FACT Inc Board News Many thanks to FACT Vice Chair Dale Lynch for this great report on our Board training. On 16 May 2019 a group of four people from Tuart Place attended On Board: Introduction to Governance, a full-day training course on good governance. Three members of the Forgotten Australians Coming Together (FACT Inc) Board attended - Cevrina Reed (Chairperson) Lyn McLaughlin (General Member) and me (Vice Chair) - along with Philippa White (Director of Tuart Place). The training day was facilitated by Rachel Pemberton, who is also a Fremantle City Councillor, and familiar with the work of Tuart Place. Rachel presented the course in an easy to understand manner and was extremely knowledgeable about governance. The course was interesting and informative, and outlined the seriousness of our roles and responsibilities as Board members.
We covered all the important elements of good governance and practice, which confirmed that FACT Inc has all the necessary measures in place, and that the Board is doing an awesome job. Areas in which we excel include risk management; strategic FACT Chairperson planning; board diversity; financial Cevrina Reed management; compliance with legal and statutory requirements; and excellent separation of operational and governance roles. It was a great day in a pleasant learning environment, and we all increased our understanding of Board members’ roles and obligations.
Meet a Board member : Dr Katrina Stratton Dr Katrina Stratton joined the FACT Board in early 2016, bringing with her a wealth of experience and expertise. Katrina received a warm welcome when she joined us for lunch on 15 July, as part of our 2019 ‘Meet a Board Member’ series. I came to Tuart Place as a Board member for a lot of reasons. I knew of the great work done by Tuart Place, especially its participant leadership on the Board, and in creating the activities that take place here. I was excited to learn from Tuart Place’s model of co-design and what it might look like in the places I work. I work at Wanslea, where we are a past and current provider of out of home care (when we began in the 1940s through the Cottesloe home, then through cottages, and in the 1980s a final shift to providing foster care in the homes of carers). So I had much to learn too - as a social worker about what it means to people to have been in care, and how we could learn from the past to ensure we provide the children we care for with what they need. My other reasons were personal. My husband Steve spent a number of years in Fairbridge in the 1970s from the age of five. His mum was a single parent and they came from the UK on a government scheme for single parents, the idea being their children would be looked after while the parent established a home in a new country. I lived with Steve’s care experience in lots of big and small ways. Small things, like him never being able to eat pumpkin because it was served up undercooked EVERY night at Fairbridge; to the big things I don’t need to tell you 16
At Tuart Place, 15 July 2019 (L-R) Tony Page, Katrina Stratton & Kelly Scott
about, especially forming relationships and healing with his family. Steve died in 2012 in a motorbike accident. My Grandpa spent much of his later childhood at the New Norcia Mission; he was lucky enough to have carers with whom he spent every school holidays, and that consistency of love and care was a great protector for him (we know from research and life, the difference one secure adult in a child’s life can make). Grandpa considered himself lucky because of that, and he and my Grandma had a loving 60-year marriage and four children. It is my privilege to serve on the Board of Tuart Place, to honour the experience of those two wonderful men in my life, and to work with you all to contribute in some way to our goal of ‘Growing Strong Together’.
