The Spear Foundation

Last week we celebrated the end of a huge 2024 with our Everlasting Elders Christmas Party supported by Downer and City of Bayswater. Once again, the Elders came together to re-kindle connections and enjoying time with each other. We had over 50 Elders and guests, enjoying a Christmas lunch and a special visit from Santa and his Elf to hand out gifts for them all. This year we have hosted 4 Everlasting Elders events, this will scale next year to hosting 8 events, welcoming more Elders south of the river. The Spear Foundation Directors would like to wish all our partners, supporters, sponsors and providers and Elders a very happy Christmas and New Year, and we all look forward to scaling our impact within our community in 2025 with the all of you walking with us. Barry McGuire Francois Witbooi Liza Fraser-Gooda Dawn France FGIA, MAHRI B.A (Hons) Law and Business Andrew Johnson https://lnkd.in/gQszpv-v

Thank you Downer for supporting our beautiful Everlasting Elders Christmas Party yesterday. It was so great to have Emma Lynch Mick Evans and Cassandra from Downer join our Christmas Celebrations.

//SMILING CHILD// Our 2024 Smiling Child funding is now complete and fully acquitted and demonstrates some incredible impact for so many primary school children and their families over the 2024 academic year across WA and NT. Smiling Child funding is available to Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal Children. In fact, this year 80% of the children who benefited from the funding were Non-Aboriginal, in schools across Perth Metro, WA Regional and Darwin. Whilst the charts below show how the funding was spent, benefitting 653 children in total, it's the feedback we receive which we really look forward to. The following is a snapshot of just some of the feedback we received. "The grant funding has a transformative impact on our school community, enabling the subsidisation of essential programs by reducing the costs associated with swimming lessons, textbooks, Year 6 camp attendance, Year 6 Leavers' clothing, and participation in Schools Go Dance. The funding ensures that all students can access vital learning opportunities, personal development experiences, and the joy of milestone celebrations, regardless of financial circumstances." "Multiple parents extremely grateful for funding, particularly for swimming lessons. At least two families have Grandparents as the main carers (one of those has 6 children living in the house), who would not have been able to support the swimming. We had one Grandmother in tears with thanks. We have several of the students with 100% attendance for the swimming lesson period as they were so excited to be able to go." “It was great to see that all of our students could participate in swimming lessons this year. This hasn’t happened in a long time.” “I appreciate the support. With four kids, swimming lessons isn’t something I can normally afford.” “I love swimming lessons!” one student responded when asked how they felt about being able to do swimming lessons. Liza Fraser-Gooda Barry McGuire Francois Witbooi Dawn France FGIA, MAHRI B.A (Hons) Law and Business Andrew Johnson

We are already looking forward to 2025. Given 2024 was such a busy year with so many highlights, we wonder what delights 2025 will hold for us. Just some of our 2024 highlights: 📌 February – Established a strategic MOU with Phoenix Academy to support the Djeelya Program. 📌 March – Hosted the Everlasting Elders Easter Bingo & secured the Hillcrest Smiling Child Grant. 📌 May – Awarded Smiling Child Grants to Jingili (NT), Roebuck and Broome Primary Schools & partnered with KPMG on strategy development. 📌 June – Welcomed a new Director, Dawn France & hosted an Everlasting Elders Pamper Day. 📌 July – Finalized the Djeelya Program Framework and secured long-term partnerships with Gallagher and Downer. 📌 August – Held an Everlasting Elders art workshop with Aboriginal youth, fostering creativity and cultural exchange. 📌 September – Engaged in key meetings with WA Governor Chris Dawson and Commissioner Ms. McGowan-Jones. 📌 October – Conducted high-level discussions with leaders in education and justice, including Judge Hylton Quail, and tripled funds raised at our Annual Charity Golf Day. 📌 November – Finalized the Djeelya Social Enterprise Strategy and met with the Director General of Communities. 📌 December - Received $5,000 from Downer for our Everlasting Elders Christmas party. These moments underscore our collective progress toward building strong cultures, strong people, and strong communities. Thank you to our supporters, partners, and the broader community for walking with us on this journey. Here’s to achieving even bigger highlights in 2025! #SpearFoundation #CulturalEmpowerment #CommunityImpact

