1994
Adrian Appo OAM, a Gooreng Gooreng man, moves to Shepparton from Queensland and secures a job at the Commonwealth Employment Services placing unemployed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people into work. It doesn’t take long for Adrian to become frustrated by the system, as the program will only help long-term unemployed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. He begins working at Worktrainers, a Shepparton recruitment agency that helps disadvantaged people find employment.
1997
While working at Worktrainers, Adrian launches KEETA (Koori Economic and Employment Training Agency), an employment agency for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. He seeks the support of Jim O'Connor, CEO of Worktrainers, to secure funding for KEETA's first program, Ladders of Success. KEETA and Worktrainers sign an agreement, establishing a partnership in which Worktrainers would be the delivery arm, while KEETA would focus on policy, providing advice, information, and creating pathways for Indigenous communities within the Goulburn Valley.
1997-2003
Between 1997 and 2003 KEETA ran 'Ladders of Success' and their second program, ‘Stepping Stones’ successfully.
2004
KEETA launches a new program, Jobs4U2. This program is a school-to-work transition program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people. The core focus areas are Job Education, Jobs Training and Jobs Employment. With this new direction, the ‘Ladders to Success’ and ‘Stepping Stones’ programs are phased out, and the organisation adopts a new name, Ganbina. Ganbina means ‘to rise up’ in the Yorta Yorta language and reflects its ethos of providing a hand up, not a handout.
2005
In addition to the three core programs, Ganbina develops additional initiatives, including scholarships, a driver skills program and the annual Youth Achievement Awards, which celebrates the success of the participants.
2006
Ganbina's commitment to continuous improvement has led to a focus on leadership training, aiming to create 'Agents of Change' within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. As part of this initiative, Ganbina expands the Jobs4U2 program to include a new Youth Leadership Program.
2007
235 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people were enrolled in the Job4U2 Program.
2008
Additional scholarships programs were developed in 2008, now including primary school students. The purpose of the scholarships is to assist children, young people and their families to participate fully in their education. The program also acts as a link to the Ganbina Education Program. As an example, for our Education Program, each Ganbina participant receives an annual education scholarship that can be used to pay for education expenses such as school uniforms, books, or excursions.
2009
Ganbina engages Social Ventures Australia (SVA) to independently evaluate the effectiveness of the Jobs4U2 program. The evaluation 'Jobs4U2 Program, Social Return on Investment, Full Report', finds that for every $1 invested in Jobs4U2, $4.20 in social value is created, due to the program preventing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from becoming unemployed in the first place.
2013
Adrian Appo announces his retirement and Anthony Cavanagh replaces him as CEO. Anthony pursues Ganbina's mission to empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people to unlock their full potential.
2017
Ganbina brings its vision to share their model with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to life by engaging PWC to create a 'sharing the model' blueprint.
2018
Ganbina shares its model with their first venture partners in Townsville and Bundaberg, Queensland with Tracy Bevan as the relationship manager. Through a collaborative process Ganbina shares various programs and enables the community to drive change with autonomy.
2020
Ganbina’s programs have generated a social value of $43.4 million between 2016 and 2019. The evaluation, "Enduring Impact: Ganbina Social Return on Investment (SROI)", was conducted by SVA and breaks the report down to the impact on children, parents, schools, employers and the government.
2022
The first generation is complete. In August, 1735 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people in the Goulburn Valley have been supported through the Jobs4U2 program to unlock their full potential in education and employment and on average 88% of Jobs4U2’s Year 12 students graduate from high school.
Present
Our head office in Shepparton continues to deliver Job4U2 Programs across the Goulburn Valley. This gives opportunities to grow evidence and data to support learnings that we can share across other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities throughout Australia.
