Our mission is to enhance quality of life and foster independence for people facing challenges. The last year saw COVID19 still having an impact on our community donations, however, we still achieved a great level of growth due to corporate support from the community. Our annual Charity Gala was a huge success with people wanting to connect again after lockdowns and we saw the biggest turnout to this event to date. The growth of our Animal Assisted Services grew with dogs being placed into various community programs where they could have the largest impact on society. These programs targeted issues such as eating disorders, and mental health for tradies, truckies and blue collar workers as well as mental health supports for corporate workplaces and schools or education facilities. We also started running the practical component of nationally accredited courses for people or providers wanting to work with the animal assisted services sector. Our Assistance Dog Program has also seen significant growth where the dogs we placed have made incredible impacts to their handlers living with disabilities. We have started taking on Interns to learn how to train the dogs under our system and we have also seen increases in numbers of our Volunteer Puppy Raiser Group. We have volunteers that are so committed to helping our charity that they drive over two hours each way and have done now for numerous years just to help us through volunteering. We really have made a community within Empower Assistance Dogs where all parties are invested to see us fulfil our charter. We are still running a school program for Hymba Yumba Indigenous school where the students learn how to train dogs and complete Certificate II in Animal Care. We are extremely proud of the growth we have achieved within the charity and we look forward to similar if not better growth over the coming year.