Giving parents a boost

Thrive Tribe & Co
Supportive. Advocate. Passionate

Sandy Golder is a mother on a mission to provide a space for parents of children with special needs to feel valued, loved and understood.

Sandy co-founded Thrive Tribe & Co to provide a community network for families living with a disability. Participants benefit through online and in-person meetups, wellness programs, retreats for mums and mentoring.

“There are so many families struggling just to get through the day. They feel unsupported and misunderstood. We want to reach these families and bring them up for air,” Sandy says.

As a parent of a child with special needs, Sandy was driven to do something positive because the statistics show mothers of children with intellectual disability are at increased risk of disease and mental health issues.

Her goal is to improve the quality of life for families by transforming the parents' health and wellbeing. They do this by teaching communication and relationship skills and providing tools to build resilience and emotional and physical health.

The support, friendships and programs are life-changing for many of the participants.

Sandy feels emotional and blessed to be nominated as a Westfield Local Hero. “Our community and members are so important to us. These parents so often are forgotten or put their needs last, which causes many issues in an already stretched and stressed family,” she says.

Westfield Local Heroes are nominated and voted for by their communities, with the three top finalists per Westfield centre each awarded a $10,000 grant for their affiliated organisation. Thrive Tribe & Co will fund a retreat for 10 local mums who have children with disabilities.

For further information on the Westfield Local Heroes program, click here