At MacKillop, telling the stories of the young people and families we work with, and the staff and teams whose work changes lives, is very important to us.
This year, at our Annual Public Meeting, we recognised those from our community whose contributions shone.
Read the stories of our 2024 MacKillop Excellence Award recipients and help us celebrate their courage, resilience and commitment to our values of respect, compassion, justice, collaboration and hope.
The Catherine McAuley Award for Excellence by a Carer
Tracy and John have dedicated their lives and homes to welcoming in children of need. They are always the first to put their hands up to help and are one of the go-to carers when there is a child in need in their region.
Tracy and John are always willing to open their home to children during challenging times which should be happy for little ones, such as Christmas. They have provided short term and emergency care for children in their 11 years with MacKillop totalling over 70+ placements.
They are also long-term carers of a seven-year-old and strongly . advocate for the child's needs, as well as being advocates for all children in care, and a support for other carers in their region. Tracy and John also participate in initiatives to help recruit new foster carers, and are always positive, respectful and hopeful with the children in their care, and their biological families.
The Catherine McAuley Award for Excellence by a Volunteer
Adele is a foster carer and a volunteer for MacKillop. A carer for over five years, she began volunteering in May 2024.
Adele is warm, caring and brings a positive attitude to everything she does..
Volunteering across all programs for her region, Adele is well-valued for her contributions. While providing care for five foster children full-time, she is active and reliable in her volunteer role once a week, every week.
In her volunteer capacity, Adele helps her local MacKillop team with any tasks or projects that are occurring. Her generosity, warmth, positivity and willingness to help is an inspiration to all in the office.
The Mary MacKillop Award for ‘Courage in Life’, acknowledging the great endeavour exercised by a child or young person
Marnie* is a young person in residential care. She has a moderate intellectual disability and a rare form of Epilepsy. This provides many challenges for her to live and engage in a life that most young people take for granted.
Marnie is photosensitive which can cause seizures if she is exposed to sunlight without special glasses. She also has seizures if she looks at certain patterns, such as a fly screen or a checkered shirt.
Though she faces these challenges in her life, Marnie is open minded, non-judgmental but above all, she is strong and resilient.
This resilience shone brightly when she had major spinal surgery. Due to her intellectual capacity, she didn't have a firm understanding of what she would go through.
However, due to her strength of character and tenacity, Marnie completed her rehabilitation and was back at school full-time after six weeks. Even more amazingly, she was back at dance classes after six weeks as well!
She is dynamic, curious, passionate and kind, with a zest for life, and we can all learn from her courage and resilience.
*Name changed to protect privacy
The Mary MacKillop Award for ‘Courage in Life’, acknowledging the great endeavour exercised by a family
Tina* is a proud Aboriginal woman and mother to three young children . When Tina first sought support, she had been misidentified as the person using violence and was facing charges which were ending her dreams of working with children, caused her to lose her paid work, and made her and her children feel like they were still unsafe, and stuck in the cycle of abuse.
When she sought support, she described her life as being chaotic and she was feeling depressed due to ongoing impacts of family violence.
With the help of MacKillop, Tina was able to engage with multiple services to establish safety, and evidence that she is the victim-survivor of family violence.
She also continued to care for her children, maintained her university studies and paid work, commenced counselling, cared for her unwell father, and supported her son to be diagnosed with a disability, for which she has ensured he is connected to NDIS services and has regular intensive therapies.
Tina has worked hard to support her children to learn healthier ways of communicating and expressing themselves, so that they feel valued, and experience respectful, loving relationships. Tina’s focus on her children, while healing from her own past trauma and establishing a secure future for her and her family, is truly inspirational.
*Names changed to protect privacy
