North Sydney’s community-led family violence service, Mary’s House, is welcoming new leadership and honouring the impact of their outgoing Chair and founding member, Liz Mackinlay.
Since 2015, when Mackinlay helped establish Mary’s House with fellow community members, the organisation has worked hard to mobilise Sydney’s lower north shore to respond to women and children experiencing family violence.
Now, long standing Chair Mackinlay is stepping down and passing leadership of Mary’s House to ongoing board member Karen Bevan.
This week, the family violence service brought together its founding members, philanthropic supporters and a number of women and families the organisation has supported to honour MacKinlay’s dedication to stopping violence against women.
Speaking to the lasting impact that Mackinlay has had at Mary’s House, Bevan said Mackinlay’s many conversations across social services, businesses, foundations and church leaders had been instrumental to enabling the organisation to deliver its critical services.
“From simply an idea in 2015, we’re now offering refuge and sanctuary to women and children on Sydney’s north shore with full wrap-around services, outreach and growing advocacy in the community,” said Bevan.
“This simply wouldn’t have been possible without Liz’ s tenacity, her expertise in gender-development, and most importantly, her incredible ability to empower the local community to bring about the tailored services and change that we need.”
Unlike many family violence services, Mary’s House is fully community-funded bringing together philanthropic and donor funds to add capacity to a highly stretched and under-resourced sector.
And despite ever-increasing demand from government and non-government referrals, MacKinlay said Mary’s House was well placed to expand its services and grow its organisational sustainability going forwards.
“It’s been a great privilege to be part of an organisation that truly walks the talk of working hand-in-hand with the community and mobilising it to bring about change that we so greatly need to see locally and across society,” MacKinlay said.
“It’s no surprise that our community have in turn had our back and continue to support Mary’s House each step of the way to share the message against family violence and to give women and children the services that they need to rebuild their lives.”
While Mackinlay is stepping aside as Chair, she’ll continue her work as CEO of Australian Business Volunteers where she works in Australia and the Asia-Pacific to deliver community-led programs for economic and social development.
This week, Bevan will commence her new role as Chair and bring with her a wealth of experience in the not-for-profit and charity sector as former CEO of Girl Guide Aus and President of NCOSS among other policy leadership roles at both federal and state levels.