Every year, for one day, all our employees get the chance to hang up their suit and toss the heels for a really good cause. We put on our comfortable clothes and get ready to do some hard work with Parkerville Children and Youth Care. We have been doing this for 3 years and it is a very important part of our culture spend time as a team helping others.

“My team all stated that NGIS are the best group they have ever had and everyone worked so well and did a great job.” 

Anna Ellis, Manager, Parkerville Children and Youth Care.

Parkerville Children and Youth Care protects and cares for the most vulnerable children and youth in our community through the provision of a therapeutic environment which utilises a range of professional services. Many of these children and youth have suffered chronic histories of abuse and display a range of trauma-related behaviours. We are honoured to support this amazing organisation which has been running now for 113 years.

Our day began bright and early at 7.45am where we all piled into the bus with much excitement about the day ahead. When we arrived at Parkerville we were greeted with a delicious morning tea of fruit, coffee, lamingtons and biscuits. Basil Hanna, the CEO gave us an interesting insight into the history of Parkerville and the projects they have been doing recently such as focusing on identifying children at risk of abuse by being involved with schools.

After this talk, it was time to get our hands dirty, knees scraped and get up close with nature. The project at hand was to reduce fire risk by clearing the outside area. We were divided into three groups based on who was wearing long or short sleeves as there was much scratchy work to be done! The first project involved cleaning up fallen debris under the beautiful tall Norfolk pine trees. We were managed and guided by 6 of the resident teenage boys.

The second group had the tough job of loading logs onto the truck and then unloading them at the destination. Our Accounts officer Abbey had a blast driving the truck whilst our Executive Director Richard decided it was a good idea to fall off the truck into the bush as you can see by the photo below. Plenty of dad jokes were distributed.

The third group was charged with pruning prickly bushes, whipper snipping and disturbing bull ant nests, something that one of our developers, Kris, found out in a painful way (yes, the ants won).

The team came together for a well-earned lunch of local handmade sausages in what can only be described as a majestic location. The 14 year old resident dog was only too happy to munch on the left over snags! After this it was back to more work.

Our day ended at around 3pm with a debrief at the lovely Parkerville tavern where some well-earned refreshments were consumed with the company of local kookaburras and bandicoots. We were back on the bus at 4pm to make sure we didn’t miss out on the important Dockers v Hawks game that evening.

Overall, it was a fantastic day where we all felt grateful and fortunate to be able to give back to Parkerville whilst having a great time together.