The 2021 Impact100 Fremantle Award Goes To – Homeless Healthcare!

Last night at The Old Boys School, in Adelaide Street, Fremantle, four finalists pitched for the Impact100 Fremantle 2021 $100,000 grant to enable them to further the non-profit services they provide to the Fremantle community in one of five focus areas: Arts & Culture, Health & Wellness, Education, Family & Community and Environment.

And the winner of the 2021 grant was – Homeless Healthcare for the delivery of their Street Health service in Freo.

Here are the representatives of Homeless Healthcare, the CEO Dr Andrew Davies and COO Alison Sayer, acknowledging the award –

Street Health is an accessible, inclusive healthcare for people experiencing homelessness with the aim to improve physical and mental health, life expectancy and sense of wellbeing. The Fremantle team consists of a nurse and caseworker who are out on foot to see people on the streets, in laneways, tents and parks of inner-city Fremantle. A quite amazing service.

With the award of the $100,000 grant to Street Health last night, Impact100 Fremantle, the initiative of the Fremantle Foundation, has now distributed $1,000,000 to Fremantle connected non-profits over the past 10 years.

Last night’s event involved each finalist making their pitch for the award to the donors of Impact100 Fremantle, who then cast their votes.

Soon after the votes were cast, the successful finalist was announced by the chair of the Impact100 Committee, Michael ‘Bres’ Bresnahan.

The award night was attended by around 120 guests including Impact100 Fremantle donors, finalists and guests, as well as a number of VIP’s including the Hon Simone McGurk MLA the Member for Fremantle, Fremantle Mayor Hannah Fitzhardinge, the Hon Brad Pettit MLC, Deputy Fremantle Mayor Frank Mofflin, and Councillors Bryn Jones, Andrew Sullivan and Ben Lawver.

From L: Bres Bresnahan, Hon Simone McGurk, Sue Stepatschuk CEO Fremantle Foundation, Mayor Hannah Fitzhardinge

The donors voting on the awarding of the grant did not have things made easy for them, as each of the finalists provide important community services and any one of them would have been a worthy winner.

The three other finalists for 2021 were –

Connected By Inc.

Connected By is a Rehabilitation Activity Service provider that has been established to support everybody including current and ex ADF personnel and first responders. Connected By combine the love of surfing with the joy of woodworking to transform timber to beautiful hollow wooden surfboards while providing a space for passion and purpose for those at increased risk of social isolation that can contribute and compound depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress.

On My Feet

On My Feet aren’t creating champion athletes; they’re providing the support for people experiencing homelessness to discover their inner champion by building self-respect, a sense of purpose, and ultimately self-sufficiency through education, self-development, and exercise.They plan to bring their Shelter to Self Sufficiency Footsteps Program, a 6-month self-development program, to Fremantle.

Fremantle PCYC

Fremantle PCYC’s safeSISTAS program centres on the empowerment and engagement of disengaged and at-risk girls in the Fremantle community who come from homes of disadvantage, poverty, domestic violence, trauma and incarceration. With a focus on mental health and wellbeing, ending period poverty, and providing a pathway to the PCYC Institute of Training (IOT) Leadership Certificate and resume writing, and job interview techniques.

Here’s a gallery of some of the evening’s presentations.

If you’d like to know more about Fremantle Foundation and Impact100 Fremantle and the wonderful philanthropic work they do around Fremantle, look here.

* This article was written by Michael Barker, editor, Fremantle Shipping News