We are so grateful to have Downer walking with us and supporting our impact programs with this generous donation. Thank you 🙏

//SMILING CHILD PROGRAM FEEDBACK// We love this time of year as we start receiving our Smiling Child Program Acquittal Reports from the Primary schools across WA and NT that we have supported in the 2024 academic year. These reports provide us with important program impact metrics, which ensures we can positively build and scale our impact into next year. We also ask the schools for any feedback they have received throughout the year from staff or parents who have benefitted from the Smiling Child funds. This is the feedback that 'fills our cups' with pride and determination to scale the Spear Foundation into the new year and reminds us of the scale of our impact, which reaches way beyond any metric on a spreadsheet. In the run up to Christmas we'll share with you some of this feedback received. Starting with a Primary School in Broome, WA: "Multiple parents extremely grateful for funding, particularly for swimming lessons. At least two families have Grandparents as the main carers (one of those has 6 children living in the house), who would not have been able to support the swimming. We had one Grandmother in tears with thanks. We have several of the students with 100% attendance for the swimming lesson period as they were so excited to be able to go. All families of Year 6 camp students expressed thanks and relief that their child did not miss out on that opportunity. A number of students have never even been to the other side of town where the Broome Camp school is located (10km away from out school) and were excited to have the opportunity to see parts of the town they live in, that they’d not been to before." 🧡

As the end of the year approaches it's a great time to reflect on the past year and what the Spear Foundation has achieved for our community through our impact programs. It has certainly been a busy year for us with many highlights and key achievements. Our 'Year In Review' covers the last 18 months of operation from February 2023 to June 2024 in more detail, with significant achievements including: // 5 x Everlasting Elder Events - connecting 49 Elders and 30 Aboriginal Youth // 261 Children (80 of them Aboriginal) not missing out on school excursions and resources through our Smiling Child Impact program // Finalising the delivery framework for our Djeelya Young Women's Program which nurtures young girls in the Justice system, providing them with a 2-year 'learn to earn' culturally-centered journey to employment. We are so proud of what we do in our community and are grateful to all our partners who walk with us to help us achieve such positive impact. 2025 is going to be an even bigger year with greater impact. Watch this space.

Phoenix Academy have been partners of the Spear Foundation for a few years now, they are integral to our Djeelya Young Women’s program. They were also kind enough to support our Charity Golf Day as Partner sponsors with 2 x 4-ball teams and allowing three of their International students to assist on the day.   Bonnieta Angeletta Sekar Langit, Kenzo Ahmad Naufal and Wildan Maulana Ihsan are from Indonesia and are currently studying with the Phoenix Academy. They were a huge help on the morning of the golf day helping the players feel welcome. Thank you for your ongoing support Phoenix Academy.

It so great to see our partners Gallagher Australia supporting other charitable causes as well as the Spear Foundation. They really do care. This caring culture of Gallagher Australia is reflected by their continued commitment to us as an organisation, but also in their individual staff, who are always their to assist and volunteer when we ask them. We are so grateful to have them on board as our partners.

We are overwhelmed with the positive response from our Industry partners, who provided 9 volunteers at our Charity Golf Day this year. These are 9 individuals gave their time in support of the Spear Foundation on the day and assisted with fundraising.    We were lucky enough to have Downer Industrial & Energy employees Emma Lynch and Mick Evans with us for 10 hours on the day, plus support from Carly Gabel. By selling raffle tickets, managing the putting competition and marshmallow longest drive, Emma and Mick were responsible for a significant amount of the fundraising on the day. Downer was also a Partner Sponsor for the event.   Thank you so much. We were so lucky to have you all walking with us on the day, your time and effort in supporting us is hugely appreciated.