donation

GJK Facility Services launched its new “GJK Giving Back” program maintaining its long history of spearheading social change and fostering community welfare by partnering with The Lighthouse Foundation, a charitable organization dedicated to assisting children and young adults affected by neglect, homelessness, and abuse find safe and nurturing homes and therapeutic care programs.

GJK Facility Services has over 30 established partnerships across Australia contributing to various causes that impact the lives of individuals and communities. GJK Facility Services has a history of donations, including $20,000 to Kids Cancer Project Australia and an additional $10,000 at the 2022 FMA Gala Award. Founder and managing director George Stamas donated $100,000 towards Australia’s first home for young women as part of giving back and contributing to his community.

The Lighthouse Foundation relies on donations from individuals and corporate partners to create caring communities for children to feel safe while recovering from traumatic experiences. The Lighthouse Foundation’s impact speaks for itself: eight out of ten children who participate in its program never return to the streets, changing the lives of over 1,000 young people. 

“We are proud to launch our social impact program, GJK Giving Back, and work alongside Lighthouse Foundation to create caring communities where young people can heal and thrive,” says Elias Stamas, CEO of GJK Facility Services. “Through meaningful partnerships and community support, we aim to make a positive difference in the lives of those in need.”

The “GJK Giving Back” program helps many organizations such as the Bridge of Hope, Epworth Foundation, Hunger Project, SuperTee, and Kids Cancer Project, which improves the treatment and survival rates for children with high-risk brain cancers that account for 40 percent of pediatric cancer deaths.  

“Working with charities, not-for-profits, and organizations we already support, like the Lighthouse Foundation, the GJK Giving Back program will build on these relationships to create shared value partnerships,” says Stamas. “Giving back and doing good has always been part of GJK’s DNA… and this program just takes this to the next level, enabling our employees to participate and give back too.” 

Now employing over 2,500 employees with a large national footprint, GJK Facility Services began as a family commercial cleaning business in 1985. It was the vision of George Stamas to give back to the community and make a difference in people’s lives.  

GJK Facility Services' commitment to philanthropy kicked into overdrive in 2003 when the Victorian State Government Office of Housing awarded the company with a cleaning, grounds, maintenance, and wastewater contract at the Collingwood and Atherton Gardens Public Housing Estates in Victoria to help implement the Public Tenant Employment Program (PTEP), which played a critical role in empowering individuals to break the cycle of unemployment as an alternative to welfare dependency (with a mandatory clause to hire a minimum of 35 percent of employees from the long-term unemployed residents in the estates).  

GJK Facility Services received several awards over the years, including the H Bruce Russell International Global Innovators Award for innovation and impact on long-term unemployment and the local community in 2006 and the Australian Business Award for the Community Contribution Award in 2011.  

Another achievement for GJK Facility Services was mentoring Jasmine Newman, an Indigenous entrepreneur, and establishing GJK Indigenous Solutions (GJKIS) in 2017. As a joint venture, GJK provided a support structure for GJKIS to be a competitive Indigenous business. GJKIS has successfully become a successful, female-owned Indigenous company providing Aboriginal people with employment, operating with 51 percent Indigenous employees, and better opportunities. GJKIS won the Aboriginal Business of the Year award at the 2020 Defense Industry Awards.