Nelson Alexander Foundation Day 2019

Nelson Alexander’s Foundation Day is almost here again!

We are proud to announce that it will be held on Saturday 25th May 2019.

What is Foundation Day?

Nelson Alexander’s Foundation Day is the day that we do something special! It’s the day that each of our seventeen offices donates the professional fee from one of their auctions to a chosen local charity, making it our major annual fundraiser.

How did Foundation Day start?

Foundation Day is an initiative of the Nelson Alexander Charitable Foundation, which was established, and continues to be managed by staff – maximising their participation in community service and fundraising events for worthwhile local causes.

Since its inception, the Nelson Alexander Charitable Foundation has been a resounding success and has distributed over $2.75 million dollars to our local community.

 

 

Ascot Vale Special School

Office: Ascot Vale
Auction Property: 11 Francis Street, Ascot Vale

The school’s vision aims to prepare young people with a cognitive disability to reach their full potential and become active and engaged citizens. The school aspires to provide dynamic learning programs based on current research and best practice.

Brunswick South West Primary School

Office: Brunswick
Auction Property: 3 Hunter Street, Brunswick West

PLAY FOR ALL! Nelson Alexander’s Foundation Day funds will be put to immediate and wildly popular use by funding playground equipment, transforming what’s currently a desolate patch of tan bark into a lively, adventurous play scape and bringing a world of joy, play and gratitude to BSWPS’s large, vibrant family of students, kinder kids, Waratah students, families and extended community.

Ronald McDonald House – Parkville

Office: Carlton North
Auction Property: 48 Myrtle Street, Clifton Hill

Foundation Day funds will support the refurbishment of two kitchens at Ronald McDonald House Parkville. RMH Parkville is home to up to 51 families (over 100 adults and children) every night of the year. All of these families have a seriously ill or injured child being treated a short walk away at the Royal Children’s Hospital.

They stay, at minimal or no cost, for as long as their child needs care. This ranges from a few days, to many months, or even years. RMH Parkville is their home-away-from-home and they strive to make it as warm, safe and comfortable as possible during what is often the most distressing time of their lives.

1st Coburg Scout Group

Office: Coburg
Auction Property: 55 Campbell Street, Coburg

1st Coburg Scout Group is an active community member in Moreland providing a range of services to adults and young people. They offer the sharing of resources including hire of their Scout Hall and use of adventuring equipment. The group has been growing very quickly, and over the last four years has expanded to more than three times the size they were in 2015!

The Scout Hall has not received an upgrade since 1970; 1st Coburg Scout Group propose to upgrade the hall to ensure that it is compliant with the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and is able to perform its function as a public resource for all community members.

Save the Children

Office: Commercial
Leasing Fee

Save the Children is a leading community development organisation working to support children and young people experiencing disadvantage to reach their full potential. One of their projects that urgently needs funding is ‘It Takes a Village’. The programme provides an after school supervised and safe place for children and families of the most disadvantaged circumstances in the City of Yarra – primarily residents of the high-rise commission housing on the Atherton Gardens Housing Estate.

This service enables children to learn through play, in a manner that fosters personal development, builds resilience and growth, connects them with wider community, and promotes inter-racial harmony and understanding. Of the children and families attending, the majority are from diverse backgrounds who have had a refugee experience and continue to experience challenges with community engagement and accessing universal services.

Office: Docklands
Leasing Fee

Big Group Hug

Big Group Hug is a network of volunteers working together to support disadvantaged and marginalised families in Victoria through the provision of donated essential items for children from birth to 12 years.

Foundation Day funding will assist with the purchase of a second delivery van. This will increase the mobility and safety of Big Group Hug’s volunteers when transporting essential material aid to financially disadvantaged families.

EB Research Foundation

Office: Essendon
Auction Property: 19 Callander Road, Oak Park

Epidermolysis Bullosa is a debilitating skin disorder and life sentence for children and families who live with the pain each and every day. The EB Research Foundation’s mission is to raise funds to resource and enable, the best scientific minds in the world of genetic research focus on finding a cure.

The Social Studio – scholarship programme

Office: Fitzroy
Auction Property: 28 Gore Street, Fitzroy

The Social Studio is a not-for-profit social enterprise located on Smith St, Collingwood, and is dedicated to improving the lives of young Australians who come from a refugee or migrant background and who may have experienced barriers to accessing education and/or securing employment.

They use the vehicle of a fashion business – including a clothing label, a retail shop, and a clothing manufacturing business – to create meaningful social change. They also provide TAFE level training, work experience, volunteer opportunities and employment in fashion, manufacturing and retail, creating imperative education and employment opportunities.

One of the ways in which The Social Studio address these challenges is by providing supported scholarships to young people from refugee and new migrant backgrounds to complete their in-house, nationally accredited Certificate III in Clothing and Textile Production. Foundation Day funds will allow two students to receive a fully funded 18 month scholarship.

Good Karma Effect

Office: Flemington
Auction Property: 74 Barnett Street, Kensington

The Good Karma Effect is a registered charity that has been set up to support the volunteer administrative teams of the Good Karma Networks (GKNs), to manage and maintain positive culture, facilitate engagement between all community members and maximise their impact within their neighbourhoods.

