Most Empowering Indigenous Youth Programmes CEO 2025: Anthony Cavanagh Every child has the potential to succeed, but not all are provided the opportunities and environments needed to actualise their abilities. Childhood is a crucial development phase, and lack of support during this time can lead to future difficulties. Based in Victoria, Ganbina is a leading company dedicated to mitigating this risk – empowering Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people in unlocking their full potential. At the helm of Ganbina sits Anthony Cavanagh, a passionate individual committed to enacting change through Ganbina’s exceptional endeavours. He shared his journey to excellence with us, below. The Indigenous population in Australia is becoming increasingly distressed from the ongoing impacts of colonialism and, as a result, are much more likely to be impacted by low education attainment, high unemployment, and high welfare dependency in comparison to nonIndigenous Australians. Ganbina is a First Nations run-and-led charity running a school-to-worktransition programme for Australia’s Indigenous children and youth. For 12 years, Anthony Cavanagh has leveraged his core values of honesty, transparency, and authenticity to steer the organisation with an expert hand. Anthony experienced disadvantage in his own childhood, including family violence, abandonment, and homelessness as a teenager. Upon reflection of his hardships, he truly believes that the reason he was able to keep going through that incredibly difficult period was because he stayed in education. Throughout those difficult years, Anthony managed to complete his education and graduate from high school. Upon graduation, he entered the workforce. Anthony was skilled with his hands and so undertook a number of physical labouring positions for the first four years following high school, with his first professional services job appearing as an opportunity to work in government welfare at a boys’ home in the late 1980s. “What I endured as a young person helped me to understand what disadvantage looks like and how education is the key for Indigenous people to overcome generational disadvantage and break the cycle for themselves and future generations,” he recalled. “I was born into entrenched socio-economic disadvantage and came out the other side. If you had told 13-year-old me – who was stealing fruit from market stalls and sleeping in alleyways – that I would one day become a CEO, I would have laughed at you. I am passionate about the impact education can make to a young person’s life, no matter what their life circumstances are.” As he gained experience, Anthony was offered more managerial and supervisory roles – opportunities he happily accepted. He believes his life has led him down a path centred on giving back and shares his own personal experiences to ensure that children and young people can see a future for themselves, without having to face the same adversities that he had in his childhood. Today, Anthony strives to be authentic, encourage a better future for those around him, and always plan for tomorrow – rather than looking back at what cannot be changed. Before joining Ganbina, Anthony worked within the community services sector for two decades. He has gained experience working with disadvantaged people across a variety of settings, including people with disabilities and disadvantaged children residing in a boys’ home. Throughout these roles, Anthony developed his capabilities, as well as his understanding of the world around him. From each opportunity, he learned not only AIM-Jun25072 resilience, but creativity and effective leadership styles. Anthony became CEO of Ganbina in 2013, leveraging his passion for changing lives through education to drive the organisation forward. His primary responsibility is to lead the team, providing support to Aboriginal and Torres Strait children and young people so that they can enjoy a more positive and prosperous lifepath and future. For Anthony, his work is all about creating hope, building economic prosperity for young people to thrive in their futures, and supporting his staff in delivering the Ganbina promise to the Indigenous communities it works within. Ganbina’s programme addresses the key issues impacting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young peoples’ success in education, training, and employment. This includes – but is not limited to – school attendance, school engagement, in-school support through mentoring, fortnightly check-ins, employment and training opportunities for post-education careers, engagement and partnerships with families, numeracy and literacy skills, ensuring families remain connected to schools, and managing essential life documents – such as birth certificates, tax file numbers, and bank accounts. This programme has been shown to not only positively impact the rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Year 12 graduation, further education enrolment, and post-education employment rates, but has also reduced the rates of teenage pregnancy, youth crime, and mental health issues in these populations. Ganbina’s programme is now being expanded into other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, with the primary focus being to ensure educational, training, and professional success for every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child or young person whose education-toemployment journey passes through the programme. “In 2024, we had 404 clients – all of whom we approached with a shared passion to help them be the best version of themselves,” Anthony told us. “We are fixed on creating better futures for each of the kids on our programmes; we all have a significant part to play in the future and daily aspirations of each child. The team and I make a commitment to each child and young person, and to their families.” To fulfil this commitment, Ganbina geared its operations towards eradicating the broad-based issues of long-term generational unemployment and welfare dependency that is prevalent in Indigenous societies today. The company’s strategy is a highly practical, handson approach that provides a secure pathway for young people to move successfully through their school years and into mainstream employment. Its multifaceted methodology aims to help clients from an early age to fully understand the lifelong advantages that education and employment can offer; realise these advantages
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