Giving back with love

Big Group Hug
Caring. Passionate. Engaging

Jill Pope helps children in need and keeps baby items out of landfill as a dedicated volunteer for the Big Group Hug.

Jill is retired and volunteers at least 40 hours a week helping vulnerable children, from newborns to young teens, by providing their families with material aid.

She has inspired the community to get involved, with 81,000 items, including prams, cots, car seats, nappies, toiletries and clothing donated last year. The charity has helped 3143 children while keeping tons of quality goods out of landfill.

The charity works with maternal nurses, women’s shelters and asylum resource centres to connect with vulnerable families.

What Jill enjoys most is working alongside like-minded volunteers who love caring for children and families.

Demand surged during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the volunteers were innovative in finding new ways to source much-needed items.

Jill is proud the charity has met nearly every request for help.

She is humbled to be nominated as a Westfield Local Hero. “I volunteer with the most amazing human beings who give their heart and soul to this organisation to assist children and families. You can’t just pretend women escaping domestic violence with their children and only the clothes on their backs isn’t happening,” Jill 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. The Big Group Hug will use its funds to complete a project to automate the online system people use to make requests so the charity can help more people in need in a more efficient way.

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