Think+Do Tank Foundation
Reflecting on 2025
As the year comes to a close, we want to pause and say thank you. Think+DO Tank Foundation’s work is to help all of us to see and feel why being in community with one another matters.
Thank you for showing up — in big ways and small ones.
Thank you for believing in the power of creativity, community, and connection.
Thank you for trusting us.
Thank you for choosing creativity as a way to stay connected to each other, and to what matters.
Thank you for being part of the Think+DO Tank Foundation story this year.
2025 - so much to celebrate
This year, for Think+DO Tank Foundation and Lost In Books has been shaped by people — artists, storytellers, community members, partners, volunteers, educators, and supporters — coming together to imagine what’s possible and then doing the work to make it real – to shape it and build it.
Across Western Sydney and beyond, we’ve partnered with 76 talented creators investing $91,333.96 directly into their work. We sparked 794 vibrant artistic engagements, and we were supported with 342 volunteering hours. Our collaborations with local people transformed the TDTF Community House and our outreach programs into a thriving heartbeat of local expression, opportunity, and creative connection.
Lost In Books
Lost In Book launched new multilingual literature
We celebrated new books and new voices with three standout launches: Hasta El Sol by Rosario Lázaro Igoa, My Harimau King by Annie McCann, and A Lemon for Safiya by Jemima Shafei-Ongu, each one gathering community around story, language, and family memory.
Mirror Mentorship
Industry day, and artist support
Our Mirror Mentorship crew travelled to Scribble Kids’ Books in Melbourne for an Industry Day of learning and connection, and across the year we backed three emerging and three established artists with paid support to grow ideas into real outcomes.
Fairfield to Coffs Harbour
Sending Love in collaboration with Megan Cope.
Sending Love carried messages, care, and language exchange. Migrant and First Nations community-made offerings between places, building a living bridge of solidarity and connection.
Word Bank with Chau Chak Wing Museum
With Chau Chak Wing Museum
We continued developing the Word Bank, using pop-ups with families to build a community-controlled record of ancient languages that are still spoken, held, and celebrated throughout Western Sydney.
Writers in Residence
Words in Progress
Our TDTF Writers in Residence shared Words in Progress at Parramatta Is Lit Festival at Elizabeth Farm as part of Sydney Fringe, placing unfinished work in public spaces and inviting audiences and community into the process.
Sensorium with ACON Westie and YCollab
Created with ACON Westie and YCollab, held a warm, joyful celebration for the senses, a clear, community-led moment of collective LGBTQIA+ pride.and agency.
Reimagining Togetherness
TDTF community event Reimagining Togetherness with 62 community members in attendance, our recent gathering successfully deepened local connections and gathered the vital feedback needed to co-design our future collectives and programming. Thank you to funding through Fairfield City Council.
Forked Tongues Storytellers
Training and Collectives
Our Forked Tongues Storytellers Training program was delivered twice this year with lead artist, Lillian Rodrigues-Pang – Across two intensive training periods, TDTF empowered 22 community storytellers to master the art of performance, enabling them to showcase their unique talents and preserve their rich cultural heritage."
We are working with new and emerging orators who delivered a showcase in December. Alongside this our Forked Tongue collective shared and showcased their multicultural stories across Sydney – championing multilingualism – in paid partnership with City of Sydney & Western Sydney University.
Lost In Books
Pop ups and outreach
Lost In Books and TDTF Community Connectors joined Fairfield City Council to celebrate NAIDOC Week and Children & Families Week; and City of Parramatta’s Pitch for Good event, offering multilingual stories, authors, books and collections.
Homework Club
Homework Club celebrated education, learning and creativity at our Community House made possible by our dedicated volunteers and artist, Emmanual Assante, alongside a sprinkling of GROW WELL, our community gardening program with Paris from Community Greening, Botanic Gardens of Sydney.
Food Lab Collective
In FoodLab collective, 22 women trained to build their capacity to develop the catering menu in collaboration with South Western Sydney LHD. Mentoring opportunity were offered to 5 women in collaboration with Sunday Kitchen. Those women have access to 24 paid opportunities generating $6,768.00.
We gathered around food as nourishment and love. The TDTF Food Lab Collective held supported women, their families, and wider community through shared cooking and shared meals. Knowledge moved through hands, recipes, and care.
We made cross-cultural weaving through Seed of Hope, alongside Cabrogal artists and educator Brielle Neilson who grounded us at our community Reimagining Togetherness event. We worked side by side, shared methods, and built something people could wear and carry forward.
We created spaces where community could shape and shine. We planted new seeds. We ate together. We learned from our home-grown garden.
