Stories | Thirdlink

Food Ladder: Giving people the tools to stop hunger

Since its inception in 2008, Food Ladder has fed thousands of people and created over 600 jobs for remote Indigenous workers, long-term unemployed people, asylum seekers and public housing tenants. Today, thanks to Third Link funding, Food Ladder is gearing up to exponentially increase its impact.

Act for Kids: Preventing and treating child abuse and neglect

Child abuse and neglect are one of Australia’s biggest and most misunderstood social problems. Sadly, almost 50,000 children in Australia experience abuse or neglect every year, often by someone they know and should be able to trust; most often in their own home. Act for Kids is an Australian charity working tirelessly to prevent and treat child abuse and neglect, providing free therapeutic support for thousands of vulnerable kids and families.

FYA’s Young Social Pioneers: A powerful community of trailblazers

The Foundation for Young Australians (FYA) is a national organisation dedicated to all young people in Australia. They believe young people are ambitious, creative and capable of solving the world’s greatest challenges. Through a range of initiatives co-designed with young people and backed by research and evaluation, FYA aims to develop the skills, networks and ideas of young Australians so they can create a better future.

Raise Foundation: A powerful mentoring movement

Raise Foundation's mission is to deliver best practice mentoring programs to young people in public high schools across Australia. In doing so Raise Foundation is pursuing its vision to create thriving communities across generations by training volunteer mentors from local communities to empower these young people to become more resilient, capable and connected.

The Mirabel Foundation: Every child deserves a childhood

The Mirabel Foundation was established in Victoria in 1998 and extended into New South Wales in 2003 to support children aged 0-17 who have been orphaned or abandoned due to their parents’ drug use. CEO Jane Rowe founded Mirabel after having witnessed in her work as a drug and alcohol counsellor the devastating effects that drug use has on the children of drug users and the cycle of abuse that repeats itself through generations.

BackTrack: Helping get young people back on track

BackTrack Youth Works is based in Armidale NSW and has been working with young people since 2006 to help them turn their lives around. BackTrack started as a group of volunteers with one goal in mind - to help seven teenage boys who had run out of options move forward with their lives. All were in trouble with the law, not one had a positive educational experience, most had drug and alcohol issues, few had safe affordable accommodation and none of them had a dream or a way out of the mess they called their lives.

Wayside Chapel: Love over hate

The Wingspan Project was launched by Wayside Chapel in 2018 to take disadvantaged young people from at-risk to at-promise. Wingspan provides training, education and employment pathways to young people between the ages of 17 and 25 who face barriers to employment. It is an holistic development program that provides work training alongside respectful and individualised support with one-to-one case management. It also integrates social connection and community activities to facilitate a young person’s sense of efficacy, autonomy and confidence.