About the Friendship Foundation...

The Friendship Foundation Limited’s Vision:

Our vision is to improve Quality of Life for Carers and People disadvantaged by chronic illness/injury and/or long term social displacement.

The Friendship Foundation Limited’s Mission:

Our mission is to support Carers and People disadvantaged by chronic illness/injury and/or long term social displacement as they endeavor to achieve happiness; friendship and meaning in their everyday lives. The foundation strives to achieve this by building bridges between leading edge wellbeing programs; internet technology; conventional medicine; business management skills and complimentary medicine.

The Friendship Foundation Limited’s History...

The Friendship Foundation Limited was founded by two sisters, Joy Hosking and Gaye Wagner.

In 1999 Joy and Gaye’s sister, Robyn, a management consultant specialising in organisational change, suffered a moderate severity brain injury. With the help of two remarkable medical professionals Robyn continued her journey of recovery through denial, clinical depression and being told she would never return to work let alone her old profession. With a stoic resolve to find some meaning out of all the despair, Robyn has finally accepted her new life and her new self.

During much of this time Gaye had been on her own journey of personal discovery and felt she needed to change the direction of her life. But the timing was not right… yet. In March 2005 Robyn started to write as part of her therapy. Over the years those notes grew into a book called, 'In Search of Meaning’. Years later those notes would evolve yet again.

Later Gaye and Robyn attended the 6th Annual Conference of the Brain Injury Association of Australia. It was through attendance at this conference that Gaye became aware of the lack of focus given to the family and friends of the injured. They too were struggling to cope with the change. Next Gaye, Robyn and their niece, Amy, attended the 8th Annual Quality of Life Conference at Deakin University.

By the end of the two conferences the family knew they wanted to use their skills to set in place a process for change. There seemed to have been a lot of research but they, personally, had seen little change taking place. The family continued their search for a direction that would allow them to convert all the hardship into something meaningful.

Their search initially led them to the Brain Injury Association of NSW (BIANSW). A relationship with BIANSW started shortly after that meeting. It was through the association that Robyn, Gaye and Amy met Cheryl Koenig. Cheryl was looking for Carers to write about in her latest book, ‘The Courage to Care’.

This meeting in early 2007 was the beginning of a strong partnership. Each brought a unique set of competencies to the partnership. By  August 2007, sisters Joy and Gaye, plus Gaye’s son Richard had established The Friendship Foundation Limited.

They had personal experience of the challenges illness and injury could bring to a family. Collectively they had 21years experience in caring for loved ones and they had extensive senior management experience. With that knowledge, plus the knowledge gained from co-authoring ‘In Search of Meaning’, and with access to Robyn’s vast selection of training programs, the family knew the time was right to establish The Friendship Foundation Limited.

In March 2008 they were joined by six remarkable people who form the organisation’s Advisory Board.

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