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What is the Endeavour Foundation?
The Endeavour Foundation is one of the largest non-government organisations in Australia supporting and providing opportunities for people with a disability.
We operate solely in Queensland and support around 3000 people with a disability through a mix of services and businesses at over 220 locations from Cairns and Mareeba in the north, to the southern end of the Gold Coast, and west to Roma, Kingaroy, Stanthorpe and Warwick.
While we are a not-for-profit, we are also a public company limited by guarantee. Our ‘shareholders’ are our Endeavour Members.
These Members not only consist of families of people with a disability but members of the broader community who want to be associated with an organisation that does great work with Queenslanders who need support – a little or a lot – in their everyday lives.
Where it all started
In 1951, a group of mums met on a verandah in Coorparoo, Brisbane, to work out a solution to the problem of getting an education for their kids, who had what we now call an intellectual disability.
The prevailing thinking then was that it wasn't worth sending 'subnormal' kids to school because they couldn't be educated and they would never become useful, valued members of their communities. The regular school system couldn't take them, and there was no other education option available.
Those mums knew their kids were worth the effort, and that they could both get an education and enjoy life as valued members of their communities. So they set up the Queensland Sub-Normal Children's Welfare Association to educate and house kids with an intellectual disability.
It wasn't long before QSNCWA was operating schools and homes for children with an intellectual disability all over Queensland. By the late 1970s the Association was writing the curriculum for all Queensland special schools, which were operated by the Association and other organisations - they still weren't part of the State education system.
Over the same period, the Association expanded to offer services for adults including day services and 'sheltered workshops' now known as business services.
During the 1980s, all special schools in Queensland were taken into the State education system and the organisations that had operated the special schools began to focus mainly on adults with an intellectual disability.
In 1986, the Queensland Sub-Normal Children's Welfare Association changed its name to the Endeavour Foundation. The word 'Endeavour' was chosen to signify striving and ongoing effort.
To learn about the history of Endeavour Foundation, click here
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