The Gold Coast SUNS’ valued partnership with Gold Coast Police was honoured at the Queensland Police Excellence Awards last week, with the two partners taking out the Crime and Prevention Category for their continued work through the Love Bites program. 

The accolade caps off another great year in the community for the GC SUNS, with the Club officially surpassing 5,000 hours in the community for 2013 – achieving a total of 15,000 hours over the past three seasons.

It’s also a tremendous boost for the Gold Coast SUNS Horizon’s Program, with the area of Domestic Violence (Respect and Responsibility) forming an integral space in the Club’s social community pillars alongside Youth Homelessness and the Northern Growth Corridor. 

The Award is not the first for the GC SUNS, with the Club also haven taken out the 2011 Gold Coast Business Award for Corporate Social Responsibility in its inaugural year. 

Queensland Police’s District for Family and Domestic Violence Coordinator – Debra Phillips, told goldcoastfc.com.au the partnership with the GC SUNS had been instrumental in raising much-needed awareness around domestic violence on the Gold Coast.

“The Gold Coast SUNS have stood up in our community and joined on as foundation members in the prevention and raising the profile of domestic violence,” Phillips said.

“We are really thankful for the Club for raising it as a significant social issue.”

Gold Coast SUNS Domestic Violence Ambassador and winner of the 2013 Gold Coast SUNS Community Award – Zac Smith, praised the Club for making a united stand in the community.

“As AFL players I have seen the impact we can make on people,” he said.

“It’s important that we continue to make people more aware about domestic violence because it is probably one of the more growing social issues that is shuffled  to the side and ignored.

“But it is great to see the GC SUNS staying behind an issue not as prominent and making a stand against it.”