Joanna Shulman joins the Moriarty Foundation as it looks to branch out
Former Redfern Legal Centre CEO Joanna Shulman has been announced as the first-ever CEO of Indigenous children’s charity the Moriarty Foundation.
Shulman's appointment coincides with the foundation's plans to initiate a fundraising campaign to expand its service capacity from 2,000 to 5,000 vulnerable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children across the country.
“I am thrilled to be joining such an impactful organisation that is so successful at delivering deep and life changing outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids and families. Its success lies in the fact that it co-designs solutions with communities and its programmes are community-led and run. I am excited to work with communities and partners to grow these programmes and deepen their impact”, Shulman said.
For 12 years, Shulman led the Redfern Legal Centre; in her tenure, she bolstered the centre's partnerships, resources and impact, improving access to justice and support services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The Moriarty Foundation was launched in 2011 by Yanyuwa man John Moriarty AM and Ros Moriarty. It runs programmes such as Indi Kindi and John Moriarty Football, which focus on addressing intergenerational challenges and disparities among Indigenous children and youth in remote and regional areas.
“We are meaningfully impacting 13 of the 17 Closing the Gap targets and we are poised and ready to expand the benefits of our programmes. Joanna has the expertise and experience to lead our teams to realise this goal so we can impact even more children, families and communities with the change they want to see”, John Moriarty said.
Ros Moriarty highlighted the charity’s progress over the last decade.
“Over 12 years we have developed a community-led platform that successfully equips vulnerable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and youth with tools from early learning and football (soccer) to break their cycle of disadvantage”, said Ros Moriarty, who is also executive director of the charity. “We started in our first community of Borroloola in remote Northern Territory with just 150 children. We’ve since piloted and modelled our programmes to address the many complexities of delivering in remote and regional Australia”.
