The Kimberley Foundation is a Private Charitable Trust which funds many programs and projects of Australian and some international not for profit organisations. They support organisations that are working towards long-term solutions to problems experienced by disadvantaged children and youth in our society in the areas of health, education and the arts.

McPhail & Partners are proud to be associated with this foundation and we would like to share a recent news update that Mitty Williams [Foundation Manager] wrote about the terrific work the foundation and others have recently achieved. The foundation works with a variety of programs and we thought you might be interested in some of the work that is being achieved across Australia.

Always another chance to get back on track!
August - Dogs
BackTrack is a wonderful program up in Armidale in northern New South Wales helping young people like those you see in this picture ‘put a head on their shoulders’.

The team, led by Bernie Shakeshaft, has been turning lives around. You can see in the young men, who jump right in when given a chance to learn and do some meaningful work, and you can see it in the statistics; juvenile crime in Armidale has dropped by 77%, a drop ‘unheard of’ anywhere else in NSW.

You can also see it in the community. There’s trust there, which has developed as the young people in the program learn and work and show they can be relied on. Paws Up, a terrific program that trains up a prize-wining dog high-jump team, has clearly helped the young people to re-learn trust too, along with self-discipline, confidence and communication skills.

This visit has been a highlight. It’s heart-warming to see the young people in the program thrive and I’m deeply impressed by the persistent hard work from Bernie and his team. Right now, Bernie is on a Churchill Scholarship researching how organisations like BackTrack have become financially sustainable.

To learn more about this private foundation and the organisations that they help, click here.