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A chat with Marymead
Support for children and young people across the ACT
Marymead supports children, young people and their families across the ACT and southern and western regional NSW. Marymead offers child and family counselling, early intervervention, out-of-home care, post-separation support, Autism services, parent education groups, mental health support programs, and support for people living with disability. Marymead's staff are busy!
Former Marymead ACT CEO Camilla Rowland on how GIVIT helps Marymead support its many clients
Video transcript | Chatting to Marymead ACT
Partners in support
"It feels like we’ve been partners forever, but in actual fact we believe it was around 3 and a half or 4 years ago. In those days we were seeing about 7,000 client contacts a year. Now we see 17,00 client contacts a year, so for us organisations like GIVIT have been really critical to enable us to give products and services to families that we wouldn’t have been able to before.
It’s really helped us to divert money and resources that we’d have to have paid for some of those products into other services which is awesome. So for me it’s not only a philanthropic connection that’s emerged, and connections to other organisations, it’s also the sustainability that occurs through the use of really great products, coming through us to go to families in need."
Furnishing short-term accommodation for people in need
"We have a number of care cottages that were knocked down about three years ago when we decided to rebuild them and make sure they were adaptable and purpose-built. Well, who came to the party but GIVIT, who connected us with IKEA so that we had one of the care cottages completely outfitted with brand-new IKEA furniture. That’s essential; because to show value and respect to our clients we need to ensure the quality of those houses and how they’re furnished reflects the type of service that we want to offer."
Connecting generosity with need
"GIVIT are the middleman or the middle person I should say that help facilitate the movement of goods where it’s needed. So GIVIT only connects with ethical and value-driven commercial organisations. It only holds products that are in good condition, so therefore we have a lot of trust in GIVIT. We trust that any products they’re looking to put out for charities are going to e of premium quality and meet the need we have.
There’s a whole business chain there that’s done very efficiently. We don’t have a lot of extra time. All that time that our managers and our coordinators and staff have, most of that goes into the delivery of services. So, it means they don’t have to race around town trying to find other donations of goods. They can go straight to a source that can efficiently and effectively ensure that that’s passed on."
New mower for disability program
In late 2022, Marymead requested a new electric mower for its mulch program - a horticultural social enterprise that enables young people with disability to develop skills and build community connections.
GIVIT was able to provide the new mower, and its lighter weight has made it a more inclusive option thats useable for more of the program's participants.
Donations for kids in foster care
Other than the mower, in the last 6 months, Marymead has provided a number of donations to its clients through GIVIT:
- Furniture for two young girls in foster care whose carer was struggling with cost-of-living pressures.
- Household items for a teenage boy living in flood-affected Forbes who's being reunited with his mum after living in foster care.
- Art and craft supplies for a 12-year-old girl in foster care with a history of trauma.
- Sensory items for a 10-year-old boy in foster care who has sensory processing needs.
- A bed and mattress for a toddler living with his aunty who's ready to move from a cot to a big boy bed.
- Sports gear and pool passes for two young brothers in foster care with histories of trauma.
For a child in foster care who may be feeling uncertain, anxious or helpless, donations like those above can help them to feel loved, confident and cared for.
...GIVIT have been really critical to enable us to give products and services to families that we wouldn't have been able to before.
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