We also kept strengthening the connection between systems and communities through creativity. Through our partnership with Milk Crate Theatre, we stayed close to people too often pushed to the edges. Together, we brought dignity back into view.
This work is collective. People gave time, attention, skills, ideas, and resources. Community was the beating heart of our work.
None of this happens alone. It happens because people choose to give their time, their trust, their skills, their ideas — and sometimes their resources — to something bigger than themselves.
Thank you to our staff – the amazing individuals who show up every day. To most of us this is more than just a 9-5. You show up every day with care and openness. This work asks for focus, patience, and courage. You held complexity. You made room. You choose to value relationships and people.
Impact
As we head into the end-of-year break, we’re holding a deep sense of gratitude for everyone who has walked alongside us in 2025. Your support helps us keep building power, generating connections and expanding possibilities.
TDTF’s 'Hands on the Wheel' program empowered 80 migrant and refugee women to achieve independence and overcome transport barriers through 589 dedicated training sessions).
Through the SSBI initiative, TDTF empowered 59 families with free internet access, reducing the cost-of-living burden and ensuring school-aged children stay connected to their education.)
Creative & Artistic Retention
By partnering with 86 talented creators and investing $91,333.96 directly into their work, we sparked 796 vibrant artistic engagements. This collaboration transformed the TDTF Community House and our outreach programs into a thriving heartbeat of local expression, opportunity, and creative connection.
Training & Skill Development
We empowered our collectives by training 83 local women across storytelling, FoodLab, and Adornment collectives, creating a vibrant pipeline of skill and leadership. Through specialised mentorships and expert-led workshops, we’ve transformed these individual talents into powerful, community-led collectives ready to share their stories and crafts with the world." including: Storytelling(22 new storytellers trained across two training period, and 5 received mentoring), FoodLab (22 women trained in CK program, 5 women received mentoring from Sivine), Adornment collective ( 36 women trained by Nagham in Jewellery making).
593 instances of community members being employed as contractors with total fees paid of $ 50,508.50. By providing more than 150 supported trips, TDTF bridged the mobility gap for local artists and community members, ensuring that transportation was never a barrier to community participation and creative engagement, we linked artist and community to
Our Supporters - funders and donors
The impact and experiences of our work are made possible to our funders, donors and volunteers. We would like to make special mention of our 2025 Supporters: Creative Australia, Create NSW, Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund, Office of Responsible Gambling, City of Parramatta, City of Sydney, Fairfield City Council, Mounties and Cabravale Diggers, NSW Government, Commonwealth Government, Johnston Family Foundation and to our other philanthropic partners who prefer to remain anonymous – thank you! To those who make regular or one-off contributions to our ongoing fundraising campaign, "The Power of Yes",, we thank you!
Lost In Books
Thank you to all our dedicated customers who continue to support us through a love of reading. Our bookstore services will resume in the new year on 6th January 2026.
We’re taking a short pause to rest, reflect and reset — and we’re looking ahead to 2026 with energy, clarity and care.
2026 – Watch this space - on the horizon
We will share new opportunities for community and artists to join our programs. These are paid opportunities, built on shared learning, respect for cultural knowledge, and work that holds story.
We will follow in 2026 for new program registration – so watch this space – socials, WhatApp groups and our website – or drop in and say hello on our return on 6 January 2026
Writers Room Residency with lead writer Armani Haydar (Copyright Agency, Cultural Fund) – the selection panel chose four talented writers to work with Amani in 2026. We will announce the successful applicants in the new year. Thank you to all who applied.
In Translation: A Book Club is a nine-month literary journey exploring how stories move between languages, cultures, and communities. Supported by Copyright Agency, Cultural Fund & Fairfield City Council our first book club has explored Temporada de huracanes / Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor.
Women in Leadership — a new TDTF program creating space for critical thinking, reflection, and values-led leadership. A place to pause, locate yourself in the work you lead, and imagine what’s next.
Collective Expressions of Interest 2026
We are opening expressions of interest to be part of four collectives – you can register your interest here:
Adornment (wearable art across jewellery, textiles, headpieces and mixed materials)
Couture (couture sewing, fit, finishing and cultural embroidery including Palestinian Tatreez), and
Seed of Hope FoodLab (community cooking, recipe-making and food storytelling).
We are taking a short pause now, to rest, reset and regather ourselves, and to let the year settle in.
From all of us at Think+DO Tank Foundation, thank you continuing our community partnership.
We can’t wait to continue the journey together.
In the new year, we will come back with steady hands and open hearts. Ready to keep building with you, shaped by community, led by care, and guided by what we know together.
Wishing you a safe, restful and generous end to the year, with safety and peace to all.
With gratitude,
Think+DO Tank Foundation Team