CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
A s 2020 drew to a close, we were breathing a sigh of relief and looking forward to putting the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic behind us. It was a year that caused untold financial, mental and social hardship. COVID-19 not only took the lives of too many and left others with serious health complications but also ripped at the fabric of our society. Few will forget the images – redolent of the Depression era – featuring queues of people seeking support after losing their jobs overnight early in 2020. The pandemic was particularly hard on the disadvantaged, vulnerable and isolated. While a sense of normality returned in early 2021, winter and the Delta variant brought a new, even more deadly, challenge. With an unvaccinated population, what we hoped would be weeks of lockdown turned into months.
It was a herculean effort that had a significant impact, and I am deeply grateful to all those involved, particularly the Kick Start team. While this work was a highlight, the Foundation continued to make a real difference to hundreds of lives working with its charity partners in the areas of addiction, homelessness, youth employment and domestic violence. The newly built Adele House rehabilitation facility outside Coffs Harbour is delivering excellent results, assisting more men to recover from the damaging effects of drug and alcohol addiction and supporting them in getting their lives back on track. We are also proud of our partnership with the Parramatta Women’s Shelter, which is now helping more women escape domestic violence and start a new life. The End Street Sleeping Collaboration is NSW’s largest and most ambitious collective impact project as it aims to halve rough sleeping by 2025 and end it by 2030. As a founding partner, we are proud of the catalytic impact of our support. The success stories in this year’s report are inspiring. They are a testament to the hard work of the PAYCE Foundation team and all our incredible charity partners. The PAYCE Foundation’s approach recognises every person’s fundamental dignity and ensures that disadvantage is not a lifetime sentence on any individual’s potential. Thank you to everyone who has helped improve the lives of vulnerable people in this challenging year. As a Foundation, we look forward to continuing and increasing our impact for positive change in 2022.
The PAYCE Foundation is dedicated to helping the most vulnerable in our
community, and we know that the challenges of COVID and lockdown were equally felt by the charity partners we support. The Foundation’s social enterprise Kick Start was established to give youth a chance to get on-the-job experience and training in hospitality. But for Kick Start, which operates a fleet of food trailers on Sydney construction sites, there was a higher calling. In partnership with the Melrose Park community, we reactivated the Melrose Park Meal Share with the Kick Start team, preparing and delivering meals to people in need during the lockdown. Having initiated the service in early 2020, Kick Start delivered another 15,000 healthy and nourishing meals over the three months of lockdown in 2021 with the help of a group of dedicated volunteers.
BRIAN BOYD CHAIRMAN
6 PA Y C E FOUNDAT I ON
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