Don’t mention the C-word! In the midst of a pandemic, ISV’s messaging was dominated by you know what, writes Communications Officer Christopher Kelly.
T
o say it’s been quite a year would be an understatement. We began the 2020-21 financial year in lockdown 1.0 and thanking our lucky stars we weren’t living in Melbourne. Then — just when we were beginning to think we managed to dodge the worst of COVID — the Delta strain emerged and we masked up as Sydney was shut down for a second time.
8 ISV ANNUAL REPORT 20202021
Throughout the pandemic, ISV’s COVID Updates provided inner-city residents with the very latest information, including the evershifting list of restrictions. Our social feeds distributed health guidelines and encouraged people to get vaccinated. Meanwhile, the ISV website promoted numerous community support initiatives — such as food relief programs, mental health hotlines, and children’s services. But our messaging wasn’t completely wall-to-wall COVID. ISV’s socials supported — among other causes — the Aboriginal affordable housing campaign; an elder abuse awareness drive; council recycling programs; and the push for greater social housing in the Waterloo redevelopment. As well as circulating information through our socials, this year also saw the launch of a monthly newsletter: ISV E-NEWS. Content included a brief history of the Aboriginal Legal Service, which commemorated its 50th anniversary earlier this year; the NSW Government’s failure to address social housing in the Budget; the revised redevelopment plans for Waterloo; and efforts in eastern Sydney to tackle digital exclusion. ISV’s flagship publication — Inner Sydney Voice magazine — continued to roll off the presses. The spring 2020 issue explored, perhaps rather optimistically, what life would be like after COVID. As Richard Florida discussed, post-pandemic two scenarios emerge. One, “the urbanist’s utopia of widened sidewalks, ample
