Learn more about Banksia Gardens Community Services

In 2018, the Readings Foundation is supporting the Banksia Gardens Community Services in delivering their Aiming High VCE Support Program. Here, our Grants Officer Gabrielle Williams shares some insight into this incredible project and who it supports.


The banksia plant is a bold, beautiful native of Australia with over 170 different species falling under its banner. The banksia plant is highly adaptable, but prefers well drained soil in a sunny position. The distinctive ‘candles’ of many varieties rise above the foliage, creating a unique and spectacular display for anyone who happens to pass by.

I witnessed a similar spectacular display yesterday at the Banksia Gardens’ Aiming High VCE Support program: 15 highly adaptable and motivated year 11 and 12 students from Broadmeadows and surrounding areas, rising above expectations through the kind and thoughtful tending of the teachers and volunteers.

Broadmeadows is a culturally diverse community but there is no doubt that a seam of disadvantage runs through the soil, impacting in different ways on the people who put their roots down there.

While the students in the Aiming High program face barriers and/or disadvantage to achieving their academic and career goals, the difficulties that some of their schoolmates experience means a less-than-positive mindset is sown through areas of the community. In fact, one of the schools in Broadmeadows has an estimated 80% unemployment rate among the parents. It’s hard to rise above disadvantage like that.

But the Banksia Gardens’ Aiming High program is a breath of fresh air in this sometimes difficult environment. Originally conceived as an invitation-only program for some of the most motivated students in the Broadmeadows and Craigieburn areas, the results of its past pupils are nothing short of astounding. In 2017 100% of Aiming High students successfully completed year 12, with nearly 90% receiving their first university preference. Aiming High alumni currently include an Afghani student doing a double degree in Engineering and Business; a student completing a degree in Pharmacology; a number of students studying Biomed (a precursor to Medicine); and one student studying Dentistry.

There’s also the current crop of keen, hard-working students who are benefitting from this important program: the lover of philosophy who wants to ‘live the best, most exciting life I can’. The boy with the witty one-liners who had us all laughing at his unexpected view of life. The girls I chatted to after class, who were inspiring examples of focussed determination, but balanced it with a joy in the wonderfulness of life. There are the two students from the same school, who would never have spoken to each other but who now sit beside each other, working together on shared problems. Every student in the room turning their faces towards the sunshine of a bright future.

Jonathon Chee who runs the Aiming High program said the knock-on effect within the community cannot be measured.

‘Younger students who come to our homework club are seeing the achievements of the Aiming High students and recognising that education is an important step in the process of escaping disadvantage. One of the loveliest things for us has been the number of past students who are now 'paying it forward’: volunteering on the Aiming High program and encouraging current students to achieve their best.‘

Yesterday afternoon I was privileged to spend time with 15 bold, beautiful Australians, each of them coming from any number of different backgrounds, religions, countries, and ethnicities, all of them being nurtured by the staff and volunteers of the Banksia Gardens’ Aiming High program.

If you have ever given a donation to the Readings Foundation in exchange for having your book wrapped, there are 15 young people in Broadmeadows (and another 15 in Craigieburn) whose lives you’ve had an enormously positive influence on. So thanks for that.

If you’d like to read more about the amazing work being done by the Banksia Gardens Community Services, you can visit their website here.


Readings donates 10% of its overall profit to the Readings Foundation each year, and crucial funds are also raised from donations by Readings customers.

Find a list of all the organisations the Readings Foundation is supporting in 2018, and learn about their projects, here. You can also make a donation to the Readings Foundation here.

Cover image for Native: Art and Design with Australian Plants

Native: Art and Design with Australian Plants

Kate Herd,Jela Ivankovic-Waters

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