News from the Play Australia team...
Hello everyone!
By now you are probably immersed in the silly season, wrapping up projects, commencing celebrations and juggling the work-life-play balance!
This is our last eNews for the year and we are sending it out to all our members and subscribers. It has been a busy year and we have enjoyed working with you all.
On reflection there are several things 2023 will be remembered for!
Barb Champion, our long serving Executive Director retired at the start of the year and Robyn joined the team as CEO. We celebrated globally in 2023 with our IPA colleagues in Glasgow at the IPA Triennial World Conference. Our 1000 Play Streets movement grew, and we welcomed new councils into the program. We played host to international experts like Professors Sergio Pellis and the wonderful Tim Gill. We co-hosted the first National Children’s Week oration with the Children’s Week Council of Australia! And we launched two new online training courses - see New Resources below to find out more.
We also announced this week that our Projects Officer, Kieran Brophy is leaving us. The challenge of working on projects that are dependent on funding hits hard for all NGO's when those funding streams come to an end. We have been blessed to have had Kieran for 5 years and his work on the Play Today campaign and 1000 Play Streets in particular has been incredible.
Kieran’s departure brings mixed feeling for us, while we are sad to lose Kieran, we are delighted with his new appointment as Project Lead at Outdoors Victoria. Play Australia has strong ties to this fantastic organisation, led by CEO Andrew Knight, and whose offices sit right next door to ours! So for us, it is a little like Kieran is going to stay with family – and we know he will be well cared for and do great things!
On behalf of all the team – we send our love and best wishes for a playful and happy festive season. We are looking forward to welcoming you back in 2024, feeling refreshed and rejuvenated for a year where Play Australia will celebrate our 110 year anniversary!
Yours Playfully,
Robyn, Joanne, Peter and for one last time … Kieran xxxxx |