At the heart of this initiative is a commitment to listening. We are engaging with the Liverpool community to understand its unique strengths, priorities and needs. By centring local voices, we aim to ensure the program is grounded in lived experience and informed by the community it seeks to support.
The insights we gather will guide the co-design of targeted initiatives in partnership with local organisations. These initiatives will be supported by Sydney Women’s Fund, with the goal of fostering local ownership and creating meaningful, lasting impact.
We are looking to connect with residents and local leaders, grassroots and community organisations, women with lived experience, businesses and service providers. Their knowledge and contributions are vital to shaping effective solutions that open doors to opportunity – today and in the future.
If you would like to learn more, contribute your perspective, or stay connected as the program develops, please email doorways@sydcf.org.au
Doorways to the Future is inviting local women and women’s organisations in Liverpool to become part of a Community Collective – to be paid to contribute your knowledge and experience in 4 co-design workshops. Your insights will guide the co-design of practical initiatives, developed with local organisations and funded by Sydney Women’s Fund, to create lasting, community-driven impact.
Your voice matters. Your experience can inspire change. Join us to help shape a better future for women in Liverpool.
Our history
Sydney Women’s Fund’s place-based work began in 2013, a bold pilot for collective impact. The program launched with a first-of-its-kind $500,000 challenge grant from the NSW Department of Family and Community Services (now Department of Communities and Justice), and rapidly raised over $1 million from national philanthropic donors.
Commencing in Warwick Farm in Liverpool, Sydney Women’s Fund partnered with a local neighbourhood centre to focus on a number of key objectives as identified by the community. The initiative created six social enterprises employing dozens of local women, and providing education and work pathways for hundreds of others. The program also incubated eight female-led micro-businesses. These successes paved the way for expansion of the program to new geographies of Fairfield and Claymore. In Warwick Farm, young people in the community drove the appeal for the construction of the Abel Dunn basketball court – a public-private partnership and vibrant space for local youth.
In Fairfield, the Parents’ Café supported refugee families resettling after the Syrian war. Recognised by the UN in 2016 as a global best-practice model, the program built connection, wellbeing, and confidence for newly arrived families.
In Claymore and Campbelltown, the RISE program launched in 2015 to tackle school refusal. What started in one community grew to reach 24 schools across Western Sydney, supporting over 150 young people to re-engage with learning and life.
Across each area, the Foundation’s work is driven by long-term partnerships and local leadership, building stronger communities from the ground up.
If you would like to learn more, contribute your perspective, or stay connected as the program develops, please email doorways@sydcf.org.au
