Raising Awareness

Keeping Canberra connected, developing resilience.

While the pandemic was the unwelcome backdrop it was not the only challenge facing our community. Increasing poverty levels (from 30,000 to 40,000), spikes in domestic violence, mental health, vulnerable youth population and a lack of housing were among the causes for deep concern.

As Canberra’s community foundation, HAC provides support to local charities that in-turn provide key support to our community at the grassroots level. Throughout COVID-19, HAC has stepped up and additionally supported charities to adapt to the changed circumstances while shedding light on the dire condition of thousands of Canberrans during the pandemic.

HAC used this time to raise awareness about the needs of these charities and what individuals, corporates and households could do to make a difference. As a result our donors responded generously with an increase in donations of 50% from the previous year and this despite businesses and individuals facing many challenges themselves.

This was an act of great resilience and initiative shown by the entire Canberra community and is a testament to the HAC motto that great things can be achieved when Canberrans choose to ‘give where we live’.

Together with the Snow Foundation we published the second Vital Signs Canberra 2021 which provides a snapshot of our unique city, grounded in data and local knowledge focused on the four themes of Health, Education and Employment, Housing and Belonging. It is a key tool in raising awareness and provides an insight into our community and shows different realities for many people across the city.

Our online presence and utilisation of social media played a pivotal role in engaging the community and keeping them updated and together despite being apart during the pandemic. HAC saw a 30% increase in it’s following base this year.

Multiple media platforms help us share our message of ‘give where we live’ and we are thankful that the Canberra media continue to highlight the great work of the charities we support. We are also grateful for our strong relationships with Region Media, ABC Canberra Radio, the Canberra Weekly, CityNews, Canberra FM and WIN, who help us share information about community need in Canberra.

We have also been working diligently at adopting a new ‘client resource management’ system to go live on July 1 2022. This will allow us to connect more efficiently with Canberrans and our network of charities.

“Philanthropy is already embedded in the DNA of Canberrans: Canberrans  are more likely to volunteer and donate more than anywhere else in Australia” (Vital signs 2018). But we would like to see a greater share of donations staying in Canberra to help the local community. We can do that  by showing Canberrans the need in their own backyard and the incredible work of our network of community organisations.”

View the vital signs report