Opening doors to opportunities

Annabelle Travaglione joins the Board of Barossa Enterprises

Garry Velt, Barossa Enterprises CEO and Annabelle Travaglione, CEO of Foundation Barossa.

A stronger partnership between two key organisations is set to expand opportunities for people living with disability across the Barossa.

Annabelle Travaglione, CEO of Foundation Barossa, has now joined the board of Barossa Enterprises, cementing a relationship that has been building behind the scenes for several years.

“It is an honour and privilege to be asked to join the board of Barossa Enterprises and they do incredible work supporting people with disabilities to live engaged, secure and fulfilling lives,” she said.

Annabelle said she welcomed the opportunity as there is a clear alignment in core goals and values.

“Barossa Enterprises do extraordinary work in the community around creating opportunity and inclusion. And that, I believe, is a parallel shared with Foundation Barossa.

“Foundation Barossa collaborates with organisations and individuals to support community-based projects across the Barossa that address key needs, strengthen local capacity and create solutions to both opportunities and challenges.

“The goal is to help build a strong, vibrant community where everyone can participate and contribute.

“I hope that through the relationship with both organisations we can continue to help in building resilience and opportunity for those that need it most.”

Barossa Enterprises CEO Garry Velt said the addition of Annabelle to the board would strengthen both organisations.

“We’ve known about Foundation Barossa for quite a while and we’ve sought some small grant funding in the past but the main reason and benefit from Annabelle joining the board would be…the people that we support having greater access to other resources and opportunities across the Barossa,” he said.

“They are really about the support of individuals and we have a natural collection point for people that meet the brief for Foundation Barossa.

“I think it’s just a natural fit that Annabelle can get on the board, learn a bit about us, understand how we work with our participants and how they could be referred on to other programs within the community.”

Garry said he reached out to Annabelle through local business owner and winemaker, John Hughes, who serves on the Barossa Enterprises Board, while also operating as Deputy Chair of Foundation Barossa.

“We’ve worked with Annabelle together in the past on referrals and on grant applications,” Garry said.

“I asked John if she might be interested, and he just suggested I give Annabelle a call. She was very interested, which is fantastic.”

Both Annabelle and Garry said their focus is on breaking down barriers to employment, training and study.

“We really look at supporting people that might be struggling to access things that others might take for granted, including the labour market,” Garry said.

“We’re supporting some of Barossa Enterprise’s clients for things like training for a forklift license, working at heights, working combined spaces, just to give them more opportunities in the workplace,” explained Annabelle.

Annabelle and Garry agree that the move develops an existing partnership between the two organisations, and that they looked forward to opening more doors.

“It’s just about formalising that network,” Garry said.

“It’s really just about opening up the doors to opportunities,” Annabelle added.