Ocean Connect aims to be a catalyst for positive community change, focusing its efforts on the coastal and marine environments of Southeast Queensland. Specifically, Ocean Connect facilitates community engagement and advocates for the conservation and understanding of marine and coastal environments. This presentation will dive into Ocean Connect’s experience working in the Gold Coast, showing how actively involving local communities in data collection, monitoring efforts and environmental education can assist in creating societal change. By showcasing our experience supporting citizen science programs, in particular sea slug and nudibranch surveys, we will discuss the drivers of community involvement and how these contribute to create a movement of interested, diverse, and engaged citizens offering their efforts to support marine conservation. The presentation, therefore, will show the intersection between community engagement and marine conservation, and how this contributes to charting a course towards a more inclusive and sustainable future for ocean and coastal ecosystems.