{"id":29488,"date":"2019-09-05T08:00:52","date_gmt":"2019-09-04T22:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/surfcoasttimes\/?p=29488"},"modified":"2020-10-12T15:02:30","modified_gmt":"2020-10-12T05:02:30","slug":"power-of-five-to-launch-womens-charity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/surfcoasttimes\/living\/power-of-five-to-launch-womens-charity\/","title":{"rendered":"Power of five to launch women&#8217;s charity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Five likeminded locals have united to establish a proactive charity for women under 25 who have at least one child or are pregnant. <\/p>\n<p>The Empowerment Challenge, founded by Shannon Graham, Karen Brown, Michelle Polidano, Merrin Wake and Donna Kennedy, will offer youth specific services to women in the greater Geelong region who may be struggling in new motherhood. <\/p>\n<p>Chair and co-founder Shannon Graham said the project has been in the works for two years. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll of us had the passion for it and could see the need for it but perhaps didn\u2019t have the experience of setting up a charity,\u201d Shannon said.  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can see how much it\u2019s needed and that\u2019s kept us on track and driven the whole time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shannon, who\u2019s served the community as a nurse for about 25 years, said her work in the health sector inspired her to address a \u201cgap in the market\u201d. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve always had that passion for helping people. There are some great services in Geelong, but a lot of them have limits,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe saw that they (women under 25) needed something ongoing that they can continue to connect with because it does take time to break through those barriers and gain their trust.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Ocean Grove mother of three said barriers included generational poverty and domestic abuse. She also said women who have been in the system and haven\u2019t received adequate care can find it difficult to trust. <\/p>\n<p>The Empowerment Challenge hopes to construct a hub in a low-socio economic area such as Norlane where women can access counselling services through to online courses in a safe and inclusive environment. <\/p>\n<p>The charity will launch at The Pier Geelong on Thursday October 17. Guest speakers include Jules Allen and Lynda Mori. Television personality Nicky Buckley will MC the event. <\/p>\n<p>Early bird tickets are $65 and available until September 30. After October 1, tickets will be $75. Tickets and more information available at <a href=\"http:\/\/empowermentchallenge.org.au\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">empowermentchallenge.org.au<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Five likeminded locals have united to establish a proactive charity for women under 25 who have at least one child or are pregnant. The Empowerment Challenge, founded by Shannon Graham, Karen Brown, Michelle Polidano, Merrin Wake and Donna Kennedy, will offer youth specific services to women in the greater Geelong region who may be struggling [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/surfcoasttimes\/living\/power-of-five-to-launch-womens-charity\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":168,"featured_media":29490,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-29488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-living"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Power of five to launch women&#039;s charity - Surf Coast Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/surfcoasttimes\/living\/power-of-five-to-launch-womens-charity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Power of five to launch women&#039;s charity - Surf Coast Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Five likeminded locals have united to establish a proactive charity for women under 25 who have at least one child or are pregnant. The Empowerment Challenge, founded by Shannon Graham, Karen Brown, Michelle Polidano, Merrin Wake and Donna Kennedy, will offer youth specific services to women in the greater Geelong region who may be struggling [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/surfcoasttimes\/living\/power-of-five-to-launch-womens-charity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Surf Coast Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-09-04T22:00:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-10-12T05:02:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/09\/Michelle-Polidano-Shannon-Graham-Karen-Brown-and-Merrin-Wake-1024x683.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hannah Kenny\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hannah Kenny\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/surfcoasttimes\\\/living\\\/power-of-five-to-launch-womens-charity\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/surfcoasttimes\\\/living\\\/power-of-five-to-launch-womens-charity\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Hannah Kenny\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/surfcoasttimes\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ab14dc0024fb89b1c5b24527c3285596\"},\"headline\":\"Power of five to launch women&#8217;s charity\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-09-04T22:00:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-12T05:02:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/surfcoasttimes\\\/living\\\/power-of-five-to-launch-womens-charity\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":330,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/surfcoasttimes\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/surfcoasttimes\\\/living\\\/power-of-five-to-launch-womens-charity\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2019\\\/09\\\/Michelle-Polidano-Shannon-Graham-Karen-Brown-and-Merrin-Wake.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Living\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/surfcoasttimes\\\/living\\\/power-of-five-to-launch-womens-charity\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/surfcoasttimes\\\/living\\\/power-of-five-to-launch-womens-charity\\\/\",\"name\":\"Power of five to launch women's charity - Surf Coast Times\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/surfcoasttimes\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/surfcoasttimes\\\/living\\\/power-of-five-to-launch-womens-charity\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/surfcoasttimes\\\/living\\\/power-of-five-to-launch-womens-charity\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2019\\\/09\\\/Michelle-Polidano-Shannon-Graham-Karen-Brown-and-Merrin-Wake.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-09-04T22:00:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-12T05:02:30+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/surfcoasttimes\\\/living\\\/power-of-five-to-launch-womens-charity\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/surfcoasttimes\\\/living\\\/power-of-five-to-launch-womens-charity\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/surfcoasttimes\\\/living\\\/power-of-five-to-launch-womens-charity\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2019\\\/09\\\/Michelle-Polidano-Shannon-Graham-Karen-Brown-and-Merrin-Wake.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2019\\\/09\\\/Michelle-Polidano-Shannon-Graham-Karen-Brown-and-Merrin-Wake.jpg\",\"width\":1890,\"height\":1260,\"caption\":\"Four of The Empowerment Challenge co-founders Michelle Polidano, Shannon Graham, Karen Brown and Merrin Wake (missing Donna Kennedy). 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