ACU Engagement update – 1 February

The Big Issue

ACU Engagement is excited to join the Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Greg Craven, and street vendor Phil next Tuesday to sell The Big Issue as part of the CEO Selling initiative. You can find us outside the Mary Glowery building on ACU’s St Patrick’s Campus from 12.30pm. Don’t forget your $7 to pick up a great magazine and support an excellent cause. Find out more here.

The first of many student placements at ACU Engagement

We have had our first student placements at ACU Engagement with four students completing their summer internships with us as part of course HUMA 247 – Community Engagement and the Civic Professional. Amelia Peterson worked with CatholicCare to identify barriers to school participation in Family Week and provide creative recommendations as to strategies CatholicCare could utilise to boost school engagement. Darcy Lucid worked with Uplift and ACU Engagement to identify how a bra collection drive and fundraising effort could be coordinated across all ACU campuses (including the development of the communication strategy and providing recommendations for the logistics of bra transportation to collection points and onwards to the region/country of destination). Gabriella Lauricella explored a range of organisations and their needs to make recommendations regarding which organisations ACU Engagement should build relationships with and why, taking into consideration ACU’s Mission and Values. Whilst Jack Borg contributed to the development of a National Donation Register for ACU Engagement. This involved identifying and profiling charitable organisations around Australia that are seeking donations of different types of goods.

Each student has done an excellent job with their respective tasks and we have enjoyed their company over the past few weeks. We look forward to having many more students in the future.

Josh, Tiffany, Jess and Sonya from ACU Engagement, with intern Darcy Lucid.

Meet Matthew Pink

My name is Matthew Pink and I am a research fellow with ACU Engagement.  

I have a passion for working on developing university community-engagement projects that are mutually beneficial for our wider communities, and also our staff, students, and university culture. My research areas of interest include the transformational processes of university-community engagement, sport for development in developing, and developed nations, and elite athlete welfare and development.

One project I am particularly passionate about is Kicking Goals Together, which I founded along with Health, Sport, and Well-being, and Multicultural Development Association in 2016. Recently ACU International has also begun working in this space. Kicking Goals Together engages youth from refugee and migrant backgrounds in soccer and relevant job skills and language education where previously there were barriers. This year we are excited that with support from the Brisbane City Council, the program is expanding into Brisbane’s bayside to work predominantly with youth from Pasifika backgrounds. We are however swapping the soccer ball for a Rugby ball.

I am particularly excited about the upcoming launch of ACU Engagement.  What excites me is the commitment to continue to develop and build a culture around community engagement that is embedded into the teaching, research, and service our university undertakes in a manner that has impact for both the communities we engage with, and our own staff and students. This all falls within the mission to achieve impact through empathy.

One thing I love about my role is that I get to work with many amazing people from all walks of life who share one thing in common, the desire to collaborate so we can be more, and create more together.

Opportunities to make a difference

• Foodbank NSW are looking for people to help out whilst regular volunteers are off on holiday (give a day and gain a whole new perspective on food security).
• Caritas Melbourne are looking for volunteer speakers to promote Project Compassion in parishes in the lead up to Lent.

For information please contact acuengagement@acu.edu.au