Community outreach
One of our roles is to promote our service to people who may need our help.
To do this, we attend community events to let people know how we can help and to learn more about issues consumers are facing with their energy and water.
See our upcoming events.
Why we do outreach
We want everyone who needs our help to know we’re here and how to connect with us.
Our community outreach activities help us:
- tell people about our services
- learn more about community issues
- create networks with people and organisations in Queensland
- give community stakeholders, consumers and scheme participants the chance to communicate with each other
- prevent complaints or resolve them quickly, especially for vulnerable customers.
Who we help
In our outreach, we focus on Queensland customers who are vulnerable or at risk of financial difficulty.
In particular, we focus on people who may have trouble accessing our service, our scheme participants or other services.
This could include:
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
- seniors
- people from various cultural and educational backgrounds
- people on fixed or low incomes
- people with disabilities
- people experiencing or at risk of homelessness or domestic and family violence
- small businesses
- young adults (18–25 years old)
- community workers and financial counsellors.
We take part in various outreach activities every year, including:
- forums and conferences
- community events, expos and information days
- Bring Your Bills days
- presentations
- workshops.
This includes events we hold ourselves and events we’re invited to.
When we look at attending an event, we look at many factors to create meaningful interactions with the community and to raise awareness of how we can help.
We work with many organisations for our outreach activities, including:
- community organisations
- industry associations
- government agencies
- other ombudsmen
- other complaint-handling organisations
- energy and water companies.
We may work with them to:
- co-host events
- share information stalls
- take outreach trips to regional and remote areas
- partner on community outreach and educational projects
- take part in working groups and committees.
When we visit regional areas, we also want to build relationships with local organisations and Members of Parliament.
We want to help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples become confident and informed consumers, and make sure they know their right to get help with energy and water issues.
Every year, we support the annual National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC) Week festivities in Cairns, Rockhampton and Brisbane as well as other First Nations events in the community.
These events give us the chance to let Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander customers know how our services can help them.
In June 2023, our Ombudsman travelled to the Torres Strait with our First Nations Officer to meet with representatives, government services and community groups. One of the highlights of this trip was hosting a stall at the Winds of Zenadth cultural festival to meet with the community. They also visited the power station to see how remote communities generate electricity and to see how card operated metering works which was important to understanding local community issues.
Read more in our reconciliation action plan.
Upcoming events
Cherbourg Community Day
Bring your energy bills and see EWOQ at the Cherbourg Community Day.
Connecting online
As well as face-to-face outreach, we connect with the community on social media.
Here we talk to Queenslanders about how we can help with their energy and water problems.
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, X and LinkedIn to see what we're up to and where we’ll be next.