Philanthropic Partners

MacKillop is grateful to The William Angliss (Victoria) Charitable Fund for its ongoing support of our Way Out There (WOT) program. WOT helps young people prepare to transition from residential care to independent living in the community. WOT also provides a 10-week practical life-skills education and mentoring program.

Support from the Beswick Family Fund is used to assist critical programs in NSW, including our Indigenous Parenting Support Service at Gulargambone and Walgett in rural NSW, and our youth homelessness programs throughout western Sydney.

Thanks to funding from the Catholic Diocese of Ballarat Foundation, MacKillop will expand the geographical reach of its therapeutic education canine program, Paw Pals, to support children and young people in the Ballarat region. Working with up to 55 primary and secondary Diocese schools, Paw Pals will provide critical support to students struggling to engage with learning.

Thanks to Collier Charitable Fund, MacKillop Education has developed a music therapy program for students who find it too challenging to learn within a classroom setting. The program helps traumatised young people to remain help calm, release negative emotions and pent-up feelings of tension or frustration.

Thanks to funding from The Anthony Costa Foundation, MacKillop will partner with Geelong-based Indigenous organisation, Strong Brother, Strong Sister to pilot a mentoring program to support the cultural, social and emotional needs of Aboriginal children/young people in the Geelong region who are at risk of entering, or already living in out of home care, and who attend the MacKillop Specialist School.

Drawing on the knowledge and expertise of its culturally diverse staff, clients and their families, MacKillop, in partnership with the Centre for Multicultural Youth, will develop a best practice model of working with migrant and refugee children/young people living in out of home care.

Thanks to funding from the Brian M Davis Charitable Foundation, Equity Trustees (RM Ansett Trust) and The Scanlon Foundation, the project will identify, train and upskill staff to become cultural mentors, to build capacity and provide guidance and assistance to other staff working with culturally diverse clients.

A long and valued supporter of MacKillop and its work, the Dimmick Charitable Trust is supporting VCAL students attending the Geelong specialist school to gain their First Aid and CPR certificates. While not only teaching important skills to enhance employment prospects for the students, achieving these certificates will also count towards the nominal hours required to complete VCAL’s ‘Industry Specific Skills’ module.

In a bid to tackle the many complex emotional issues experienced by young people living in out of home care, MacKillop conducted a 3-year pilot of Therapeutic Life Story Work in the Geelong region. Thanks to funding from Equity’s The Otto and Elizabeth Schumacher Trust and VCF George Perry Fund, along with The Ross Trust and Geelong’s Give Where You Live Foundation, the program is working to help reduce the impact of grief and trauma on children and young people in care.

Drawing on the knowledge and expertise of its culturally diverse staff, clients and their families, MacKillop, in partnership with the Centre for Multicultural Youth, will develop a best practice model of working with migrant and refugee children/young people living in out of home care.

Thanks to funding from Equity Trustees (RM Ansett Trust), The Scanlon Foundation and the Brian M Davis Charitable Foundation, the project will identify, train and upskill staff to become cultural mentors, to build capacity and provide guidance and assistance to other staff working with culturally diverse clients.

Thanks to the Geelong Community Foundation’s ongoing support of the Bittersweet Project, students at the MacKillop School in Geelong have been able to realise a long-held dream of taking their popular Bittersweet School Café on the road with the Bittersweet food truck.

Set to launch in October 2024, the food truck will initially work with the Bellarine Living and Learning Centre to deliver a menu of drinks and tasty snacks before expanding to cater to broader community events. The project has been enormously successful with students, with noted increased attendance and school engagement on days the café runs.

The project also aligns with the Victorian education curriculum for students completing units within the Victorian Pathways Certificate (VPC). This includes certificates in Kitchen Operations and Work-Related Skills that will provide them with industry-specific skills and a pathway into apprenticeships, traineeships and/or further education and training.

Through their Give 52 Foundation, Anton and Jenny Gaudry are valued supporters of MacKillop’s Paw Pals canine program, which supports at-risk children and young people to engage or re-engage in learning and education. With a therapy dog by their side, students are happy to head back to the classroom.

MacKillop’s Step: Bike program gives disadvantaged and at-risk young people living in Out of Home Care (OOHC) in the Geelong region the opportunity to learn how to repair and restore bicycles donated by the local police and community members. It aims to help them build confidence, skills, responsibility and a community connection. Once restored, the bikes are either kept by program participants, or donated back to the community.

We are also grateful to GWYL in supporting foster carers in the Barwon region by providing financial support associated with schooling costs for children in their care, including fees, uniforms, books, IT equipment, transport etc.

In a bid to tackle the many complex emotional issues experienced by young people living in out of home care, MacKillop conducted a 3-year pilot of Therapeutic Life Story Work in the Geelong region. Thanks to funding from Equity’s The Otto and Elizabeth Schumacher Trust and VCF George Perry Fund, along with Geelong’s Give Where You Live Foundation and The Ross Trust, the program is working to help reduce the impact of grief and trauma on children and young people in care.

Thanks to support from the Flora and Frank Leith Charitable Trust, MacKillop provides culturally-diverse supported playgroups in Melbourne’s western metropolitan region. The playgroups are a valuable early intervention service that supports vulnerable and disadvantaged families overcome language and cultural barriers and link them to important services such as maternal and child health support, Centrelink, early learning and other services when needed, including family violence assistance.

