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The FBAA’s decision to sponsor Youngcare as its preferred charity for 2025 will see member brokers helping young people with high care disabilities get housed in accommodation suitable for their age.
Youngcare supports young people with permanent disabilities who require full time care, but who have traditionally only had the option to go into an aged care home with elderly Australians.
The not-for-profit facilitates the development of specialist disability accommodation, providing premium residential options for these young people with high physical support needs.
FBAA managing director Peter White told Australian Broker that Youngcare is trying to change the style of care available to young people in these situations and had an affinity with the association.
“I've always been an enormous fan of the underdog,” White said.
“They need help, and we want to rally to the cause through conversations with them, and through support, to be able to help bring greater awareness to what Youngcare does.
“We want to raise not just awareness, but also financial support through charitable donations to enable them to keep growing and doing what they're doing,” he said.
White explained that people with high care disabilities either from birth or through injury wind up in aged care homes with people who are at the end of their lives rather than those their own age.
“It's certainly not an uplifting morale situation to be in if you're 30 and can't move through being a quadriplegic, and your mind is extraordinarily active, to be in that sort of environment.
“We need those environments, but it’s not a good place for a young person to be,” he said.
White said he believes the charity and its work is not supported as much as it should be.
“They get no government funding. Everything's run through charitable donations; they do a great thing caring and supporting these people who have these disabilities needing that full time care.”
The FBAA will be involved in several national and state events with Youngcare. The charity puts on a number of events, including charity balls and an annual Simpson Desert Challenge walk.
“There's a few things that we're doing with them as well, as a part of that support that we're giving, where we’ll encourage our industry to get behind them and to support what they're doing.”
The sponsorship will include opportunities to promote brokers and the value they bring to people influenced through the charity connection and their families who may need some form of finance.
White said the sponsorship, which is part of the FBAA’s annual corporate citizenship commitment, was received well by members at its recent conference held on the Gold Coast.
“When we announced it at the conference, the amount of people that went over, not just to find out more from the stand, but to actually make donations, was a really encouraging first step.”
White said the FBAA membership is made up of great people who want to give back to the community and he believed that the association has a responsibility to do so.
“Youngcare assists those who otherwise would not receive this sort of help and it’s an honour to be part of changing people’s lives,” he said.
