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The Barnardos AGM was held last night in Sydney. The proceedings commenced with an Acknowledgement of Country by one of our Board Directors, Associate Professor A/Prof Rick Macourt.
Our Chair Janett Milligan and CEO Deirdre CHEERS then each gave an informative and heartfelt wrap-up of the year, highlighting our achievements in supporting children and families in the face of the cost of living and housing crisis. Janett also launched “A brighter future” our Annual Review 2023-2024 and “A brighter Barnardos” our Strategic Directions 2025-26.
Four Board Directors: Wendy Glasgow, Racheal Kellaway, Gareth Chegwidden and Susan Heward-Belle were re-elected for a further term. We said farewell to retiring Director Julia Davenport, GAICD who was honoured for serving 6 years on the Board.
The Louise Voigt Award to support the ongoing professional development for Barnardos Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees was presented to Shannon Smith, Care Support worker in ACT.
In a very moving acceptance speech, Shannon referred to studying social work as a “dream come true” and received a standing ovation from the audience. Shannon, an artist in her own right presented Barnardos with a beautiful Aboriginal artwork that she had painted. The artwork represents Family, Connection and Identity.
Mark Worthington, CEO of the Australian Mutual Bank and Director of the Australian Mutuals Foundation which is a Premium Partner of Barnardos, spoke about what it means for his organisation to be a Barnardos Corporate Partner and how much his employees gain from their involvement with Barnardos.
Three long-standing employees were acknowledged for their service, Suzanne Bush (Regional Manager, ACT), Siobhan Cosgrave (Program Manager ACT) and Sharon Maza (Program Manager, Sydney Metro) who have all spent 20 years at Barnardos. More tears were shed as they spoke about the Barnardos family and how the children they’ve helped over the years have kept them going. All in all, it was a very successful evening and we would like to thank everyone involved.