The Joe White Bequest has been a long and valued supporter of MacKillop, providing much-needed funding to implement a broad range of child and family services and programs across Victoria.

Students supported by MacKillop Education have a trauma history or significant mental health challenges, impacting their ability to learn and engage in education. An assessment of student literacy levels shows they are significantly below expected standards. Thanks to funding from the Mazda Foundation, MacKillop Education will train its schools’ educators in an evidence-based linguistic phonics program that aims to improve literacy standards.

Funding from the Pethard Tarax Charitable Trust has been used to support our Out of Home Care programs in the Bendigo region. MacKillop launched services in the region in 2017 as a response to the increasing number of vulnerable and at-risk children and families needing support.

In Australia, foster carers are leaving the system in increasing numbers. Studies suggest part of this attrition is due to the often-unrecognised loss and grief many carers face following the end of a placement: professionals acknowledge no training prepares for this emotional bereavement. With funding from Perpetual (The Fred P Archer Charitable Trust) MacKillop will work with carers to co-design a program that acknowledges this grief and builds carer emotional capacity to better support them in their role.

Thanks to Perpetual Trustees (the Percy Baxter Charitable Trust), students at the MacKillop School in Geelong have been able to realise a long-held dream of taking their popular Bittersweet School Café on the road with the Bittersweet food truck.

Set to launch in October 2024, the food truck will initially work with the Bellarine Living and Learning Centre to deliver a menu of drinks and tasty snacks before expanding to cater to broader community events. The project has been enormously successful with students, with noted increased attendance and school engagement on days the café runs.

The project also aligns with the Victorian education curriculum for students completing units within the Victorian Pathways Certificate (VPC). This includes certificates in Kitchen Operations and Work-Related Skills that will provide them with industry-specific skills and a pathway into apprenticeships, traineeships and/or further education and training.

Petstock Foundation has been a major supporter of MacKillop’s innovative Paw Pals program since it started in 2019. The canine-assisted education program supports at-risk children and young people to engage or re-engage in learning. With a therapy dog by their side, students are happy to head back to the classroom. Thanks to the ongoing support of Petstock Foundation, Paw Pals is now available for at-risk students in the the Melbourne, Geelong and Ballarat regions.

Funding from the Queensland Community Foundation has been used to develop and grow MacKillop’s innovative canine learning program, Paw Pals, to help disadvantaged kids re-engage with education.

In a bid to tackle the many complex emotional issues experienced by young people living in out of home care, MacKillop conducted a 3-year pilot of Therapeutic Life Story Work in the Geelong region. Thanks to funding from Equity’s The Otto and Elizabeth Schumacher Trust and VCF George Perry Fund, along with The Ross Trust and Geelong’s Give Where You Live Foundation, the program is working to help reduce the impact of grief and trauma on children and young people in care.

Drawing on the knowledge and expertise of its culturally diverse staff, clients and their families, MacKillop, in partnership with the Centre for Multicultural Youth, will develop a best practice model of working with migrant and refugee children/young people living in out of home care.

Thanks to funding from The Scanlon Foundation, Equity Trustees (RM Ansett Trust) and the Brian M Davis Charitable Foundation, the project will identify, train and upskill staff to become cultural mentors, to build capacity and provide guidance and assistance to other staff working with culturally diverse clients.

MacKillop’s Step: Bike program gives disadvantaged and at-risk young people living in Out of Home Care (OOHC) in the Geelong region the opportunity to learn how to repair and restore bicycles donated by the local police and community members. It aims to help them build confidence, skills, responsibility and a community connection. Once restored, the bikes are either kept by program participants, or donated back to the community.

Young people typically leave residential care without a strong sense of community connection and often without employment, attributed to their limited or disrupted schooling, no work experience history and self-confidence.

Thanks to funding from the State Trustees Australia Foundation, MacKillop and charity kitchen, FareShare will partner to trial a leaving care work experience and independent living skills program aimed at providing young people with employability skills and potential career pathways.

Students supported by MacKillop Education have a trauma history or significant mental health challenges, impacting their ability to learn and engage in education. An assessment of student literacy levels shows they are significantly below expected standards. Thanks to funding from the Dawn Wade Foundation, MacKillop Education will train its schools’ educators in an evidence-based linguistic phonics program that aims to improve literacy standards.

MacKillop was one of only eight organisations to receive a major grant to scale and expand the reach of its Power to Kids: Respecting Sexual Safety (PTK:RSS) program. The funding was secured through Westpac’s Safer Children, Safer Communities Impact grants, awarded to organisations committed to preventing the sexual exploitation of vulnerable children and young people.

The evidence-based program educates young people living in residential care (and their carers) about the risks associated with harmful sexual behaviour, child exploitation and dating violence. It aims to increase a young person’s understanding about healthy relationships, sexual safety and keeping themselves safe.

The grant allows MacKillop to offer PTK: RSS to residential care providers across Australia.

Most of the 55,000 young people living in care across Australia have no understanding of their history, background or why they cannot live with their family. Thanks to Woodards Foundation, MacKillop is able to continue to provide Therapeutic Life Story Work to help young people in our care piece together the puzzles of their past to build a positive pathway to their future.