Healthy North Coast’s Community Wellbeing and Resilience program has been recognised for its efforts in building community health and wellbeing resilience in the face of increasing climate disasters, winning the Resilient Australia Mental Health and Wellbeing Award for NSW.

Healthy North Coast’s entry, titled ‘Climate Ready North Coast: Elevating the community service sector’, showcases the work being done as part of the Community Wellbeing and Resilience program, which resources community-led, place-based initiatives that support better health and wellbeing through disaster recovery, and build community’s ability to face future challenges.

Monika Wheeler, CEO of Healthy North Coast, celebrated the award win and acknowledged the great work being undertaken across the North Coast:

“Northern NSW is one of the highest disaster-declared regions in the country for frequency and severity across all three measures of fire, flood and storm. Together with South-East Queensland, our North Coast region has been labelled a disaster ‘hotspot’.1

“For this reason, a connected, engaged and vibrant community who support each other in times of need is so important.

“It’s been wonderful to have this important work recognised at a state level. Congratulations to the terrific local community organisations doing great work for their communities on the North Coast through this program.

“Congratulations also to the other North Coast organisations who received an award.”

Dr Jean Renouf, Founder and CEO of Plan C, was also present at the awards ceremony:

"I am so pleased to know that Healthy North Coast's work in support of community resilience has been recognised with this significant award.

“Plan C has received funding under the Community Resilience and Wellbeing program in the past and we have seen first-hand its impact and relevance. It’s an intelligent program of high quality, that brings a number of community organisations together to further our collective impact. The award is really well-deserved. Congratulations!"

About the Community Wellbeing and Resilience program

Since 2022, Healthy North Coast’s Community Wellbeing and Resilience program has supported 23 local community organisations to a total value of $5.3 million, through funding provided by the NSW and Australian Governments, to support the needs in our communities across the North Coast.

Most recently, the 2024 funding round trialled an innovative ‘Participatory Grant Making’ approach, which includes communities in the decisions that impact them, and prioritises trust-building over traditional competitive grantmaking approaches. The winners of the 2024 Community Wellbeing and Resilience funding will be announced soon.

Healthy North Coast, along with the other NSW award winners, will go on to become finalists in the National Resilient Australia Awards, managed by the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience (AIDR), which will be announced in November at Old Parliament House in Canberra.