Celebrating 71 years Rewind back to 1951, Hazel Whiddon, her husband Fred, and sixteen other parents of children with disability began The Manly Sunnyfield Association. The mission was to build a supportive community for their children, and others like them, where they could flourish and grow with dignity. 71 years later, Hazel’s vision has grown well beyond Manly and today, Sunnyfield provides over 2,000 support services for people with disability with more than 1,300 staff fulfilling our mission across NSW and the ACT. In the past year alone, Sunnyfield teams opened a new Community Hub in Armidale, a new School Leaver Employment Supports location in Chatswood, two new Short Term Accommodation services in Toukley and Greenace, a new Shared Living service in Maroubra and expanded our Support Coordination team to service new regions. We sure know how to stay busy! But as we get on into our sprightly seventies, we remember where it all began. Sunnyfield started as a simple idea, held by a small handful, backed by strength of compassion and belief in the power of community. Hazel and her first group of parents were determined to support their children with the opportunities they deserved, and extend it to all people with disability. That’s the vision we’ve been carrying on for seven decades, and the next seven look even brighter. 3
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