Physical disability is not a hindrance to leadership and service. Henry Pan, Honorary Executive Director of the Chinese Australian Services Society (CASS is the organisation’s brand name), a multicultural community organisation based in Sydney, is a living proof of this.
In 2006, while helping a member from the disadvantaged community, Mr Pan was attacked and lost his eyesight as a result. However, he did not let that tragedy stop him from leading his organisation and serving people. He learned to use special computer software to manage the affairs of CASS. He also continued his efforts to raise funds for the disadvantaged, coordinate with the government and advocate for mutual help among multicultural communities.
Due to his longstanding contributions to the community, Mr Pan has received many awards and honours from various governments, including an Order of Australia Medal in 1997, a Centenary Medal in 2001 and the Quang Tart Lifetime Achievement Award in Community Service in 2007.
Various award-giving bodies have also recognised Mr Pan, including our very own. In the 2024 edition of Third Sector Awards, he and CASS won three out of ten categories, namely CEO of the Year, Sustainability Leadership Award, and Cultural Diversity and Inclusion Award.
Third Sector sat down with Mr Pan to tell us more about himself, the organisation he’s leading and the communities they’re serving.
What inspired you to pursue a career in the social sector?
It’s accidental. I am a mechanical engineer by profession, not a social worker. Forty to forty-five years ago, I had a friend who wanted to do something for the Chinese community in terms of child care, and that friend invited my wife for a meeting to discuss the idea. I went along because I was the driver and had to babysit our three-year-old daughter.
In the meeting, when I listened to the discussion, I liked the ideas. I even provided and explained some ideas, and people at the meeting found the information from me very useful. And that’s how I got involved in the proposed project.
Later on, they held a meeting to talk about forming a preliminary committee, and high on the agenda was to try and contact the relevant government department to discuss our proposal to come and set up a child care centre for the Chinese community. And it happened that old people were not able to meet the government officer because they all had work during the day, on weekdays. When I was teaching at the university at that time, my time was very flexible. And that’s why people said, “Could you please coordinate meetings and deal with the government department officer?”
To cut the story short, consequently, we did manage to operate child care services, including a family day care and a child care centre. We eventually got a request from the community to provide more services. And that’s how we extended our services into other areas, holding information sessions, briefing people in the community about all sorts of things about Australia.
Also, we offered to extend our services to the Korean community and, later on, to Vietnamese and Indonesian communities as well. That part of the organisation became the service provider for the multicultural community.
All along, I’ve been doing it on a voluntary basis. For the first 25 years of the organisation, I was the Chairperson. After I lost my eyesight, in 2008, I retired from my normal work and then took up the Executive Director (CEO) role of CASS. That’s how I got involved in social services.
Tell us more about CASS. How would you describe the work that the organisation is doing?
Initially, the organisation was dealing with the provision of child care services. Of course, we are still providing child care to the community, but lately, we are also dealing with the ageing of the population, a very common phenomenon in all communities. People are ageing and getting older, and they need services. That’s why the organisation is now also dealing with elderly people, and this will be the trend for the next decade or two.
We also do our information sessions very frequently to make information accessible to people in culturally and linguistically diverse communities like Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Indonesian communities. As people in these communities are migrants, many of them do not speak English well, so they may have language barriers when getting the right services that they need. And even if they are served, they don’t understand or know how to communicate with the service provider. We help them understand what is going on in the Australian government policy, culture, education and so on.
When I took up the Executive Director position in 2008, CASS was only operating with an annual financial turnover of about $5.5 million and a workforce of about 130 employees, serving about 1,100 families every week. Today, CASS is operating with an annual financial turnover of over $80 million, a workforce of over 830 employees and serving over 8,000 families a week.
What is the most fulfilling part of the work you’re doing?
I can see that when people in the community get the services of CASS, they are all very happy. And that makes me happy as well. Communities like Korean, Vietnamese and Indonesian communities especially don’t have a service organisation like CASS to provide needed social services, so when CASS started to provide such a service, people in those communities were very happy. At the moment, we are slowly extending the services to the Filipino community. Hopefully, our services can benefit more people in more communities.
What advice would you give aspiring social sector leaders?
Never forget the original objective of your organisation—and also your own. Never forget that. Try to achieve the original objective of the organisation. Don’t deviate from that.
How do you feel about you and CASS winning three out of ten categories at the 2024 Third Sector Awards?
My colleagues and I did not expect the outcome. We felt that it was overwhelming.
On the other hand, we do understand that our organisation is serving a very large community with a multicultural background. We want our work to signify that we are a very culturally and linguistically diverse organisation. We are catering not just to one group of people. Also, we may not be a global organisation, but we have a very wide range of services, from child care to aged care and many more.
We do hope that CASS successfully diversifying its services and serving multicultural communities can be an example to follow. We are also very willing to share our experience and learn from others as well about their experience.
This year, Third Sector is again giving individuals and organisations a chance to be recognised for their valuable contributions to society. Help us honour the unsung heroes of our sector by nominating someone for these categories until 27 June.
Submit your nominations for the 2025 Third Sector Awards here.
Geraldine is currently the Content Producer for Third Sector, an Akolade channel. Throughout her career, she has written for various industries and international audiences. Her love for writing extends beyond the corporate world, as she also works as a volunteer writer at her local church. Aside from writing, she is also fond of joining fun runs and watching musicals.
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