Vale Lynne Wannan AM.

Lynne will always hold a special place for Western Chances as a force who, alongside Terry Bracks, started the organisation.

Excerpt from Terry Bracks AM's speech made at Lynne Wannan AM's funeral: 

"Lynne Wannan was passionate about the western suburbs of Melbourne – she was passionate about the west having as good, if not better services and infrastructure than the rest of Melbourne had, and she was passionate about kids in the west having a university to go to in their neighborhood. To this end she was involved in the many iterations of Victoria University in the late 80s and early 90s – as it evolved from the Western Institute, Footscray Institute of Technology to Victoria University of Technology. She was instrumental in this merger, which also initially involved RMIT. As the Founding Deputy Chancellor of VUT from 1991–1994 she was at the helm helping guide the process and smooth over all the teething problems that come with starting a new institution. Her passion about education and opportunities for young people in the west led to us founding our scholarship organisation Western Chances together – she as the Founding Deputy Chair. I would not have started Western Chances without Lynne. Over coffee we talked about the idea and she was the one who, in her typical style said ‘let’s do this’ and we did. Working hard together in the early years to develop the processes, to work with schools, get stakeholders on board, seek funding. We brought great people on board with us and have been blessed with wonderful staff and board members who will all miss Lynne’s wise words and hard work and laser like view of our long term goals. Over 3,000 young people in Melbourne's west have been able to finish and extend their education and opportunities all due to Lynne’s work – and of course Lynne with her community policy hat on would also emphasise the enormous ripple effect on their families and communities. Lynne was an activist, a leader, a contributor, she has left a legacy from her actions in Melbourne’s west, Victoria, Australia and even Canada...ʺ

- Terry Bracks AM, Chair, Western Chances