Softacare is an innovative charity, which delivers among other things ‘Xpress’ programs for children in foster and kinship care. These programs encourage children’s development of healthy self-expression and confidence through creative arts and great outdoor exposure, complementing professional therapies the children receive. Softacare sees “healthy self-expression as a key to every child’s growth and core to being able to develop self-reliance and self-care, create relationships within a community, and find employment.” All the programs are delivered at no cost to the children or their carers’ families making them highly accessible.

Wendy John, Vice President of Softacare says, “we have been growing rapidly and so has our database of contacts, sponsors and supporters. We’ve put a lot of effort into developing all these important contacts and needed someone to maintain and strengthen those relationships.” Katrina U'Pritchard has fulfilled this role by taking on the position of a brand new committee member role in the Softacare team. Wendy states, “Katrina has been brilliant as she has a strong HR background and helped write her own Position Description”.

Katrina explains her specific role at Softacare, “I am currently working on a relationship management strategy, to align with Softacare’s overall business strategy. The relationship management role manages the relationships of all stakeholders which include, volunteers, carers, government agencies, other NFP's, and community.”

Katrina, who is a HR specialist at Caltex Australian Petroleum sits on the Softacare Executive Committee and is working hard to recruit a number of positions including a marketing/PR manager, fundraising advisor and event administrator in NSW as well as “keeping our wonderful sponsors up to date with what is happening.”

Wendy says of Katrina, she is “just incredible. It makes such a difference having someone who is already professionally skilled – not just in their area of expertise, but in their capacity to see how it all fits together.” Katrina states, “I'm passionate about Softacare because I see the difference that we make. You only have to see the faces and hear the comments from the children in our program to know that we have truly made an impact on their lives. You don’t get paid but it is very, very rewarding. I now have a new appreciation of what is important”

Positively, Wendy says, “many thanks to goodcompany for enabling this. You are such a valuable resource to Softacare and are helping transform the lives of children in foster and kinship care by sending us great people like Katrina!”

To find out more about Softacare go to www.softacare.org.au.