The Westpac Foundation - moving Beyond Empathy

The support the Westpac Foundation are giving to arts and social change organisation Beyond Empathy is allowing their ground breaking work to be replicated on the other side of Australia.

In Moree NSW, Beyond Empathy’s Indigenous young mother’s program ‘Mubali’, is encouraging young mothers to make regular contact with the Gamilaroi Community Midwife service. Hospitals can be unfamiliar and intimidating to young women in their community. For some the first pre natal care they received was when they gave birth. Beyond Empathy has been trying to improve care for the mothers and babies by conducting regular workshops made enjoyable for the young women by making and painting plaster casts of their growing bellies. Elder aunties are involved, using the painting and casting as way to begin sharing information about pregnancies, birth and taking care of babies.

Making the belly casts has meant visiting the midwives becomes a positive occasion and the painted casts are now vibrant works of art, and a popular exhibition at the Moree Plains Gallery.

The project has additional benefits beyond aesthetics. Babies born to mothers in the group are now showing higher birth weights than others in the community.

The Westpac Foundation has supported Beyond Empathy with a three year grant to develop a ‘toolkit’ to replicate programs like Mubali. The tool kit is used to train ‘apprentices’; young participants in their programs with leadership qualities, community workers and artists. Apprentices are supported to develop new ideas for projects that address the most harmful problems in a community. With a belief that all communities have untapped abilities the apprentices and toolkit allows Beyond Empathy to expand their reach.

Artsupport Australia, an initiative of the Australia Council for the Arts to grow cultural philanthropy in Australia has supported Beyond Empathy by connecting them to the Westpac Foundation. This partnership is allowing programs like Mubali and others to have impact beyond the original community, improving the lives of many.

The Westpac Foundation has supported Artsupport Australia with a Tier 3 category grant in capacity building in the arts, financial and philanthropic sectors providing greater resourcing and linkages between them. The Westpac Foundation grant is supporting Artsupport Australia’s new online presence.

Media enquiries

Victoria Milner
Mob: 0410 322 431