Warwick Williams Real Estate recently sat down with Lance Brooks. You may know Lance as the founder of local charity, Communities 4 Communities (C4C) or as one of the original contestants on Survivor Australia back in the early 2000’s!
C4C has been a staple of the Inner West community since 2002. They are run by volunteers working locally and internationally and since established, have raised over $3 million for communities in need across Cambodia, Fiji, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Australia.
Warwick Williams Real Estate has proudly been a long-time sponsor of C4C. Starting with our Principal Warwick Williams who sponsored the very first C4C Community Funday at Drummoyne Oval in November 2002.
During our interview, we had a chat about where it all began, what were some of their proudest achievements and what we can expect from them in the future.
How was C4C born and what gave you the idea?
I would say, C4C was inspired by my experience of community in Canada Bay. I was involved in several aspects over the years, like my parent’s family business, local church committee, secretary of the Drummoyne Swimming Club – which I absolutely loved! This led me to understand the benefit of a good community and how it contributes to the quality of life.
So, when I went on Survivor Australia it was the very opposite of being communal! Due to the harsh conditions we were living in – sleeping in the dirt, having very little food and water and being apart from family, had a deep appreciation for how lucky I was. For many around the world, I realised that living like this was their reality for all their lives.
The prize for winning Survivor at the time was $500,000, in the end, I couldn’t win it, so I thought why not try raise it! This is where the idea of Communities 4 Communities was born. I gathered some friends, family, people from other local clubs and we held our very first meeting in February 2002 at the Drummoyne Swimming Pool club room.
Was it challenging in those early days to get the idea off the ground?
I understood the benefit of networking with different leaders and networks. We basically built our network on a concept that we later figured out to be community engagement and mapping. I had this idea of approaching influential people from each sector across the community. We tried to find volunteers from each school in the area, recruiting members from different sports clubs and community organisations.
Being in a time before social media we didn’t really think of it as a challenge, it was just the way we went about things! We managed to get our name out there, got some great support and next year will be our 20th year.
Can you tell me about some of the projects you’ve completed through your work with C4C and which one are you most proud of?
All of our projects are very special. So, I have a few highlight memories that come to mind. C4C started as a way to build houses and just houses. Over time we have evolved and really become about supporting and building communities. Beyond houses, we have also built daycares, toilet blocks, community centres and schools for communities in need.
I will never forget our visit to the island of Cebu in the Philippines in 2005 for so many reasons. It was our first overseas project, building houses. We visited a community living in a rubbish tip in the neighbourhood of Inayawan. Seeing families living their normal life – kids going to school, parents collecting recycling for money, scavenging for supplies for shelter and food and to see the harmony of that place, it was like a village!
I will never forget the resilience of the human character, being able to do that, live that and see the kids running around like it was a playground. It was so out of context to how we live. I was inspired by the resilience of human nature and the power of community in these areas.
On our second or third day building houses with the community the daughter of one of the couples helping us fell ill. We later found out that the couple went to all the members of the community asking for a bit of money so that their daughter could be admitted to hospital and get medicine and they did it! I just thought ‘wow’ the whole community participated in that experience. It was unforgettable.
How have you handled the challenges that covid has brought on?
If look back on my time on C4C I’d say it was a highlight year. The reason why is that very quickly after we went into lockdown in March last year we started consistently meeting on Zoom and coming up with creative ideas to raise funds.
We came up with a Foundation sponsor’s model with local businesses to underwrite the organisation’s running costs – we got ten businesses to sign up! We thought we would be pre-emptive and organise some event sponsors as well. We reached out to the community to underwrite at least 4 event sponsors for the whole year and introduced a $4 build program where people in the community can donate $4 once a week, to support the communities we are working with.
By being proactive with these initiatives and staying connected we were able to fund our two main projects. One in Cambodia and one with the Tamworth Local Aboriginal Land Council for an after-school program.
We’ve also recruited a lot of new members over the past year so people were really yearning for community.
You recently put on the C4C Community Funday here in Drummoyne which was a great day out, pending an end to the current lockdown are there any upcoming events that we can look forward to?
We were expecting around 2000 people for the Community Funday at Taplin Park, in the end, our ticketing system recorded 5,000 people! We were all blown away by the response, so were the council members, Mayor and Deputy Mayor on the day!
As for future events we have a ball coming up in October, our C4C Ball at Aqualuna. We’re thinking of a fun theme for this one, perhaps an Octoberfest theme and Christmas Carols in December. Those are our 2 big events in the works.
How can people become involved in C4C?
How can people become involved in C4C?We’re always on the lookout for more volunteers!
You can jump on our new website and check out all of our upcoming events and how you can volunteer, donate to our organisation and sign-up for our newsletter so you can keep up to date with all of our news and events.
