MEDIA
RELEASE
University
Communications
View RMIT media
releases and
find experts:
rmit.edu.au/newsroom
MELBOURNE
BRUNSWICK
BUNDOORA
FISHERMANS BEND
POINT COOK
HAMILTON
HO CHI MINH CITY
HANOI
Handbury Fellowship recipients announced
The Helen and Geoff Handbury Fellowship has announced recipients who will
share up to $60,000 this year in awards for new community research projects
improving the quality of life in western Victoria.
Projects funded this year include:
Positive Parenting Pupil Participation, submitted by Denise Fenwick,
Principal at George Street Primary School, Hamilton. This project, also
involving RMIT University and Southern Grampians Adult Education, will
explore strategies that would enable sustainable engagement and learning
opportunities for parents at the school while creating supportive
environment for both parents and students.
Community Heritage Collections: A Regional Development Resource,
submitted by Pam Enting from Heritage Victoria. In collaboration with
Western Victorian Historical Societies and RMIT, she will recommend how
custodians of community heritage collections can form new collaborations
and partnerships.
The Fellowships selection panels consist of three university senior-level
researchers and three community representatives. Coralie Coulson and Reverend
Peter Cook said: “We enjoyed the capacity to find out the next level of detail
involved in a project and being able to support a valuable community initiative.”
Dr Yaso Nadarajah, Chief Executive Officer of the Fellowship Program, said each
round of applications reinforced the fact that this program reached those who might
otherwise not have such an opportunity to work on an idea. “And they are given an
opportunity to take that idea forward in a supported and structured way,” she said.
Professor Kim Humphrey said the Fellowships were an excellent initiative, with “the
2009 winners are to undertake projects that will be of great value to their
communities – and that is the beauty of this scheme, it’s not just about the
recipients gaining an award, but about community benefit and collaborative effort”.
The Helen and Geoff Handbury Fellowship, made possible with the support of
Helen and Geoff Handbury, is supported and funded by the Federal Government
Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR).
The biennial Handbury Celebrations will be held on 1 December at the Hamilton
Institute of Rural Learning, hosted by RMIT’s Globalism Research Institute and
Geoff Handbury, Hamilton. For more information on the Fellowships, call (03) 9924
For interviews or further detail: Dr Yaso Nadarajah, RMIT Globalism Institute,
(03) 9925 3542. For general media enquiries: RMIT University
Communications, David Glanz, (03) 9925 2807 or 0438 547 723.
10 November, 2009
NEWS 
