University of Sydney
EN-10: Community Partnerships

The Real Deal seeks to work with a diverse coalition of community and climate organisations, unions and business organisations to create a just economic and social transition through health and climate crisis. To do this it builds participatory and collaborative research projects across the country that allow people with lived experience of economic, health and climate crisis to work with experts from the university to design novel policy responses.

Our distinctive contribution is to draw together unusual partners so we can explore how to productively connect sustainability and climate issues with economic issues. Currently Australian climate debate polarises jobs and climate, or cities and regions. We are working to bring those concerns and communities together using a research-action process, based on the relational method approach of co-design used by the Sydney Policy Lab.

The partnership has 10 funding partners, and a larger network of supporters, including:
• United Workers Union
• Australian Conservation Foundation
• GetUp
• Committee for Sydney
• Sunrise Project
• Tipping Point
• Queensland Community Alliance
• Victoria Trades Hall
• Climate Justice Union (WA based)
• Original Power (national Indigenous network)

It's first report was issued in 2020 - https://www.sydney.edu.au/sydney-policy-lab/news-and-analysis/news-commentary/a-real-deal.html.

Over a two-year period, the Sydney Policy Lab is leading a collaborative research project, working directly alongside civil society and for-purpose organisations as they continue to respond to the ongoing economic and social challenges of the COVID-19 crisis. It provides unique insights into our social fabric at a historically unparalleled time.

Working through a series of focus groups, interviews and discussion papers, this research and community partnership project enables civil society leaders to share their own insights into the capacity of civil society to act for the common good and better to identify potential future trends.

The project examines examples of international learning and cooperation with COVID-19 being a rare example of a truly global phenomenon. What have been key successes and missteps internationally? What efforts have there been at international co-operation and learning, and how successful have they been? How is what is going on overseas relevant to what is occurring here? How is Australian civil society connected to what is going on internationally?

This approach to examining the effectiveness of Australian civil society organisations, working through the Lab’s distinct relational and collaborative research method, is intended to create distinctive and original insights for broader dissemination, and well as generating a subsequent research agenda around for-purpose sector capability beyond the pandemic.

https://www.sydney.edu.au/sydney-policy-lab/our-research/strengthening-australian-civil-society.html

In the City of Sydney council area around 17,000 residents don’t have reliable access to affordable healthy food, and more than 3.6 million Australians experience some kind of food insecurity each year, according to Foodbank Australia.

The University’s Sydney Environment Institute is leading a research-driven initiative that places power in the hands of local heroes to reduce those sobering numbers. Called FoodLab Sydney, it’s a custom-designed program that provides support and training to people who want to bring their own idea for a food business or career to life in their own community.

The institute and UNSW Canberra have joined forces with the City of Sydney and TAFE NSW for this unique example of a local government-community-university partnership - https://foodlabsydney.com/who-we-are

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences: Refugees often arrive with nothing – no friends, family or the language skills they need to find work and accommodation. The Refugee Language Program helps refugees learn English and build social networks in the Australian community. The program, provides opportunities that aren’t available to them anywhere else. As well as free English language classes, it aims to break down social barriers for refugees by introducing them to Australian ideas and customs, and providing reading materials, social activities and volunteer mentors. Wherever possible, the program guides these students in finding work - https://www.sydney.edu.au/arts/industry-and-community/community-engagement/refugee-language-program.html
Business School: RARE is a community-engaged learning program connecting students with remote, rural and Indigenous enterprises in Australia and South-East Asia to solve real-world business challenges.Academically guided action research projects emphasise community consultation, researching best practice and reviewing local markets to provide remote entrepreneurs and organisations with solutions that suit challenging remote environments and socio-cultural differences - https://www.sydney.edu.au/business/study/student-experience/remote-and-rural-enterprise-program.html
Faculty of Science: The Faculty runs a program called Science Alliance, an ongoing program that stages public events, programs for high school and primary schools and promoting science through our many ambassadors, including Dr Karl and Mathematics and Science ambassador Adam Spencer. With programs ranging from public lectures to HSC workshops, and from teacher seminars to holiday camps, we aim to make science exciting and accessible - https://www.sydney.edu.au/science/industry-and-community/community-engagement/science-alliance.html

The URL provided is not an exhaustive list of our community partnerships, instead a highlight of the community-outreach work going on across the University of Sydney. Each Faculty has its own specific webpage detailing it's community engagements.