Ever wondered who writes the stories, maintains the website, or answers your social media comments here at Green Adelaide? Well, it’s a team effort. But among them is Communication Officer Amy Park, whose journalism journey led her from storytelling about sports, manufacturing and state politics, to curating campaigns about possums, foxes and the River Torrens / Karrawirra Pari (among many other things).
Read on to discover Amy’s journey and the passion that fuels her work.
“I enjoy getting the chance to tell different stories. All of us in the team get this great opportunity to balance being creative alongside applying quite analytical and technical skills to deliver best practice communication for particular channels and assess the impact of our storytelling.
I work in a team of communication experts, getting the word out about Green Adelaide, our work, our impact, and importantly – how others can help.
Before this role I worked in communications across areas of sport, manufacturing and state politics.
The role with Green Adelaide, though, has allowed for a real focus on dynamic ways to connect topics to the community, which I love as a way to really engage audiences.
The great thing about working in communications – colloquially known as ‘comms’ – is that our days can be quite diverse. I studied journalism because I liked the idea of being able to follow different stories every day.
Working in comms provides this, but often with the chance to dive a bit deeper on a topic, and then work collaboratively on the best way to engage an unfamiliar audience.
As part of my role, I had the opportunity to attend a national conference all about platypuses – it was fantastic. Given our bold rewilding project to re-introduce platypus to the River Torrens / Karrawirra Pari, it was a great chance to learn more about the species.
The conference also had some dedicated information about how community are being engaged in opportunities to support platypus conservation interstate, and it will be invaluable to lean on these contacts and adjust our tactics based on their experiences as we progress with this project.
I’ve had an interest in the way in which people are brought together within the environment sector for a long time, stemming from getting involved with ‘Kids Teaching Kids’ Conferences through high school.
These peer-to-peer learning style events really showed me the impact that engaging storytelling can have. For instance, a school presented on the simple ways we can all help save energy, and used examples specific to how long you’d have to be on a rowing machine to create the same energy. It was a great way of taking a concept and making it more tangible and memorable.
Before I started my professional career, I ran an environmental conference for primary school students – inspired by the conferences I attended as a student.
This conference also followed a structure of encouraging peer to peer learning.
Five school groups came together for the conference and presented to each other on an environmental topic of their choice.
This peer-to-peer model has great benefits in that students take topics and distil them into language and concepts that their fellow students can understand. They show such respect listening to one another knowing their own presentation is still to come later in the day.
The event was a great success, and for me I think demonstrated this real strength in taking sometimes complex topics and presenting them in interesting and engaging ways to have messages be memorable and impactful.
While studying at university I worked for the Hon Kelly Vincent, a member of South Australia’s Legislative Council. It was a real pleasure to work with Kelly and see her genuine passion for her work. She is someone who gives such a lot of herself to her role and understands the broader impact that sharing her stories, and those of others, has on the community.
I had the opportunity to run as a candidate for Dignity For Disability, as the party was known at the time, in the 2014 state election. At 19, I was the youngest candidate in the state.
I learnt a lot through this process about how local communities come together on topics that impact them, and the power of finding ways to engage with people on issues that matter.
What makes me passionate about the environment is its connectedness – the fact that it links so closely to our wellbeing and health, and that even though we can all be a distance apart, we can be linked or share experiences in the way in which we engage with and care for nature.
And just the simplicity of the calm that being out in nature brings. If I’m overwhelmed, or needing to wind down from a day, a walk with my dog through a reserve or around Brownhill Creek makes all the difference.
I’ve always liked possums, I think from reading and loving Possum Magic as a kid, through to seeing them often in the Adelaide Hills where I grew up.
While I know some people face challenges with possums feeding from their gardens or taking up residence in their roof, I think the ability from possums to adapt and thrive in our urban environment is a great demonstration of resilience – and the way in which we interact with them now, a strong opportunity to show how we can share our city with wildlife.
The environment presents such a clear way for communities to connect. Environmental topics are not always given the level of attention they need or deserve, but can be such a powerful way to unite individuals.
This is also what makes working within comms in the environment sector so interesting, there are a lot of untapped opportunities to raise awareness about important topics, but also to help foster that connection between different groups of people.”
Want to work in the environment sector? Be inspired by the career journeys of our staff or tune in to our podcast – an enviro-exclusive on the people, projects, and news of metro SA. Our host, Communication Manager Melissa Martin, interviews a local expert each episode.