CCA Innovation Contest

The CCA Innovation Contest

This year, CCA has organised the first-ever “Community Education Innovation Prize”, which honours the innovative programs developed by Australia’s community education sector.

The Winner was:

ACE Community Colleges (Lismore NSW), “Licensed and on the Road”:  free driving lessons for Aboriginal people to obtain their license.

The Highly Commended entry was:

Port Macquarie Community College (Port Macquarie NSW), “Integrating Community Mental Health and Adult Community Education Programs”:  five integrated and linked community mental health programs.

The winner and “highly commended” entries were judged on four criteria:

  1. Evidence of innovative practice
  2. Community benefit relative to the size of the project
  3. Ability of the project to provide a model for similar organisations
  4. Communication of the project’s background, goals, activities and outcomes

The official prize-giving of the CCA Community Education Innovation Prize took place at the Conference “Gala Awards Dinner”, held on Wednesday 19 October 2016 in Sydney, at “dockside”, overlooking beautiful Darling Harbour.

In addition to the winner and highly commended, the judging panel had selected a shortlist of six other submissions (listed in alphabetical order):

Central Coast Community College (Ourimbah NSW), “The College Renewal Project”: new emerging career courses, high speed internet connection, upgraded classrooms and Indigenous murals.

Coffs Coast Community College (Coffs Harbour NSW), “My Story, My Life”: Digital Storytelling for Young People from Refugee Backgrounds.

Hornsby Ku-Ring-Gai Community College (Hornsby NSW), “Innovating Through Local Collaboration”: TripleH-FM Radio, Hornsby Ku-Ring-Gai Women’s Shelter, Small Biz Matters and Boyd Office Management.

Kiama Community College (Kiama NSW), “NextGEN Digital Development”: This employability program develops young people who are at risk of becoming long term unemployed to provide digital services to businesses.

South Coast Careers College (Eurobodalla Adult Education Centre, Batemans Bay NSW), “Dreaming Book Series”: Captures and records significant local Indigenous history, through the production of books with Indigenous Elders and Community members.

Western Riverina Community College (Griffith NSW), “Vocational Certification Verification Portal”:  Allows a potential employer to electronically verify in real time the qualification and/or units achieved.

The Winner: ACE Aboriginal Driver Training

Innovation Contest Winners

Conference Dinner and Prize-giving video

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