Working with the Community

WADEYE

The Foundation has made a decision to support the community of Wadeye, Australia’s largest Aboriginal community. Rhonda and her family have had strong links to this community since 2003. Rhonda’s son in law Justin Crawley, A Kindred Spirits member, and her daughter Rebecca spent numerous years living in Wadeye working with the community.

Rhonda’s son Gregor Renwick with his wife Aquaria and young family are currently living and working in Wadeye. Gregor works in the Wadeye language centre assisting Sister Tess and her team to create books in Wadeye’s official dialect, Murrinpatha.

Rhonda’s sister Margot Northey also lives in the community and operates the women’s centre. It’s only natural that the Foundation builds on the links that Rhonda and her family have with the community.

THE LATROBE VALLEY

The Foundation is also working with the Sudanese community in the Latrobe Valley. Rhonda’s company, Latrobe Valley Bus Lines, is based in Morwell, where many newly arrived Sudanese refugees have been settled in public housing. While Rhonda’s company is the key public transport provider in the region, she recognises the need to support the new members of the local community. Through local links, relationships are being forged with Sudanese community and the Foundation is looking to help assist the community in what they identify as being important to them.

THATHANGATHAY FOUNDATION

Kindred Spirits is a financial supporter of the Thathangathay Foundation which was created in 2008 to improve the lives of the indigenous people of the Thamarurr Region, in the Northern Territory. Based in Bright in Victoria’s North East the Foundation aims to identify and develop future leaders from this region, which incorporates the indigenous township of Wadeye. These leaders will become role models through education, training and skill development, in both their traditional culture and the western world.

The Thathangathay foundation offers a two year program for male indigenous teenagers from the Wadeye community to live in Bright and join the local community by attending the local secondary college or Tafe, play football in the local football league, and participate in mentoring and a range o other educational programs while sharing their culture and experiences with other youth in the region.

BULLEEN HEIGHTS SCHOOL

Bulleen Heights is a Victorian Government, unique, single mode specialist school that caters for children, adolescents and young adults assessed as having autism spectrum disorder. Students are aged between five and eighteen years. The school is located in the Eastern Metropolitan Melbourne, and is an active and contributing member of the local Community. The school’s purpose is to prepare students with autism spectrum disorder to achieve the best possible outcomes from life’s opportunities.

The Vision for the schools is the achievement of excellence both globally and nationally in the provision of educational services for students with autism spectrum disorder.

Kindred Spirits Foundation is a proud supporter of Bulleen Heights School, via a link with one of our trustees, Kathy Havers who is a parent and School Council Member. We have been able to provide grants for playground equipment in the past and we will continue to support the school and its families, via the close working relationship with the Foundation, for many years to come.