State honour for Council’s approach to community engagement

Council’s organisation-wide approach to community engagement has been honoured with a major state award.

Council’s Community Engagement Network was named the winner of the ‘Excellence in Innovative Leadership and Management’ category winner at the NSW Local Government Professionals state awards in Sydney recently.

The Community Engagement Network or CEN is a group of more than 20 Council employees, from across office and field-based roles, who take part in a range of community engagement activities and aim to build relationships between Council and local residents.

Council’s Director of Corporate Services, Liz Collyer said the award is an acknowledgement of the efforts of all the CEN team members.

“The Community Engagement Network represents a real shift in the way we seek input from Tweed residents about Council projects,” she said.

“Over the past 18 months, our CEN members have been out and about at public events, markets and shopping centres and have had hundreds of conversations with community members on Council projects and initiatives.

“The best feedback we receive is that Council cares about what the community has to say and we are there to listen and have genuine conversations about how and why we do things, and what the community wants from its Council.”

The Local Government Professionals award recognises innovative projects and the use of superior management and leadership skills to achieve outstanding benefits for the organisation and the community.

Tweed Shire Council will now represent NSW at the National Local Government Professionals awards to be held in Hobart in late May.