To our beautiful ACE Community Colleges friends,
Well, the past two weeks have been nothing short of incredible. We have seen some incredible destruction and hardship in our Northern Rivers communities but we have also seen some incredible resilience, strength and community spirit in what has been a challenging time.
Firstly to our wonderful campus in the CBD of Lismore. Unfortunately at this point in time we do not have a timeframe for our return. With so many trades caught up across so many businesses, we need to work patiently with the support we have been receiving to restore the building. We are also working very hard to have our main phone line restored, which we are hoping will be back up and running next week. Our staff are all still working from their home offices, and we are still taking enrolments for our programs. The one blessing in disguise is that through the two years of COVID-19 and what that has challenged us with, we are now equipped to continue ‘connected’ learning remotely.
To our current Lismore Campus students, please know our student support team and your trainers will be reaching out to you all over the next week or two as our staff get back on track. We are here to help support you all and will be here ready and waiting when you are ready to re-engage with study as we know a lot of our students have also been severely impacted.
While we work to reconnect with you all in Lismore, please continue to reach out to your trainers directly or contact our student support team in Burleigh Waters directly on 07 5520 3026 or send us an email at info@acecolleges.edu.au and our team will be happy to assist with your enquiry.
On a slightly different note, we look to our beautiful new campus in Murwillumbah. We know that the community has also suffered greatly, but thankfully, our campus was spared during the flooding event in the CBD. Our staff have now regrouped and have returned to our learning space. We have also had classes return and commence over the past week which has just been wonderful for both staff and students alike, having that sense of reconnection with community.
Just before the flood event, we were in the midst of renovating our campus, and now with the waters receding, we have been able to take delivery of much awaited items such as new office furniture for our staff, new furniture for our classrooms and new manual handling equipment for our Individual Support classes. While we are still working through our renovation, which has now slightly slowed due to the flooding event, we are very grateful for the support we have received so far in refreshing our campus.
Our College has been working with some local community groups in donating all the older furniture to groups in need, so we can continue to help support the local community in Murwillumbah get back on its feet.
We are just so happy to have everyone back in our Murwillumbah Campus and are really excited to continue to see the transformation take place within the campus walls in the months to come, but for now grateful to be here for our community.
Our thoughts are with all those impacted in the Northern Rivers, and ACE Community Colleges will be here to do whatever we can to continue to support and empower our students in what has been a very difficult time.
Kerry Johnson
CEO/Principal
