Yay – It’s Spring! Always a joy.  September, our anniversary month, is always a month of celebration.

This September we invite you to celebrate women, and Karinya House, with us.

Whether you “Walk for Women“ as part of the 10th Mercy Walk for Women, or you attend the Karinya House Annual Gala Dinner, or you simply make a donation, we thank you for walking alongside with us.   For those of you who collect your coins, why not take them to the bank and then hop on line and donate the value of your collection.

UPDATE: Total donations for The 10th Mercy walk for Women was $10,074. Other donations received during September as part of the Double Your Impact Appeal totaled over $31,000 and every donation was doubled, matched dollar for dollar (and then some) by our wonderful partners. (as listed below).

This year is Karinya’s 25th Anniversary and we are celebrating all the women we have known….  The women we have been privileged to walk alongside.  We are also celebrating all the wonderful humans we have worked alongside, members of the Karinya team (paid and voluntary) who have given their time to the practice of care in service through Karinya House.  Getting us to 25 years of service, we are also celebrating you, our supporters: donors – individuals and families; corporate and community partners; philanthropic foundations and trusts; and our Government partner, the ACT Government. Together, as our Canberra community, you have ensured the services of Karinya House for women who are pregnant or parenting a baby, have been established and developed over these and continue into the future. Update: The 25th Anniversary Gala Dinner raised just over $26,000.

Before we even opened the doors in September 1997, there was a band of people across Canberra who joined together to raise the seed funding of $250,000. Since then and up to 30 June 2022, $8.7m has been donated from our non-government community to Karinya House to support service delivery.  $4.9m of volunteer hours have been given (very nominal value!). The ACT Government over the same period has provided $14.1m to co-fund the delivery of service through Karinya House for women in our community, who are pregnant or parenting a baby.

We have walked alongside 2,620 unique women during over the past 25 years, supporting them, and more often their children and families also. 11,200 periods of support have been provided. This includes multiple support periods for women, active support for babies, children or other family members and also short support periods for incoming referrals, who are redirected with care to more appropriate services. 78,787 residential bed nights have been provided over the past 25 years. 568,769 hours of support, walking alongside women over this time. On average, an investment of $9,300 to support each woman over the past 25 years, has been made. The return on this investment in individual lives is inestimable.  The cost per hour of service in 2021/22 was $65 per hour.  Every hour of service given strives to represent excellence of care. Every donation makes a difference!

The nominated annual funding pledges from participating corporate partners has established a matched funding pool of $48,000.  All donations up to a total value of $48,000, made during September 2022, will be doubled.   This includes all donations as part of the Mercy Walk for Women. We extend our gratitude to these wonderful partners for their renewed pledge for 2022/23.

Our Matched Giving Partners: CK Architecture, Corkhill Bros, Monarch Building Solutions, Pat’s Plumbing First Choice, Riverview Projects (ACT), Sharwood Hampers, Successful Alliances, William Cole Funerals.