GKNs are suburb-specific online communities that provide members with the opportunity to connect, collaboratively solve problems and build relationships, therefore breaking down barriers and developing community resilience and resourcefulness.

Closely managed by trained groups of volunteers, GKNs are designed to be a safe place for people to ask for help, and allow for neighbours to provide that assistance. GKNs help people realise they can make a difference in the lives of those who live around them, increasing their desire to engage with each other, both online and offline.

Diamond Valley Community Support

Office: Greensborough
Auction Property: 41 Collins Street, Diamond Creek

DVCS is a leading not-for-profit organisation that provides direct aid, assistance, support and information to the people of Banyule, Nillumbik and surrounding areas. They assist over 2,000 people experiencing financial and/or personal hardship each year, and they are supported by more than 100 volunteers. DVCS services include Emergency Relief (food parcels, food vouchers, fuel cards, chemist vouchers), Personal Counselling, Financial Counselling, Family Legal Service and Education grants. DVCS services are free, confidential, impartial and independent. Local people who are experiencing hardship and require support can drop in to the DVCS office located on Level 3, Greensbrough Plaza 9.30am to 4.30pm Monday to Friday. No appointment necessary.

Farm Raiser

Office: Ivanhoe
Auction Property: 31 Wilfred Road, Ivanhoe East

Farm Raiser is a not for profit organisation establishing a model of self-sustaining school market gardens. They will be launching at Waratah Special Developmental School in Bellfield. This school has a supportive and enthusiastic community, including staff, teachers and parents who are all on board with the project.

As there are a huge amount of infrastructure costs associated with getting an urban farm off the ground, Foundation Day funding will be used to purchase essential infrastructure such as – a packing and storage shed.

Starlight Children’s Foundation

Office: Keilor East
Auction Property: 31 Randwick Drive, Keilor Park

Starlight works closely with over 1,180 health professionals to develop programs that have a positive impact on seriously ill children, adolescents and their families. From one Starlight Wish granted over 30 years ago, Starlight is now recognised as an integral part of the Australian healthcare system.

Today, Starlight is the broadest reaching and most trusted children’s charity within Australia and the only children’s charity with a permanent presence in every major paediatric hospital in Australia.

Starlight’s hospital and community programs embrace the principles of ‘positive psychology’ where fun plays an important role in improving overall wellbeing. They provide positive distractions from fear and pain and help sick kids create positive emotions, build resilience and develop self-esteem.

Giant Steps

Office: Kew
Auction Property: 4 Hartwood Street, Kew East

Giant Steps, based in Kew, operates an independent special school catering specifically for children and young people between the ages of 6 and 18 with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

ASD is a neurological disorder affecting social communication, including impaired language development, difficulties developing and maintaining relationships, difficulties understanding and using nonverbal communication, as well as restricted and repetitive behaviours. Many people with ASD have sensory sensitivities and experience overwhelming anxiety, frustration and confusion on a daily basis.

Wales Street Primary School

Office: Northcote
Auction Property: 11 Gracie Street, Northcote

At the heart of the local community, Wales Street Primary School is a vibrant and nurturing learning environment. The focus for the 600 children they teach is on inspiring them to enjoy learning, embrace diversity and be respectful of each other and themselves.

They will use Foundation Day funds to transform play spaces around the school including the creation of a sensory trail outside the prep classrooms. The sensory trail is designed to support formal numeracy and literacy activities as well as to be used for open-ended play by the students at break times.

Mummy’s Wish

Office: Pascoe Vale
Auction Property: 2/8 Ormond Street, Pascoe Vale

Around 130,000 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in Australia this year and of these cases over 5,000 will be mothers, with young children aged 12 years and under. That means every day 13 families in Australia will have their lives turned upside down when mum is diagnosed with cancer. The impact of a cancer diagnosis can be devastating for anyone, but for a mum responsible for raising a young family and meeting the emotional and physical needs of young children, it compounds the usual challenges of parenting.

The core service of Mummy’s Wish is to offer practical support designed to provide solutions to empower mums and reduce the serious impact that a cancer diagnosis can have on all members of the family. Their team of Support Coordinators work with every mum to identify their specific needs and find a practical way to ease the burden of managing family life through cancer treatment.

VicCHILD

Office: Preston
Auction Property: 3/147 Raglan Street, Preston

VicCHILD is the Victorian Childhood Hearing Impairment Longitudinal Databank. It’s a Victorian register and research databank of children born with a permanent hearing loss.

With the help of Victorian families, VicCHILD is working to unlock the secrets of hearing loss.

The databank holds a range of information about all Victorian children born with a permanent hearing loss. The information collected and stored by VicCHILD will:

• help researchers and health professionals gain a better understanding of the causes and outcomes of childhood hearing loss
• help researchers understand why some children with a hearing loss do well, while others face greater difficulties
• improve intervention and treatment and ultimately the lives of children with permanent hearing loss and their families.

Blind Sports & Recreation Victoria (BSRV)

Office: Reservoir
Auction Property: 1/3 Kennedy Street, Reservoir

Blind Sports & Recreation Victoria (BSRV) provides opportunities for people who are blind or vision impaired living in greater Melbourne and Victoria to lead active, social lifestyles through sport and recreation.

We look forward to seeing you at one of these properties, helping us to make this Foundation Day our best ever!