Strengthening communities through business

ACU Engagement is pleased to announce a new partnership with Australian Business Volunteers (ABV) for staff community engagement opportunities.

ABV is an international development agency uniquely focused on strengthening business and economic institutions, with a vision to alleviate poverty through inclusive economic growth.

Throughout Asia-Pacific and in Australia, ABV implements projects which build capacity by transferring skills and knowledge with a focus on strengthening communities and alleviating poverty. Each project is designed by experts in international and community development and is then implemented by skilled volunteers.

Recently, a team of ACU staff volunteered to support the rebuilding efforts of Cobargo, one of the bushfire-affected towns of the South Coast of NSW.

Through grant writing and business case development, the ACU team helped support applications for funding. These applications successfully went on to contribute more than $10 million, and more importantly, helped enable the Cobargo community to ‘build back better’.

The devastation of Cobargo was featured in a Guardian Australia article by Michael Gowan, ‘You can see it in their eyes: long after the bushfires the pain lingers in Cobargo’.

More information

If you are interested in utilising the Community Engagement Time Release (CETR) policy to support the work of ABV, you can view upcoming assignments or contact acuengagement@acu.edu.au for more information.