Sally Issac Memorial Scholarship Fund Award

About the award

The award is open to all women aged 35 years and under, not just those employed in Local Government, who have made a significant contribution to the community in one of the following fields:

• Local Government
• Social Justice
• Aboriginal affairs and reconciliation
• Arts and music
• Community health
• Culturally and linguistically diverse communities
• Urban planning
• The environment

Nominees must be an Australian citizen or permanent resident of Australia. They can be Local Government officers, Councillors or community members.

The successful recipient receives a $10,000 educational scholarship.

*The Sally Isaac Memorial Scholarship Fund is a sub-fund of Australian Communities Foundation

In 2006, at the age of 33, Sally was appointed Director of Community Programs at Yarra City Council where she was directly responsible for 342 professional staff working in aged care, child care, community planning, advocacy, the arts and library services. 

Sally was exuberant and brave, bright and insightful, brilliant and engaging. She was focused and intelligent with an enduring commitment to making things better. She was also humble, loving and full of fun with wisdom beyond her years. 

There was truly something special about Sally Isaac and for all who knew her she will remain an inspiration and close to their hearts. Soon after her death her family, friends and colleagues met to discuss ways to recognise the incredible impact that she had on people’s lives. They decided to establish the Sally Isaac Memorial in her honour.

2018 winner

Lauren Watt
Coordinator Environmental Sustainability, Surf Coast Shire Council

Since commencing at Surf Coast six years ago Lauren has contributed to creating award winning community projects within the Emergency Management Department. The Fire Game was her initiative and it has now been awarded key industry accolades. 

Lauren quietly goes about her work building resilience across the local towns and engaging and empowering the community to build more capacity. She has built up a great network with professional stakeholders in external Government agencies, in particular with emergency services. 

Her ability to liaise with older citizens is outstanding and her Wild and Wise ideas program and how effective it was is still talked about today. She is also a collaborative colleague who has developed long term relationships within the Council. 
Lauren has contributed to community life by initiating innovative ways of educating communities on disaster preparedness and has explored new ways of working with people all ages.