Helping ACF Support Children

January 24, 2025

At Barpa, our mission is to empower people using construction as a vehicle to do so.
Every now and then an opportunity comes along where we can use our capability and experience to make a significant difference to peoples lives.
So when the Australian Childhood Foundation (ACF) reached out, our team quickly saw such an opportunity.

ACF is an amazing charity that supports children to recover from the trauma of abuse, neglect and family violence. They provide specialist support to help children heal and feel safe, while educating and empowering communities to safeguard children abuse.

Their Mitcham facility located in Melbourne, which has been used as a counselling space for 25 years was in need of an uplift and revitalisation, the key objectives of the project included:
· Supporting these vital services to continue to support children and families
· Ensuring the site was safe and complies with WHS standards
· Creation of a welcoming space for children, young people and their families to access where they feel comfortable to work through their trauma.

We made the decision early on to provide maximum value per dollar to ACF. Barpa not only priced the work in a collaborative way with ACF, but we also used it as a Community 2Day activity where our office staff got their hands dirty doing demo and landscaping; we reached out to our subcontractor and supplier networks to assist and were overwhelmed with support. The donations and in-kind support we received enabled us to almost double the scope of work we could deliver.

The result has transformed the centre and it was great to join ACF staff and stakeholders at the recent opening where Wurundjeri TO Alex Kerr provided a Welcome to Country and smoking ceremony to kick off proceedings and explained the stunning artwork he had done for the centre. ACF CEO Janise Mitchell then followed up with a speech outlining their appreciation and how the refurbished facilities will help them better support children and families. This was a project that meant a lot for all involved.

A massive thanks to our team and to our subcontractors and suppliers on your efforts, you all definitely went over and beyond for a great cause!

External Artwork
Internal Artwork
The Barpa Team
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