Shared vision: Current Ganbina chief executive Anthony Cavanagh with founder Adrian Appo. Ganbina has refused some grant offers in order to stay true to its methods of success helping First Nations children and youth stay in education and beyond that, to make their way into employment.
It takes an unusually strong character and peak perseverance to turn an idea or vision into a quarter-of-a-century success story, but in the case of Adrian Appo, the echo of his father’s words drove him to create Ganbina and keep faith that it would succeed.
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Originally known as KEETA, Ganbina, which means rise up in Yorta Yorta, has helped thousands of First Nations youth in the Shepparton region achieve success in education, training and employment.
Ganbina says its participants have matched non-Indigenous levels of secondary education qualifications at around 88 per cent when the national First Nations attainment level is just above 63 per cent.
The same can be said for the rate of employment among its participants, with 76 per cent employed, which matches the national non-Indigenous rate, whereas the national First Nations rate is just under 50 per cent.
The results are vindication of a bold vision a former electrician and member of the defence forces had back in 1997.
A Gooreng Gooreng man from south-east Queensland, Mr Appo found his way to Shepparton for work purposes, but, encouraged by wise words from his father, soon set about creating a program that would create lasting change for First Nations youth in the region.
“I remember him saying to me when I was a young fella, and it was an impression that stayed with me, obviously for my entire life, and it was, ‘Son, I can only give you a better start in life than I had and I can only hope that you give your kids a better start’,” Mr Appo said.
“There were these two things. There was this overarching kind of responsibility that my dad laid on my shoulders about making my kids’ lives better, but then I saw the lack of direction that a lot of the Aboriginal kids that I was talking to had.
“I remember sitting down with my wife and I said, ‘I owe more to the Aboriginal community than just me being successful’. She’s not Aboriginal and she actually said, ‘I agree with you’.”
Serial success: A graphic supplied by Ganbina showing the impact the organisation has managed to attain working with First Nations children and youths in the Goulburn Valley region over 25 years.
At the time it was estimated that eight in 10 First Nations people in the Shepparton region were unemployed.
Working with the Commonwealth Employment Service, Mr Appo knew what the problem was and believed in a solution, but getting support for it from the usual sources was more problematic.
“The further you are away from being job-ready and the longer that you are unemployed, the more government will actually provide funding assistance for and it was, why are we waiting for people to be so far away from being able to be employed, or desperate before we start giving them support?” he said.
Mr Appo said accepting government funding for programs came with conditions, which hindered his ability to use innovative programs.
“The further that we went along and the greater success that we had, it meant that the gap between what the government was funding and wanting people to do and what we were doing and succeeding at was just so far apart,” he said.
“That’s when I started talking to philanthropy and talking to some of the bigger corporates around making positive change in First Nations space and young people and that’s how Ganbina ended up on this journey of no government funding and driving success forward for 25-odd years.”
The baton of leadership has since been handed to current chief executive Anthony Cavanagh, who maintains that Ganbina’s success can be replicated in other environments.
“I really believe in the model,” he said.
That model supports First Nations kids from the age of five through to 25 in range of ways.
“The basis that we strive for is that Year 12 graduation, which is something of a big achievement for a young Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander youth and then that stays with them for ever and creates a platform either into university or jobs, corporate jobs, but careers that they choose, rather than just a job because they have to work,” Mr Cavanagh said.
Lessons from the model’s success are now being shared with communities in Bundaberg and Townsville in Queensland, with international interest also emerging.
So, essentially, after 25 years, Ganbina is halfway through its goal of achieving intergenerational change.
“At the time I didn’t think it was anything special. I just looked at it in terms of, ‘Hey, this is a problem and this is a way of solving it’ and you just go about doing it,” Mr Appo said.
“I just thought well, somebody’s got to do it — and if it’s not me, then who will?”
