Announcing your 2024 Westfield Local Hero
We are excited to announce Victorya Jenkinson from YWCA Canberra as your 2024 Westfield Belconnen Local Hero!
Westfield is proud to award a community grant of $20K to help Victorya Jenkinson at YWCA Canberra to continue to grow their impact in the local community.
The 2024 Westfield Local Heroes program will award 125 grants across Australia and New Zealand – totaling $AUD1.24 million to support local communities.
Your 2024 Westfield Belconnen Local Hero is:
Victorya Jenkinson
YWCA Canberra
Inclusive. Passionate. Advocate.
Victorya Jenkinson has dedicated the past 20 years to providing stable housing to women and children experiencing domestic violence. As the director of housing and homelessness at YWCA-Canberra, Victorya uses gender and trauma-informed approaches to support these families.
"Housing is a human -right," Victorya explains. "Without safe and affordable housing, women and children can't focus on all the good things life offers.”
Victorya's work has significantly increased access to safe, affordable, long-term housing in the ACT. Under her leadership, YWCA Canberra supports around 80 families and older women at a time, helping them find safe-housing and providing essential items to help them re-establish their lives and offering legal, financial and educational support.
YWCA-Canberra’s focus is embedding the social determinants of health and housing first principles into its practice. Once support for the immediate crisis is provided, Victorya and her team work collaboratively with women focusing on their other goals, wellbeing, legal, financial, economic and education goals and in sourcing and securing long term affordable and safe housing for them and their children.
Victorya is also a dedicated LGBTQI + advocate and has contributed to the National LGBTQI+ Inclusive Practice Guide for Homelessness Services and establishing the first Trans specific transitional accommodation Haven-House.
Westfield Local Heroes are nominated and voted for by their communities. The finalist with the most community votes is the Westfield Belconnen Local Hero for 2024, receiving a $20,000 grant for the organisation they represent. YWCA Canberra will use the grant to provide homeless women and children with essential household items to re-establish themselves in a new home away from violence.
We'd like to thank and acknowledge our finalists who will receive a $5K grant for the organisation they represent...
Mary Liondi-Barlow from Good Omen Goodeze
Mary Liondi-Barlow is the founder and executive officer of Good Omen Goodeze (GOG), a charity focused on improving mental health and developing community connections through craft. GOG offers inclusive craft meetups for non-English speakers, seniors and people with disabilities who create comfort items which have been donated to over 16,000 hospital, ambulance and hospice patients.
Mimi Hall from A Gender Agenda
Mimi Hall is the intersex project coordinator at A Gender Agenda. She advocates for intersex rights, trains healthcare professionals, and supports intersex individuals and their families. Mimi played a pivotal role in passing protective legislation in the ACT in 2023, enhancing the rights and safety of people with variations in sex characteristics.
If you need support, please phone Lifeline: 13 11 14
Recognising all our 2024 nominees
View all of the Westfield Belconnen nominees and their organisations.
