Community voice wins recognition
A successful and innovative UniSA project that
gives residents the opportunity to make an important contribution to
local government has been named the best community engagement
project at the 2009 Business-Higher Education Round Table Awards.
The Community Panel project developed by Dr
Anne Sharp from UniSA Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science
in collaboration with the City Councils of Tee Tree Gully, Burnside,
Unley, Holdfast Bay and Campbelltown as well as the Local Government
Association of South Australia, has grown from strength to strength.
There are now more than 2000 local residents
registered as Community Panel members and they are regularly
contributing feedback and opinion through online surveys about key
decisions affecting the local community. Growing from a pilot
project, it now includes five local councils with more communities
adopting the Community Panel concept.
The panels help to engage residents from all
groups, eliminating some of the traditional barriers to involvement.
Research results from the surveys are then used by the council in
the decision making process around policy or local issues.
Also featuring with and honorable mention in
the best Research and Development category at the B-Hert Awards, was
Professor Drew Dawson for a project he carried out in
partnership with InterDynamics Pty Ltd and Safety Support Ltd, to
develop tools to manage fatigue related risk in the workplace. The
collaboration has produced a suite of software products and
consultancy services that have generated a new category of
scientific fatigue risk-management solutions both locally and
internationally.
The B-Hert Awards recognise outstanding
collaborations in research and development, higher education and
training, vocational education and training, and community
engagement.