Presenting your 2022 Westfield Local Hero

We are excited to announce your 2022 successful Westfield Local Hero for Liverpool.

The successful Westfield Local Heroes organisation, will receive a grant of $20,000 to help them continue to grow their impact in the local community. Westfield will award 126 grants across Australia and New Zealand – totalling $1.26 million.

In early 2023, we will open nominations for the 2023 Westfield Local Heroes program, so start thinking about those people in your communities who make a difference.

Your 2022 Westfield Liverpool Local Hero is:

Marco Quintao

Heroes with Ability
Inclusive. Passionate. Selfless
Liverpool - Marco Quintao

Inclusive Marco Quintao gives hundreds of children and adults with physical or intellectual disability an opportunity to enjoy playing sport, learn new social skills and potentially enter employment.

Marco co-founded his charity Heroes With Ability three years ago and helps an average of 500 people a week.

Apart from the physical benefits of getting some exercise and learning to play different sports, families are delighted by participants’ emotional and social improvements. These include shy people coming out of their shell a little and making friends. And some participants have had more fun than they have ever had in their life.

It’s not only the participants who benefit. Mainstream volunteers learn new skills that Marco hopes they will use to foster inclusivity in the community, their schools and workplaces.

Marco has been involved in disability services since his son Marco junior was born 20 years ago with physical and intellectual disability. One of his innovations is to create opportunities for people with varying disabilities to work or volunteer within the charity as mentors, which gives them a sense of purpose and belonging.

“It's essential to include everyone, no matter their ability, for them to have a platform to shine and feel they are enough,” Marco says.

Heroes with Ability will use its funds to launch a competition for school-aged participants and employ people with disabilities to assist in running the program.

We also congratulate our finalists who will receive a $5,000 grant for the organisation they represent, and we thank them for their incredible contribution to the local community.
WLH 2022 Finalists Liverpool Story image

Brad Grove from New South Wales Wheelchair Rugby League
Inspirational Brad Grove is an elite Wheelchair Ruby League player who goes above and beyond to help young players access the sport. Brad has launched the Push Your Limits Project to raise money to help young players access wheelchair sports programs without the barriers he had to navigate when he was a beginner.

Lisa Buchanan from Liverpool Neighbourhood Connections
Lisa Buchanan makes a daily contribution to breaking the local cycle of unemployment as an education and employment pathway coordinator at Liverpool Neighbourhood Connections. Lisa provides non-judgmental guidance to women from diverse language and cultural backgrounds and helps them become job ready in one of the seven social enterprises she runs.

If you need support, please phone Lifeline: 13 11 14