2009
Queensland Australian of the Year Bronwyn Sheehan founded The
Pyjama Foundation in 2004 to make a positive impact on the lives
of our community’s most vulnerable children.
The
Pyjama Foundation is honoured to have the support of our
community to inspire a love of learning... read about our
Patron, Bryce Courtenay and our wonderful team of Reading
Ambassadors and supporters
The Pyjama Foundation is the quintessential Australian children’s charity, providing modern-day angels for Australia’s families supporting our most vulnerable children.
The Pyjama Foundation recruits, screens, trains and supports Pyjama Angels - volunteer members of the community who work with the children and support our true heroes - Australia’s foster families.
Pyjama Angels deliver The Pyjama Foundation Love of Learning Program®, a literacy-based mentoring program which addresses statistics around children in care:
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92% of children in care are below the average reading level at age seven[1]
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75% of these children do not complete schooling
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50% of the homeless come from a care background
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35% enter the juvenile justice system at some point (82% of Australian prisoners have below grade 4 level of functional literacy)
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28% of care-leavers are parents within 12 months of leaving care
There are around 31,000 children in care in Australia, a figure which doubled in the last decade. Indigenous children vastly over-represented.
Research shows that any improvement in literacy will have a positive impact on a person’s life.
Since inception only five years ago, the organisation and its founder have inspired around 1000 members of our community to become volunteer Pyjama Angels.
From an initial base in Brisbane, The Pyjama Foundation has expanded to Bundaberg, Cairns, Gold Coast, Hervey Bay, Ipswich, Maryborough, Sunshine Coast and Toowoomba. In 2011 we are expanding further in Queensland and have recently launched the program in NSW.