CEO and founder of community organisation Friends With Dignity Manuela Whitford has been selected as a finalist for the 2018 AusMumpreneur Awards in the category of Making a Difference – Non-Profit.
Friends With Dignity is a national not-for-profit organisation providing practical support to men, women and children who have experienced domestic or family violence. Manuela was inspired to launch the project in 2015 after working as a nurse in the women’s prison system where she discovered many of the female inmates had “escaped” to prison because they weren’t safe in their own homes. “We’ve got three programs that we focus on,” explains Manuela. “There’s a sanctuary program which is the setup of the homes once people leave the refuge – that takes us about seven days to source everything to furnish the homes. We then have a Little Friends program which is specific to children in refuge. This addresses their back to school needs, extracurricular activities, and school uniforms.”
The AusMumpreneur Awards celebrate Australian mums in business achieving outstanding success. They are designed to recognise the growing number of women who successfully balance motherhood and business in a way that suits their life and family.
Manuela says being selected as a finalist “means a lot” and owes her success to her dedicated team of more than 100 volunteers for their hard work and support. “This is a true reflection of the commitment our volunteers have to make a difference to families they will never meet,” she says. “I’m really blessed in having a great leadership team and a board that knows the direction and my vision. My role is to run the programs and oversee them, but if I can’t, I’ve got my team backing me up. For instance, there will be times when I’m thinking something and my directors are already doing it – we’re on the same level which is a great gift to have in a team.”
The winners of the 2018 AusMumpreneur Awards will be announced at an Awards dinner at White Night Receptions in Melbourne on Friday, 31st of August, 2018.
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