Woman of the Year finalist, Puddle Jumpers CEO Melanie Tate on her fight to help SA’s most vulnerable children

Melanie Tate’s upbringing inspired her to develop a non-profit organisation for at risk youths — and eventually foster a daughter of her own.

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By the time Melanie Tate’s mother was 20 years old, she had three kids under three.

Ms Tate’s dad worked in the army, which forced the family to move around Australia constantly.

“I went to 13 different primary schools,” Ms Tate told The Advertiser.

“It was tough growing up in that environment … but the household had love.”

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She said it was this tough childhood that drew her to working in the welfare sector, where she

saw first-hand the state’s most vulnerable children and knew she had to make a difference.

“I was still coming home (as a kid) to a household, that even if it was chaotic, it was the same people that were there, whereas kids in out of home care go through so many changes in their lives and they don’t have consistent people, they don’t have anybody to depend on,” she said.

It inspired Ms Tate to start Puddle Jumpers in 2012 – a non-profit organisation for at-risk youths providing opportunities and support for children and families through holidays and recreational activities designed to promote personal, social and cultural development.

She is also a foster carer to a beautiful little girl and member of the Zonta Club of Adelaide, the National Council for Women, and the South Australian Children’s Week Committee, where she continues to champion the rights and wellbeing of children and young people.

She won the Silver Award for Women Changing the World in Not-for-Profit Leadership and a Bronze Award for Women Changing the World Leadership at the global awards ceremony in London in 2024.

She is a also a finalist for The Advertiser, Sunday Mail SkyCity Woman of the Year in the Community Champion category.

Melanie Tate at Puddle Jumpers in Glandore. Picture: Ben Clark

“I don’t believe that any child is responsible for where they’re born into,” she said.

While her own childhood inspired the beginning of Puddle Jumpers, it’s the children she’s met along the way that inspires her today.

The 45-year-old, who has three birth sons — Max, 18, Oscar, 16 and Felix, 9 — recently welcomed a one-year-old girl into her family after she was removed from her birth mother’s care.

“I was actually at (her)birth with her young mum and supported her through that,” Ms Tate said.

“I was there when she was removed at birth and we were working for reunification with mum and actually when she was reunified with her mum, I was really proud of that.”

The child, who cannot be named, was later removed again from her birth mother’s care before going into the foster care system and then coming into Ms Tate’s care.

“I wouldn’t want to be another person letting another child down, knowing what could be in her future — different foster carers and residential care or whatever else.

“I’m going into it with my eyes wide open, knowing that I’m seeing first-hand the trauma that she’s been through, by the age of nine months, she’s already had three different homes and I was her third.

“She’s a part of our family.”

The Woman of the Year Award winners will be announced at a ceremony in the SkyCity Adelaide Ballroom — which celebrates it’s 40th anniversary this year — on March 6.

Due to high demand, a limited amount of tickets have now been released to attend the awards. You can purchase them HERE.

Originally published as Woman of the Year finalist, Puddle Jumpers CEO Melanie Tate on her fight to help SA’s most vulnerable children