Breathe Better In The Gong

Asthma Australia’s Breathe Better in the Gong project has been gathering information about children’s asthma and its causes in Wollongong since April 2023.

The Breathe Better in the Gong project is a three-year project that aims to create an Asthma Smart Community in Wollongong. It focuses on children aged five to nine years old, as asthma has the greatest negative impact on this group.

Late last year, two stakeholder workshops identified factors in the broad asthma system that contribute to poor health outcomes for children with asthma, a framework for achieving change and potential strategies to be implemented.

However, Asthma Australia cannot do this work alone. Changing a system and addressing complex, entrenched problems requires everyone who is part of the system to be involved.

In 2024, with the help and support of our committed parents, school staff, health professionals and many others the exciting work of prioritising, designing, prototyping and implementing the strategies begins.

Importantly Asthma Australia has recently partnered with Healthy Cities Illawarra, which works to address the underlying social, economic and environmental causes of poor health in this community. Asthma Australia has commissioned HCI to deliver the Breathe Better in the Gong project going forward.

The project is funded by the Pearl Sheppard Fund.