Category: Profiles

Carolyn Nolan

I joined the Caloundra Community Centre Management Committee after I retired from the position of CCC Manager because I wanted to reconnect with the place where I had invested so much of my life and that I loved so much.  

Because of my interest in community development and the important role unfunded Neighbourhood Centres and Volunteer Committee’s play in encouraging,  maintaining and building local citizen participation I joined the Sunshine Coast Coalition of Community Boards around 2017. 

Sharyn Innes

Sharyn has been serving on Committees and Boards for the last 48 years and has been involved with diverse range of community organisation and assisted in a wide range of capacities.

Sharyn, has learnt to understand and navigate the governance landscape and is always interested in the various ways other groups  work their way through their various situations.  She has encountered, over the years,  a wide variety of experiences and several quite unique situations.  Her forte includes general organisational governance, Constitutions and Rule Books, Risk Management, and strategic planning.

Sharyn enjoys learning about other peoples’ experiences and challenges. She welcomes the opportunity to work with individuals and groups to develop appropriate organisation centred solutions.  She believes all organisations have commonalities and each is also unique in how they serve their community and its members.

Tomas Passeggi

Tomas Passeggi is the Manager of Caloundra Community Centre Inc. More than a manager, Tomas sees himself as a grassroots community development worker, passionate about community connections and the power of small locality based organisations to harness people’s engagement in civic society and participatory democracy.
Born and raised in South America, Tomas understands the complexities of working with disenfranchised communities and people affected by poverty, disadvantage, oppression of indigenous people and those with low or no political agency. Tomas graduated with a bachelor of Social Sciences (Community Work ) from the University of the Sunshine Coast in 2007.

He has worked across the community sector from ageing to youth homelessness and for the past 15 year has been the Community Development Coordinator at the Caloundra Community Centre and Coordinator of Baringa Community Centre for the past 2 years. Tomas is an Honorary Senior Fellow of the University of the Sunshine Coast and besides his committee work with Neighbourhood Centres Queensland he also sits as a Queensland representative on the board of ANHCA (Australian Neighbourhood Houses and Centres Associations), committee member of The Coalition of Community Boards and on the Community Development Institute Initiative.

Bea Rogan

A highly experienced community worker and organisational development for small to medium community based organisations. Governance matters are a key area of focus for her post graduate studies at Queensland University.

Athena (Tina) Lathouras

One of our founding members, with a passion for governance of small community-based organisations as critical social infrastructure.

• Community Praxis Co-operative Ltd;
• Nambour Community Centre;
• Community Development Queensland

Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of the Sunshine Coast, teaching community development and critical social policy advocacy.