Meet Jose Gilbert - Changing the World by Changing Lives
Gotch4Life’s Program Manager, Jose Gilbert, was Always Going to Change the World
She thought it would be by saving the planet. Turns out, it’s by saving lives. The environment has always been one of Jose’s passions. She grew up in Hong Kong, where pollution was always a concern, and plastic bags would wrap around her legs while swimming.
Her childhood home, where glitzy skyscrapers tower over shanty towns, also taught Jose about wealth disparity at a young age.
Helping fix those problems would come later. First, Jose needed to work on another passion. She headed to the UK, earning a degree in music, before returning to her Kiwi dad, Swedish mum, and two sisters in Hong Kong. When a cocktail bar she was working at needed a singer for a cover band, Jose put her hand up. When they opened a bar in Singapore, she moved there.
It didn’t take long for other opportunities to come calling, and Jose took a job as a money markets broker.
Then the Global Financial Crisis hit.
“I saw how the banks were bailed out at any cost, while people that were struggling didn’t get any help. It didn’t seem fair. I had to do something more meaningful.”
So she farewelled the finance world and moved to Sydney with her husband to follow a new path, spending three years with an international conservation charity protecting threatened wildlife after completing her Masters in Environmental Management.
Jose is Driven by Doing Good
“It’s good to feel like you are making a difference. In the end, you either show up, or you give up. I always feel less anxious when I feel I’m part of the solution.”
She volunteered for Plastic Free Manly, creating events and driving change alongside a group of committed locals that also included Gotcha4Life’s now CEO, Bel Elworthy.
Jose shifted focus from planet to people after having her first child, spending a year as Lifeline’s Events Manager on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, running events to support suicide prevention and bringing 42 schools together for a youth forum on mental health.
She’s come to realise the best way to help the planet is to help people.
“Healthy and resilient people are the ones who change things. People who are struggling don’t have the strength to do that. You have to build people up if you want to change the world. You have to empower people.”
Jose’s momentum was unstoppable. She started her own not for profit business, helping charities and community groups deliver projects and services to the most vulnerable, including the homeless, victims of domestic violence and refugees.
The Impact was Profound
Jose helped set up a drop-in youth hub, providing access to a range of mental health service providers where there were none.
She supported the Layne Beachley Foundation to empower girls through financial and mentoring support and through this relationship climbed Cradle Mountain, Tasmania, in an epic fundraising adventure challenge.
And she helped a little not-for-profit foundation just getting started. Gotcha4Life.
When an opportunity came up to join Gotcha4Life in 2021, Jose jumped at the chance - and now brings her incredible experience, warmth and energy to our foundation every day.
“The potential of the organisation is so exciting and I feel I’m finally part of something that could be massive. It’s wonderful being part of something that’s having such a profound impact on hundreds of thousands of people each year, and that is growing sustainably to increase this.”
It also feels like home.
Jose has lived in more places than many of us visit in a lifetime. Hong Kong. New Zealand. Borneo. UK. Singapore. Australia.
But growing up in a global family that moved about meant she missed a sense of belonging in any one place.
“I never had a home to go back to. My sisters and I felt quite lost. You can go off and have adventures, but you have to have a base, somewhere you feel you belong. Your village.”
Globetrotting Jose has found her village at Gotcha4Life. And we’re all the better for it.
