An Adventist church elder has won a City of Ballarat (Vic) Senior of the Year Award for 2018.
For more than 18 years, Robyn Cunningham has volunteered with the Office of the Public Advocate as a regional convenor and community visitor for the Grampians Region Mental Health Stream.
As part of her community visitor role, Mrs Cunningham visits mental health facilities, providing a voice to patients and residents and ensuring their rights are being upheld, that they are safe from harm and exploitation, and that they are being treated with dignity and respect. As a tireless advocate, she and her team undertook 98 visits to mental health facilities in the last financial year.
As an elder, board member and volunteer with the Ballarat Seventh-day Adventist Church, Mrs Cunningham has been involved in many of its programs, including the weekly food pantry, and a music and movement program for local mums with young children. Besides all this, she finds time to visit members in nursing homes.
Mrs Cunningham and her late husband also raised more than 40 foster children—all of these children, now adults, remain in touch with her today.
