundation Community Grants

SCE Group

Kinghorne Motor Group

Glen McPherson Memorial Golf Day Trust

Westpac Business Banking

Herron Todd White Wollongong

Horizon Credit Union Nowra

Illawarra Forum

Kenny’s Beach Wheelchair

In December 2015 CareSouth and the community pulled together to help raise funds for Kenny – a resident at Tartarian’s supported accommodation facility – to spend summer at the beach.

Kenny loves the water but is unable to go to the beach without a special wheel chair. He became the centre of a community fundraising campaign when his support workers Mick Blattner and Rebekah Dempsey launched an appeal to get Kenny a beach wheelchair.

The campaign touched the hearts of those who heard about it and Kenny’s bid to get to the beach got amazing traction. CareSouth staff and community members from across the Shoalhaven, Illawarra, and even as far afield as Melbourne, raised the $5000 needed for the chair.

Two months after the fundraising appeal began Kenny was at the beach and in the water. It was an emotional day for all those involved in the heart-warming campaign.

“The minute he saw it he knew what it was and started clapping and smiling for swimming,” Mick said. “Kenny’s chair has brought so much more joy to his life.”

Thanks to the generosity of the community, Kenny now spends his time doing what he loves, heading to the beach with his support workers.