COVID-19 Community Connection and Wellbeing Program

The COVID Community Connection and Wellbeing program (CCCWP) funds locally led initiatives and events that promote social resilience, improve community connectedness and support communities recovering from COVID-19.

This recovery package aims to support local community wellbeing events and promote the building of resilience and capability within communities to sustain long-term wellbeing. Over $4.05 million has been shared across 76 initiatives through the CCCWP funding stream.

The COVID-19 Community Connection and Wellbeing program has several intended outcomes: 

• People are given opportunities to reconnect and re-engage with their communities to improve their social connectedness and wellbeing.
• Community members experience increased confidence and capability to foster and maintain their wellbeing and support the wellbeing of others.
• Communities have greater access to opportunities and resources to support their wellbeing.
• Communities are more resilient to the social impacts of the remainder of the COVID-19 pandemic and other future disaster events.

The program consists of 3 funding streams:

• Pathway 1 offers between $70,001 and $300,000 for larger scale projects that will be completed over a longer period (up to 22 months).
• Pathway 2 offers between $10,001 and $75,000 for small to medium scale, short-term projects (can be delivered within 12 months).
• Pathway 3 offers between $1,000 and $10,000 for small projects or events that focus on local needs (can be delivered within 1-6 months). 

Funded projects

76 initiatives were funded across three funding pathways. All funded projects aim to support social connection, resilience, and wellbeing in a sustainable and embedded way. 

Program evaluation

The Authority procured the services of ARTD Consultants to undertake an evaluation of the COVID Community Connectedness and Wellbeing Program (CCCWP).

The key evaluation questions were:

1. How significant are the changes that have occurred as a result of the CCCWP projects?
   1. What types of changes occurred as a result of the CCCWP projects?
   2. How valuable are the changes to communities and to government?
2. What have been the significant enablers and barriers to changes at a community level?
3. What are the lessons for future delivery of similar grant programs?
4. In what ways were the communities and individuals engaged by CCCWP projects impacted by the pandemic and lockdowns?
5. In what ways have the changes built resilience to future shocks or stressors for communities and individuals?

The Evaluation found that the Program delivered a wide range of changes across the NSW communities that had funded projects. These changes were valued by communities, aligned to broader policy, and likely to support increased resilience to future disasters through improved social cohesion.

Key findings:

• Pandemic impacts – NSW communities experienced a vast range of pandemic impacts, which tended to exacerbate pre-existing disadvantage. COVID-19 had a negative impact on the social determinants of health and social cohesion across the broader Australian community, with particularly poor outcomes for First Nations people and CALD people.
• Ways of responding – CCCWP projects responded to community needs in a variety of ways, frequently drawing on existing strong relationships and community knowledge.  Projects used a range of different activities to address underlying barriers or challenges. Projects reflected awareness of their role within the community, and many sought to connect participants with services delivered by other providers, demonstrating an ecosystem approach.
• Types of change – Projects sought to bring about behaviour and attitude change in order to bring about wider community change.  The projects fostered social connections and created opportunities for skill building and leadership development. Creating peer connections to reduce social isolation was an important aspect of most CCCWP projects.
• Building resilience – The changes delivered by CCCWP projects are likely to increase resilience in the face of future disasters by increasing social cohesion. The changes are consistent with changes described in the literature about the ways that social cohesion builds disaster resilience.
• Value of changes – Large, medium and small projects created value. Communities valued the changes that CCCWP projects delivered, especially reconnection and new connections in the wake of social distancing. There was good alignment with broader government policy on disaster recovery and resilience, including through being community-led and seeking to build capacity.

The evaluation categorises the examples of resilience achieved, and supports for resilience provided through the projects described by workshop participants, as:

• inner resilience
• connected resilience
• practical resilience
• community resilience.

Read the COVID Community Connectedness and Wellbeing Program Evaluation Report. (PDF 2.4MB)

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