Karinya News - September 2025

Dear Friends of Karinya

Happy Springtime! What a pleasure it is to see the wattle trees laden with flowers and the blossoms adorning the streets. Here at the house, the gardens are well and truly waking up again after a very frosty winter!

As always, it has been a very busy month at Karinya. The Care Team has been busy walking alongside a number of new residents to make sure each woman feels welcome. Our fabulous Maternal Wellbeing Coordinator, Jane recently contributed to this work by organising an evening gathering of current residents. It was a resounding success, offering a chance for women to create new connections and friendships.

After a couple of women recently moved out into their own accommodation, we have taken the opportunity, after 10 years of service in our current complex, to refresh two of the cottages. With enormous thanks to several partners who have provided pro-bono services, the cottages have now been done up with crisp new window dressings (Nordic Blinds), a fresh patch, paint and clean (Spec Services) and some beautiful couches and armchairs (Zenith Interiors). The cottages are looking fabulous and almost ready for the women who will move in over the coming weeks. As always, we take great pride in making sure that each woman feels like Karinya is home and this sort of maintenance is an essential part of making sure the property feels welcoming and safe. We will progressively refresh all the residential spaces over the coming months as the opportunity presents itself.

In other news, we recently celebrated one of our treasured volunteers, Vicki Sawyer, for her remarkable service. Last week at our biannual volunteer morning tea, we thanked Vicki for 15 years of service. Vicki has been volunteering at Karinya at least once a week (often twice!) for 15 years and is yet another example of the Karinya spirit of care, compassion and hard work. Thank you, Vicki!

Please note: references to events or appeals below are for the information of all our Friends. If you are a financial Friend of Karinya House, be assured we value the current extent of your financial support, and no additional support from current donors is being sought through the sharing of this news, other than asking you to consider sharing this eNews with friends or family if it may be of interest to them.

Walking For Hope this Sunday

This Sunday, 14th of September, we will host the inaugural Karinya House 2025 Walk for Hope.

We have been astonished by and continually thankful for the level of community support for this event. To date, we have raised more than $140,000 and have almost 360 people registered to walk with us on Sunday.

More importantly, we have seen tremendous recognition of the women we are privileged to walk alongside and the importance of ensuring every woman who is pregnant or parenting a baby has the support she needs.

Enormous thanks to everyone who has supported the event so far, especially to our Champions who have definitely lived up to their name! Collectively, they have spread the word across all corners of our city to set us off to a fabulous start.

Thanks also to our Major Partner. Doma Group | Hotels for their commitment to supporting this evolution in our fundraising journey which brings increased awareness raising also.

We also thank existing corporate partners who have provided the additional Matched Giving pledges to this event: Successful Alliances, North Belconnen Community Association and Parbery.

We look forward to gathering at the Canberra Southern Cross Club Yacht Club, with many of our village of supporters for an inclusive, family-friendly celebration on Sunday. Our partnership with the Canberra Southern Cross Club extends from before our doors were open and we are so pleased to have this event hosted by them.

If you are keen to get involved, click on the link below. Online registrations close this Thursday 11 September at 12pm.

A note of thanks to Dak and Co and The Mark Agency who have brought their skill and expertise to support the success of the 2025 Walk for Hope.

The support for this first event in Canberra is also testament to the history of the walk, founded by a group of community members from Boorowa and held across 12 years (2011-2023) as the Mercy Walk for Women, with an annual 23km walk in September through the rural locale. We raise a glass indeed to this extraordinary group who also raised significant funding for Karinya over that period of time.

Register or support the Walk for Hope here 🧡

Social Impact with Future Generation

We are excited to share that Karinya House was recently successful in our application to become a new Social Impact Partner with Future Generation Australia.

Selected through a very competitive application process, Karinya House was selected as one of 6 new social impact partners to join the Future Generation family. Of the 329 applications from across the nation, Karinya House joins an additional five exceptional new social impact partners: Brave Foundation; GUTS Dance; KidsXpress; Yawarda Services; and Yiliyapinya. This is a big win for the organisation and will mean that we receive additional funding each year for the next 4 years to strengthen our work with women and their children.

We are very excited to partner with Future Generation in their innovative approach to philanthropy and look forward to sharing more with our village of supporters as the partnership progresses.

Read the press release here

Snippets....

As always, the voices of the women we walk alongside remind us of the importance of Karinya's place in the Canberra community. A woman who recently moved out remarked:

"All the day staff and night staff, the admin workers - you were all so amazing. It's amazing work you guys do and I feel like I didn't fully realise at the time, I took it for granted. The way you all support us with so many different things, I really hope that your new residents know how lucky they are to be there and don't take it for granted."

Another woman who has recently been participating in the weekly Karinya House Group program commented that, "I just love Group, it's when I can connect with other humans and have time for me"

#humansofkarinya #walkingalongsidewomen

Thank You!

Thank you to all the Friends of Karinya who continue to walk alongside with us.

This month we acknowledge the continued support of two of our very valuable partners for their contributions to women and children across the Canberra community.

Thank you to Icon Water for recently committing to an additional two years of grant funding to support a range of non-salary expenses that we incur to deliver flexible, women-led and impactful services to women.

We also acknowledge and appreciate the generous and ongoing contributions made by the Snow Foundation towards the Karinya House Team. Their investment in Karinya's people is a gift with a lasting impact.

#supportingwomen #standingalongside #ourvillage #ourcommunity

Karinya House is committed to reconciliation. We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land and pay respects to Elders past, present and future. Sovereignty has never been ceded. Always Was, Always Will Be, Aboriginal Land.