Who We Are

Our Purpose

Anti-Poverty Week supports the Australian community to have an increased understanding of poverty and to take action collectively to end it.

Governance and Structure

The Week is coordinated through a National Facilitating Group, with two honorary National Co-Chairs and two part-time staff. Our finances have been kindly managed by Uniting Communities SA for many years. Key organisational roles are played by honorary Co-Chairs and Facilitating Groups in each State and Territory. Our National and State Facilitating Groups represent a large range of community organisations working to fight poverty all around Australia.  Many of these have been our long term financial sponsors and we have also been joined by some philanthropic funds, a number of unions and the University of New South Wales.

National Facilitating Group 2025:

National Co-Chairs:

Carla Treloar AM, Scientia Professor, UNSW Sydney

Carla is a social scientist working at the Centre for Social Research in Health at UNSW, Sydney. Her work brings to light the gaps, failures and harms of health and social systems, posing solutions to better meet the needs of people experiencing social marginalisation. She has been academic lead for the ACOSS-UNSW Poverty and Inequality Partnership since 2020, served as Director of the Centre for Social Research in Health and the Social Policy Research Centre 2016-2022 and has been a member of more than 60 advisory committees for government, health agencies and non-government organisations and is committed to the effective translation of research into policy and practice and to ethical and respectful conduct of research in close collaboration with affected communities. Carla is the International Journal of Drug Policy co-Editor in Chief, a current recipient of a NHMRC Investigator Award 2025-2029, Lifeline’s digital helpline volunteer crisis supporter and President of the Australia’s oldest HIV charity, the Bobby Goldsmith Foundation. Australia.

Simon Schrapel AM

Originally trained in Social Work, Simon has spent more than 40 years in social services practice, management and policy development and advocacy. He has worked in both the Government and not-for-profit sectors in Australia and abroad including the past 15 years as the Chief Executive of Uniting Communities in South Australia. Simon has been engaged across multiple peak bodies and advocacy campaigns through his career including being Chair of Families Australia, the Child and Family Welfare Association of Australia, SACOSS, Together SA and is a past ACOSS President. He has also served on numerous national and State Government advisory bodies including as Chair of the Council for the Care of Children and member of the Suicide Prevention Council and Child Protection Expert Advisory Committee. In 2017, Simon was awarded a Member (AM) in the General Division of the Order of Australia which recognised his commitment to supporting children and families and social services.

National Facilitating Group Members:

Courtney Love, National Policy Director, Anglicare Australia

Claerwen Little, National Director, UnitingCare Australia

Rose Benyon, National Director, Policy & Research, St Vincent de Paul Society Aus

Trish Hepworth, Head of Government Relations, UnitingCare Australia

2025 State/Territory Co-Chairs:

National Staff:

Mark Jeffery, National Director

Mark Jeffery joined as the National Director of Anti-Poverty Week in May 2024. Mark has worked as a Media and Communications Manager across the not-for-profit sector, including at PeakCare Queensland (2019-2024) and QCOSS (2005-2012). He brings to the role his experience as a journalist and producer with the ABC and commercial media outlets (2012-2019) and before. Mark has organised APW activities in Queensland and worked on the state facilitating group over many years while at PeakCare and QCOSS. He builds on this experience and his connections across Queensland and Australia to lead APW in 2024.
Mark’s focus in 2024 will be to facilitate coordination across all APW participating organisations nationally, to support APW events in each state and territory and to maximise public engagement and media coverage.
Mark holds a Bachelor of Arts (Communications) from the University of South Australia.