Welcome to Coffs Newsroom (17 July 2020)

I’m delighted to be writing my first Column for the new Coffs Newsroom publication.

With the sad demise of the printed editions of the Coffs Coast Advocate, Council felt that we needed to help older members of the community, who in some cases are not as tech-savvy as many others, to still be able to get Council news in a printed format.

So we created Coffs Newsroom. This is going to be a fortnightly, full-colour digest of all the latest news, public notices and other important community information which can all be found online. It can be picked up from our Customer Service Centre, local libraries, Coffs Harbour Community Village, Karangi General Store/Post Office, Coramba General Store, Nana Glen General Store/Post Office, Ulong General Store/Post Office, Red Rock General Store, Corindi Beach General Store and Bonville Service Station/Post Office.

I hope you enjoy it.

Local Youth an Inspiration

I had the immense pleasure recently of meeting with some incredibly switched-on and optimistic students from the Coffs Harbour Senior College who came along to meet with members of the BVN Architecture team, including Principal Matthew Blair, who are designing the Cultural and Civic Space. Specifically, they were invited to provide their ideas on the design development of the youth space in the new building.

Public libraries are a key support of educational outcomes for children of all ages, from preschool children learning to love reading, all the way through to teenagers who have much more diverse educational needs.

And it was really refreshing, and sometimes surprising, to hear the kinds of things our local young people want from their library.

They were a very diverse and inclusive group and gave me a great deal of hope for the future. At the end of the day, this project is for the future of Coffs Harbour. Knowing that we’re creating a space so our young people can have access to the best possible cultural, social and educational resources is what keeps me inspired and motivated.

The BVN team showed the students some digital sketches of the space and asked for their feedback on furniture and technology, as well as their ideas about how they would use the space if the building was ready for them to walk into that afternoon.

Youth spaces within libraries are designed to provide an environment for young people to connect, study, relax, dream, work and hang-out together and our local young people deserve to have access to a well-designed and resourced public library which caters for them.

While a really well-designed and resourced public library offers benefits to everyone, for some young people a space like this might be their only opportunity to access the technology and resources they need to learn and develop outside of their school.

Having diverse learning opportunities also mean that our youth has a greater chance of better employment options in the future.

Please Remain Vigilant

I’m sure all our hearts go out to our fellow Australians in Victoria at this very worrying time for the state and Melbourne in particular. It’s a timely reminder for all of us that we must still be very vigilant in our hand washing/sanitising and our physical distancing.

Now is not the time to let our guard down. Please stay safe!

Pictured above are the Coffs Harbour Senior College students with (at front) Cheryl Ward, Mayor Denise Knight and Ruth Coulter from Council’s Community Programs Section.