Julie is an experienced social worker and manager with over 25 years experience in the human services field, specialising in child and family welfare and disability services.   Julie’s work as a practitioner, manager, trainer and consultant has taken place in the health, government and community sector where she has successfully developed many new services as well as undertaken extensive service reviews and evaluation. Julie is passionate about families and children having the best opportunities for development, wellbeing and community connections.

As Team Leader, Rosemary is responsible for supervising the team of Regional Coordinators and play group staff, having previously coordinated the EFA Western Program for 5 years. She enjoys the ongoing challenge of raising three daughters with a part-time job and other commitments.
Rosemary trained as a social worker after initially working in the administration / personnel area for several years.  She now has thirteen years experience working in community organisations in the child and family welfare area, working mostly in the areas of adoption and permanent care and disability.  Her own experience of volunteering has been as a telephone counsellor for a crisis line as President of her children’s kindergarten Committee of Management.  She is committed to the idea of volunteers being able to make a difference in people's lives and also sees volunteering can be very important to an individual's self esteem.

Julia has a registered nursing background with over 17 years of experience in the community services sector in the areas of health, planned and emergency respite coordination, management and community development.  She has worked for both local government and not for profit organisations in Australia and in the UK and has volunteered for a variety of organisations locally and overseas. Some of these volunteering roles have included working in an aboriginal women’s centre and friendly home visiting in Australia, teaching English as a second language to new migrants in Canada and as a fundraising committee member for the Alzheimer Association in the UK.  Julia enjoys travelling and meeting people from diverse cultures and has a strong interest in programs that build community capacity and promote social justice.

Jenny Hickinbotham

Jenny has has been working in administration and bookkeeping for not for profit organisations for over ten years.  She currently works on Tuesdays for EFA and has may varied responsibilities to cover in that one day. Jenny also works part time for other community organisations in community information and womens support.  She lives at home with her two little dogs and three Foreign Homestay students who attend Taylor’s College in Melbourne.