The Ballarat Foundation has announced the appointment of Andrew Eales as its new chief executive officer.
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Mr Eales has served as interim chief executive officer of the philanthropic organisation since March this year, guiding it through the challenges of COVID-19.
He previously held senior executive roles in the media industry across Victoria and southern New South Wales and was the editor of The Courier from 2011 to 2015.
Mr Eales said the role of the Ballarat Foundation had never been more important, given the economic fallout from COVID-19, the increasing pressure on organisations to provide emergency relief and disconnection of volunteers from organisations.
"We are seeing a significant strain on areas of our community that we wouldn't generally recognise as being vulnerable or disadvantaged," he said.
"There has never been a more important time I believe for the community to give where they can and for organisations such as ours to be taking a leadership role in supporting the community and advocating for support where it is needed."
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The Ballarat Foundation launched a new emergency food relief program in partnership with other Ballarat organisations earlier this year, delivering food packages to school families and university students each fortnight.
Mr Eales said the Ballarat Foundation would continue to focus on its four key pillars of food security, housing security, school readiness and youth success moving forward.
He said the issue of homelessness was an area the foundation could have a real impact by supporting organisations working in that space with funding and advocacy.
That has filled me with a great sense of the power of the Ballarat community - how people band together during really difficult times to support those that are in need.
- Andrew Eales, Ballarat Foundation CEO
The Ballarat Foundation is set to announce the successful recipients of more than $100,000 worth of grants in the coming weeks.
Mr Eales said the foundation wanted to more than double the value of grant allocations to community organisations in the future.
"We think by increasing the distributions we provide to great not for profit organisations, great service delivery organisations and great community organisations, that is the best way for us to have a very significant impact in dealing with some of the issues we see in the community," he said.
"To be able to do that, we are going to need and we are going to be calling on the Ballarat community to give more to these great causes."
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Mr Eales said it had been challenging taking over leadership of an organisation during the transition to working from home and a time of operational change.
But he said he had been touched by the support of the community through donations during difficult economic circumstances.
"That has filled me with a great sense of the power of the Ballarat community - how people band together during really difficult times to support those that are in need."
Mr Eales joined the board of the Ballarat Foundation in 2014 and has chaired the food relief and grants allocations committees.
The Ballarat Foundation operates the L2P learner driver program, Volunteering Ballarat and Ballarat Reads and runs fundraising events such as Run For A Cause and Dancing with our Stars.
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