Compassionate Communities initiative in the Illawarra-Shoalhaven Region

Establishing Compassionate Communities in the Illawarra-Shoalhaven Region

Compassionate Communities is an internationally regarded model which recognises that community members play a key role in supporting and caring for people during an experience of loss or grief. It is not simply a task for health and social services, but is everyone’s responsibility.

The GroundSwell Project has been one of the leading organisations investing in the development of Compassionate Communities in Australia. Bringing the Compassionate Communities model to the Illawarra-Shoalhaven region is an excellent opportunity to bring together many existing community groups, individuals and organisations who are active in this space and offers a chance to hear from locals on what the needs of the area are.

After reviewing the district for community interest, Kiama was chosen as the first community to engage with and plans to work with community members began to emerge.
In light of the COVID restrictions, these plans were paused as we asked the community if this was an appropriate time to launch the initiative. The overwhelming response was that this is the best time as people are more community focused, they want to help but don’t know how and it’s an opportunity to ride the wave of some of the community-led kindness initiatives coming out of the pandemic.

A broad array of people and organisations have now been engaged:
Kiama Council and sub committees, Councillor Kathy Rice, Dementia Friendly Alliance, University of Wollongong researchers, death doulas, social workers, bereavement support coordinators, nurses, doctors, volunteers and interested community members. 

In the past month, there have been six suicides in the community, including some youth. These heart breaking losses have broadened the conversation to encompass a whole of life perspective around death, grief and bereavement.

The next step for the initiative is to invite stakeholders and community to come together and identify ways forward. To make this step as accessible as possible and COVID Safe, we’re offering 30 minute face-to-face sessions and an online workshop at the end of August - see below flyer for details. These workshop sessions are open to anyone who is interested and will involve exploring how we are currently addressing and supporting our community when it comes to death, dying and grieving and what we could do to further this and make Kiama an even more Compassionate Community.

See below for workshop outline and register here.

The GroundSwell Project, in partnership with the Illawarra-Shoalhaven Local Health District received funding this year from NSW Health to bring the Compassionate Communities model to the district.