Endeavour's history project

Endeavour’s history project is designed to be like Endeavour itself - a story of people, the challenges they have met and the ways in which those challenges are dealt with. 

From its beginnings in 1951, Endeavour’s focus has always been on people with disabilities and their families.  In developing services to develop the potential of Endeavour clients, and to support their families, Endeavour has played a critical role in fields where no other agency was active.  In its first few decades, Endeavour concentrated on education and the development of training opportunities and business services.  As time moved on and government services began to fill the education gap, Endeavour adapted its activities to address other urgent needs – places for clients to live, and opportunities for productive work. 

From its very early days, Endeavour developed a strong presence in regional and country Queensland.  Remarkable people in regional and rural Queensland developed long-standing ideas.  The first art unions, for instance, were an innovation from Toowoomba.

In developing its services, spread widely geographically, Endeavour has become a powerful advocate for people with disabilities and has attracted eminent people to its cause.  Endeavour has always been a non-profit organisation, considerably reliant on volunteers whose efforts have developed ‘social capital’ worth many millions of dollars. 

To cover the wide range of Endeavour people and their activities, the history research will be based on the experiences of people whose lives have been affected by Endeavour – clients, families, staff, volunteers, staff members – as well as on documentary research.  So many stories make up the history of Endeavour and we would like to hear your Endeavour story. 

To submit your story to be considered as part of Endeavour’s History Project, please forward it to Susan Speechley, PR & Community Profile Manager on s.speechley@endeavour.com.au

Helen Gregory is the historian who is working on the Endeavour history.  She is a widely experienced historian who has worked on a wide variety of Queensland social history topics.  Her publications include Women of the West, the story of many women’s contributions to Queensland rural life; a history of Maroochy Shire; two histories of nursing at the Royal Brisbane Hospital and Expression of Mercy - Brisbane’s Mater Hospitals, 1906-2006. 

Helen sees history as the story of people and the way they deal with the conditions in which they live and work.  That’s why she looks forward to reading your Endeavour story.