The panellists for the 2024 Women in Community Life Awards have been announced as three previous award winners: Robyn Davis, Dianne Pont and Issara Saeyim.
Free tickets are available now for the awards that will be presented as part of the City's International Women's Day celebrations on Friday 8 March 2024 - Please register for the event to ensure you don't miss out.
The annual awards acknowledge the contribution women have made to the Greater Geelong community, and in particular, the impact they have made to promote and advocate for the advancement of gender equality.
Winners will be announced across seven categories sponsored by local organisations: First Nations Woman, Climate Action, Disability Rights, Economic Empowerment, Education, Human Rights, and Leadership in Women's Health.
The UN Women global theme for International Women's Day 2024 is Count Her In: Accelerating gender equality through economic empowerment.
Greater Geelong Mayor Trent Sullivan highlighted that gender equity is a focus of the City.
"Gender equity acknowledges the critical work of women in our community and is one of the City's five health and wellbeing priorities as laid out in our 2021-2025 Community Plan," said Mayor Sullivan.
"The City is proud to recognise and celebrate the valuable contributions of women across our region."
Councillor Melissa Cadwell, Chair of Women in Community Life Advisory Committee praised the ongoing success of the Women in Community Life Awards in providing an opportunity to acknowledge the women contributing to gender equity and inclusion in the community.
"It's great to honour and celebrate the award nominees and panellists, who have taken responsibility in representing and improving our great community," said Cr Cadwell.
Panellist Robyn Davis won the 2021 Women in Community Life award for Human Rights and has continued promoting human rights and gender equity in her role as General Counsel for the Institute of Sisters of Mercy of Australia and Papua New Guinea.
"I am pleased to be attending the event and discussing our roles as women in our community," said Ms Davis.
"I am looking forward to meeting old friends and new. Together we thrive."
Recipient of the 2018 Women's Health and Wellbeing category award, Dianne Pont, currently teaches Community Services at The Gordon TAFE and actively collaborates on projects with local public schools and community organisations.
"Since receiving the Women in Community Life Award in 2018, I have continued working in and with our local community," said Ms Pont.
"I am still passionate about using our individual and neighbourhood strengths rather than solely focusing on any barriers - It's not just 'what' we do, but 'how' we do it."
The final panellist, Issara Saeyim, was awarded the 2023 Women in Community Life Award for Education for her work at the Cloverdale Community Centre where she created and runs the well-being team and the Lotus Kitchen program.
"The UN Women global theme of "Count Her In" underscores the importance of ensuring women's inclusion," said Ms Saeyim.
"Initiatives like Lotus Kitchen act as avenues for providing opportunity for women to identify and address their own needs through skill-building and entrepreneurship."
Tickets
To secure tickets to the Women in Community Life Awards on 8 March visit geelong.link/WICLAwards
Livestream
Alternatively, you can watch the event live through this livestream link -geelong.link/WICLAwards2024
