Donate to Yooralla
Give the gift of specialised support this Christmas
This Christmas, your gift can ensure a child with disability in out-of-home care, like foster or residential care receives the specialised support they deserve. Statistics show that over 40% of children in care have a disability—four times the national average. These children often face the double challenge of recovering from early trauma while navigating a complex world without the tailored resources they need.
Nine-year-old Ollie is one of those children. Along with recovering from early neglect and homelessness, Ollie lives with autism, OCD, and a limb difference. As families familiar with disability only know too well - waiting lists for assessments are long, and securing the right therapy is a constant challenge. This confusion and lack of specialised care can be overwhelming, causing children to feel excluded or struggle to build crucial relationships.
Your support changes this trajectory. Donations to support children like Ollie are channelled into funding the vital supports that empower kids to overcome their challenges and build on their inherent strengths. This includes crucial autism assessments to become eligible for NDIS services, and allied health supports like speech and occupational therapy.
Since finding a safe, caring home, Ollie is learning to regulate his emotions and is making remarkable strides at his specialist school. He is curious, creative, and finally making happy memories. This Christmas, help us ensure people with disability receive the dedicated, tailored support that replaces memories of exclusion with a profound feeling of safety and belonging.
Donate today to fund the specialised support that empowers a child like Ollie to thrive.
How can you support us?
By donating to Yooralla, you can help us as we partner with people with disability in designing and delivering unfunded initiatives that can enhance their lives.
Donations, gifts, and philanthropic funding are used to advance Yooralla’s purpose of supporting people with disability to live the life they choose.
There are several different ways that people choose to give to Yooralla. How each person supports us is valuable and contributes to our ability to address critical needs in disability that are unfunded.
Our donors' impact
We developed this year's donor impact video to illustrate the difference that our donors are able to make to the lives of people with disability. This video highlights the significant initiatives we have been able to deliver that will support people with disability to live the lives they choose.
Ways to give
There are several different ways that people choose to give to Yooralla. How each person supports us is valuable and contributes to our ability to address critical needs in disability that are unfunded.
Single donations and gifts: Donate to Yooralla at any time with a donation or in response to our latest appeals by visiting our donation page.
Recurring Giving: Donations given monthly/quarterly/twice a year/annually through direct debit or deductions from your credit card arranged with your provider. Sign up for regular giving today!
Community Fundraising: Raising funds for Yooralla by making us a beneficiary of your events, activities or through your networks e.g. fun runs/walks; school fetes; in lieu of flowers or gifts for birthdays, weddings and in memoriam
Major Gifts: Significant contribution to cover all, a majority or a significant proportion of the cost of an initiative and may be given one-off or over multiple years as a multi-year pledge. Major Gifts may be in response to specific initiatives for which we are seeking funds or in response to our overarching case for support.
Leaving a Gift in your Will/Bequesting to Yooralla: Including Yooralla in your Will to benefit from your Estate or listing a donation to Yooralla as part of your intention for your Estate. More information available here.
Workplace Giving: Pre-tax donations from your salary organised through your workplace.
Corporate partnership: A relationship between Yooralla and your company or business to engage in joint initiatives supported through cash and/or in-kind donations, employee volunteering and/or pro bono engagement. Because each company is different, we design tailored partnership agreements.
Make a donation
If you would like to donate by mail, please send a cheque or money order to:
Yooralla Fundraising
Reply Paid 90365
PO Box 310
Collins Street West VIC 8007
Why donate to Yooralla
We aim to tackle six major areas of need that, in partnership with people with disability, we can progress to fill gaps and remove barriers that still exist for them.
The six major needs we aim to address
Our determination is to extend our capabilities beyond fulfilling basic disability support needs for those we serve. Our aim is to expand the reach and diversity of our services so we can match the goals of the people and communities we support.
The challenges that we seek to address are significant. But with our capabilities and expertise, sustained effort and the backing of supporters, it is possible to make progress on the six major needs for which we are seeking philanthropic support.
We recognise that people living with a disability have multiple complex needs, including for lifelong access to health care. While many of our clients can arrange and access their own supports without any assistance, we offer a suite of supports to residents that elevate their health and well-being and overall quality of life.
With more than one million people living with disability in Victoria and only 127,6733 currently benefitting from the NDIS, there are members of the community who do not have adequate or any access to the scheme because of their rural or remote location, ethnicity, language barriers, life circumstances and institutional discrimination. We aim to increase our capacity to partner with other agencies so that we can help more people to benefit from our expertise and capabilities in disability.
Upholding and safeguarding the rights of people with disability is central to our practice. Yooralla aligns with the purpose of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to: promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity. Regardless of their level of support through the NDIS, people with disability still face many barriers in enjoying the same rights and freedoms as others in society. They experience inequality in safety, employment, education, health and income. We help amplify the voice of people with disability to decision makers, leaders and the community more broadly.
Our workforce deliver necessary supports for people with disability. Alongside our efforts to attract and retain staff in all disciplines are initiatives to develop the leadership skills of our frontline supervisors and support managers who oversee and coordinate our work. The leadership skills of direct support managers have a direct correlation to the quality of support that people with disability receive, as well as their safety, health and well-being outcomes.
Advances in technology are great enablers for people with disability. However, they come at a cost that is out of reach for many. We do not receive funding for the high cost of acquiring and maintaining devices, hardware and software that are critical to daily life for many people with disability. Diagnostic tools and therapy equipment, especially for children with disability, are also essential tools for our Allied Health Professionals. Without some of these equipment, children may miss out on a diagnosis that, in turn, may delay their qualification for support from the NDIS and other supports they need.
Research is key to understanding the complex nature of disability support provision and the whole eco-system in which it operates. The rigorous and analytical process of research results in vital data and information that serves as evidence for innovations that can enhance the lives of people with disability. Yooralla has a long history and expertise in disability research. However, our capacity for research is limited. We require partners, collaborators and funding to fully maximise our research outcomes for the people we support.
These overarching needs are complex and challenging, with some a result of long-term systemic issues that are ingrained in society. There is no existing funding for many of these needs. Some are large-scale and will require effort and resourcing over a number of years.
The Yooralla Foundation
In 2021, the Yooralla Board established a dedicated Foundation for all donations, philanthropic gifts and funding received. Yooralla Foundation funds are used for the purpose of resourcing activities and initiatives that improve the lives of people with disability.