RECOGNISING POSITIVE IMPACT 2021 NOMINEES VOTE NOW The following is a list of nominees with the stated reasons for why they were chosen. The views expressed do not represent Pro Bono Australia’s views but are the opinions of those who nominated. Melissa Abu- Founder and Melissa is a young men's health advocate and is Founder of the Top Blokes Gazaleh Managing Director Foundation, a boy's mental health organisation that supports young males aged 11-24 of Top Blokes years old to improve their mental health while reducing antisocial and risk-taking behaviours. Top Blokes Foundation operates across NSW and QLD and a recent EY Foundation Social Impact Report revealed the schools who have the Top Blokes program save approx $53,000 in time spent managing young men's misbehaviour (9x cost savings). Top Blokes was awarded Most Significant Contribution to Improving the Health and Wellbeing of Young Men and Boys (2018) and Melissa’s awards include: 2017 EY National Social Entrepreneur of the Year and NSW Young Australian of the Year. She currently sits as a board member on The Funding Network and NSW Australia Day Council. Donna Ah Chee CEO, Central As leader of Australia's largest Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service, in Australian Aboriginal conjunction with other Aboriginal organisations, she helped steer four town and five Corporation remote clinics through the COVID-19 crisis in central Australia with energy, diligence and passion. This involved endless meetings, including at jurisdictional and national levels in helping protect the most vulnerable populations in remote Australia. At the same time she continued invaluable work in other primary health care and medical research organisations at NT and national forums. In between this, continued to manage over 400 staff serving her Board. Paul Allam The Bread & Butter Paul Allam is the founder of The Bread & Butter Project, one of Australia's best known Project and loved social enterprises that trains refugees to become artisan bakers. The Bread & Butter Project serves over 250 customers, generates over $5m of sales, funds 90% of costs via bread sales, and secures sustainable employment for up to 30 refugee baker trainees every year. The Bread & Butter Project is expanding nationally through its strong relationship with Woolworths - recently opening its first in-store bakery in Woolworths' Park Sydney store with many more to follow. Dr Susie Allanson Former Clinic Susie fought tirelessly for more than 20 years for the right of patients and staff Psychologist, East members to be able to safely access the Fertility Control Clinic in East Melbourne; at Melbourne Fertility times at great personal cost. Susie was the clinic’s clinical psychologist for 26 years, including the day an armed gun man entered and shot dead security guard, Steven Control Clinic Rogers. Her involvement in legal action, political engagement, coalition building and and advocate for advocacy lead to historic legislative change in Victoria in the form of abortion safe women's access to access zones which have since been introduced in almost every Australia State and reproductive health Territory. care Nassim Arrage CEO, Community Nassim is a big picture thinker who brings his vision, creativity and passion for Legal Centres genuinely making the world a better place to his role and the sector each and every Australia day. He is a committed, advocate, leader and collaborator who upholds justice and the promotion and protection of human rights, is responsive to the needs of the community legal sector and maintains and strengthens the collaborative networks that allow the sector to provide holistic support to communities. Sister Brigid Arthur Project Coordinator, Sister Brigid has been a tenacious fighter for the rights of some of the most vulnerable Brigidine Asylum members of our community for decades, particularly people seeking asylum. Sister Seekers Project Brigid is the project coordinator of the Brigidine Asylum Seekers Project (BASP) providing practical support to asylum seekers through such initiatives as the provision of housing and employment. She is a former long term board member of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre and litigation guardian for many vulnerable asylum seekers who need a representative in several Federal Court matters which has allowed them to obtain critical and urgent medical care in Australia. 2021 NOMINEES PG 2 / 20 Aarti Bajaj Artistic Director, Aarti is passionate about cultural diversity inclusiveness and has spent years Founder and CEO, dedicating her time, effort and expertise to build arts as viable career paths for future Wild Dreamer generations. Aarti’s work in MEERA, HYPED and VOID has brought together hundreds of people as part of an experience that will live with us all forever. Aarti's ultimate goal Productions and is to empower, encourage independence, respect and unify different communities and 9Expressions ethnicities professionally, increase employment, generate revenue and put Australia Performing Arts on the world map with pride. Always humble, Aarti is a woman of vision and purpose - an inspiration to all who cross her path. Leanne Barron CEO, Starick Leanne is regarded by her peers in the Family and Domestic Violence (FDV) sector Services as someone who has a sound understanding of the issues associated with domestic violence, it’s impact on women and in particular the children who are affected. Leanne has worked tirelessly with government to ensure that funding is appropriate to the needs of clients. She believes that children are clients of Starick in their own right and require a greater policy, funding and service response to meet their needs. In 2020 she worked with Curtin University School of Occupational Therapy, Social Work and Speech Pathology to develop an early intervention service model to address children’s social, emotional, developmental and physical wellbeing and to create greater links between practice and research in working with children impacted by FDV. This programme is vital for future change to our community. Geoff Batkin AM Chief Executive Geoff has dedicated his life to serving the community. Driven by a strong sense of Officer, Wesley social justice and compassion, Geoff provided leadership and vision in the Church and Mission Queensland community sector for 40 years. Geoff joined WMQ in 1997 and has led collaboratively focussing on addressing unmet (retiring January needs in the community, including establishing: fSpecialist disability accommodation 2021) – Youngcare and WesleyCare HummingbirdHouse – Queensland’s only children hospice. A wide range of children’s, youth and family support services, mental health and age care services eaching more than 100,000 people each year in Queensland. Emma Bennison CEO, Blind Citizens Emma is a well-respected leader and one of few Australians with disability to have Australia held senior executive roles. Emma is also passionate about ensuring that, as an organisation, BCA reaches people who are blind or vision impaired who have not been adequately connected with in the past, including people from regional and remote communities, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and Aboriginal people. She is driven by a desire to improve the lives of people who are blind or vision impaired through the advocacy work BCA does. BCA and the blind community have been campaigning to get Audio Description on Australian television for over twenty years. Through perseverance as well as the implementation of the TV4All campaign, Government agreed to provide $4million to the ABC/SBS for the delivery of AD in mid 2020. Steve Bevington Managing Director, From the humblest of beginnings, Steve Bevington’s service to the community has Community Housing touched the lives of many. As the Founder and Managing Director of Australia’s Ltd Group largest not-for-profit affordable housing provider with over 11,000 homes in its portfolio, Community Housing Limited (CHL), Steve has dedicated himself to providing affordable housing to those most in need. Since its inception 27 years ago, CHL has assisted more than half a million people. From a one-man operation, CHL has grown its footprint to eight countries including Australia, East Timor, Chile, Peru, Indonesia, India, Rwanda and PNG. Steve’s drive to solve housing poverty comes from the heart and his own lived experience of homelessness. Ray Blessing CEO, TaskForce Succeeding various senior executive, mentoring & advisory roles in the community Community Agency sector, Ray Blessing has been leading TaskForce Community Agency as CEO since 2011. Ray’s humility and inspiring leadership has enabled TaskForce to extend its services through the South Eastern suburbs of Melbourne to provide wraparound support and compassionate care to vulnerable youth, adults, and their families. He has enabled sustainable growth, implemented strong governance and empowered the organisation to be agile enough to adapt and respond to the needs of those living on the margins of society. Nic Brown Chief Executive During COVID-19, Nicolas lead the team at batyr to take their preventative, mental Officer, batyr health education programs from an in-person model to an online model, in just 6 weeks. Ensuring young people would still have access to these vital programs and be supported and empowered to seek help for their mental health during an extremely difficult time. The innovation of these programs meant that schools and universities were able to educate their students on pathways