Connection and Collaboration at Its Best

Engaging Young Leaders on Aged Care and Community Boards (EYLACCB) attracts and develops young leaders, creating opportunities for them to use their talents to increase diversity on Boards in the aged care and community sector. It also creates opportunities for Emerging Leaders In Governance Program (ELGP) participants and leaders of the sector to come together and challenge their mindsets to continue to innovate and evolve the sector.

This is exactly what happened when two ELGP graduates Mithun Parthiban 2019 ELGP Alumni and board member with CLAN MIDLAND, and Sinduja Sornam Lingaswaran 2021 ELGP Alumni and Senior Engineer for Versent exposed their very inspirational 10-year old daughter Eeishu Mithun to the world of aged care. Mithun and Sinduja encouraged her to follow her passions, one was a vision is to improve the quality of life for elderly and physically challenged people after witnessing them struggle at shopping malls and parks.

A call from Mithun to Dr Nicky Howe, the EYLACCB Program Director facilitated a connection between Eeishu and Amanda Macnamara, 2018 ELGP Alumni, and Steve Pretzel, CEO at Technology for Ageing and Disability WA(TADWA) who are an active EYLACCB Community Partner.

Amanda Macnamara serves as a LASA State Members Advisory Committee while also being the Director of Corporate Services at Maurice Zeffert. Steve has mentored our talented young leaders over the years as part of the program and leads TADWA who provide a range of innovative solutions to challenges faced by older people and those with disabilities.

From this connection Eeishu got an incredible opportunity to visit both organisations and share her ideas with Steve Pretzel and Amanda Macnamara as well as Jan Kaye, the Philanthropy manager at Maurice Zeffert.

While visiting TADWA, Steve made a note of the number plate and face recognition feature for garage doors that Eeishu had suggested. To know the value this would add to the lives of people with disability and old age was a great acknowledgement to the idea.

A big thanks to TADWA and Amanda Macnamara for taking Eeishu in. A big thanks also go to Mithun and Sinduja for being changemakers and for raising an incredible daughter. As Eeishu visited Maurice Zeffert, a resident named Ann welcomed her for a chat and Eeishu being herself had a string of questions. Eeishu asked Ann about her family and how often they come to visit her and if the staff feed her well. She gifted Ann an origami crane as it’s a strong belief about 1000 cranes and long life in Japanese culture.

Our mission is to create a world class aged care and community sector underpinned by strong Board governance and leadership. Since 2013, our signature Emerging Leaders Governance Program (ELGP) has helped over 200 participants become great leaders that aspire to use their skillsets and talents in the aged care and community sector.

Mithun, Sinduja and Eeishu have demonstrated this and that you can never be too young to be a leader and changemaker.