Tasmanian LiFE Awards – 2026 Nominee
Communities in Action for Suicide Prevention LiFE Award
The Communities in Action for Suicide Prevention LiFE Award acknowledges the crucial role that communities play in identifying and taking action towards suicide prevention. This award recognises any group or community, whether it’s a sports club, community group, or a hobby group, that works together to prevent suicide. This may involve developing a local plan for mental wellbeing and suicide prevention or organising activities that bring the community together to facilitate social connection and provide opportunities to discuss mental health and suicide prevention.
Cygnet Community Hub
The Cygnet Community Hub was established in 2016 following four suicides
in the community in one week. Mez Newman and Cate Warren, who come from extensive health careers, recognised that there was an urgent need in the community for a suicide prevention model.
Mez and Cate were informed of a community action plan that they could pursue, which resulted in four workshops to explore the need for broad support to prevent instances of extreme adverse mental health events.
Following the workshops, the Cygnet Community ‘Hub’, as it fondly came to be known, moved into the offices at Cygnet Town Hall, where it has been operating under Mez and Cate’s direction for the past nine years.
The Hub supports the community by connecting people, providing information, helping access to services, and supporting cultural activities of the town. It operates in the real world, not in a theoretical textbook environment, and staff follow up with people sometimes long after their difficult situation has been resolved. Nothing is too big or too small for the team to tackle. They do not judge, and will sit and listen to a person’s problems, and offer real life remedies and solutions.
The Hub works closely with other organisations to carry out their extensive range of programs and is supported by a team of volunteers who generously donate their time and expertise in carrying out the Hub’s mission.
The Cygnet community has come together to help achieve the ultimate goal of the Hub which is to build an inclusive, resilient community, one conversation at a time.
Proudly sponsored by Lifeline Tasmania
