This year we celebrate The Bridge’s 55-year history and the one-year anniversary of the acquisition with Ivanhoe Diamond Valley (IDV), an organisation with a rich 70-year history of quality service delivery across the northern suburbs.

Now one ‘Bridge’ we thank all those who have been involved in advancing our collective focus and vision towards a connected society where people of all abilities achieve their full potential across our geographical footprint.

As we close out this year, we extend our thanks to Mary-Jane Stolp, CEO, for her leadership of The Bridge over the past four years and to Board Directors Sue Banks (immediate Past Chair), John Jeffries (immediate Past Deputy Chair) and Sue Hansford for their dedication and contribution to The Bridge over their 13, nine and four year tenures respectively, who are stepping down. We also thank David Mallinson, Treasurer, for taking on the role of Deputy Chair, as well as Board Directors Sally Bennett and Bernadette Doyle, who joined us from IDV to provide support and guidance as we build our new organisation.

To support growth and unwavering focus on delivering outstanding client experience, we repurposed and introduced new roles. These include a NDIS Claiming Team Leader, a Projects Officer, a full-time Safety Business Partner, Company Secretary, Social Enterprise & Micro-Business Manager, and a 24/7 Services Operations Manager.

We continue to work closely with government and peak bodies and thanks to a grant from Carers Victoria, we launched Bridge 2 Connect Carers. This free networking and support group is designed to empower carers with valuable resources and new opportunities across the North and Southeast.

Acknowledging the rapid pace of change in today’s world, we remain dedicated to purposeful innovation and continually improving the systems and processes that drive the future growth of our high-quality, person-centred services. To support this commitment, we have developed both an Artificial Intelligence (AI) framework and an Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) framework.

We finalised our five-year strategic direction to 2029, to ensure we stay focused on the things that are important to the community and the support to be able to provide that. Highlights include:

• Certification as a Great Place To Work
• 26% of our leaders completed their certificate IV in leadership and management
• Surveys demonstrated continuing high levels of client/carer satisfaction
• Development of The Bridge’s first documented property strategy with external advisors    

Looking ahead, our priorities include:

• Expanding open employment services at five new sites in the Monash region as part of Inclusive Employment Australia 
• Commissioning Specialised Disability Accommodation houses
• Embedding our Employee Value Proposition

As we move into 2026 a key focus will be the evolution of our service model ‘The Bridge Way’, to ensure all services are place-based, linked with community and delivered through integrated, person-centred approaches. To do this successfully, we look forward to consolidating and developing on partnerships to provide the wraparound support for individuals and their families.

We look forward to sharing updates through our socials, website, and newsletters and we welcome your input and feedback.

In closing, we would like to pay tribute to all of you who access our services at The Bridge – you are why our organisation exists. A sincere thank you to our employees, students, and volunteers for their dedication and to our business partners, supporters, and donors who enable us to innovate and enrich the connectivity across the communities we serve.

With our thanks,

Siân Slade, Chair