The power to inspire, the ability to rediscover resilience and the opportunity to make a positive influence and difference in the lives of people who have gone through trauma and turmoil.

The Aim

The aim of the Foundation is to raise awareness about the many challenges, the pain, the rejection, the stigma and the suffering that many children, young people and adults go through in their recovery phases.

It's about beginning to educate and bringing to light for loved ones, community members, friends and the general public about the abuse, neglect and trauma that many go through on a daily basis long after the abuse has stopped. As often it is largely unnoticed and more importantly unreported due to the overwhelming guilt, shame, fear, anxiety that many face when they think about sharing their story.

We want to empower all people to find their voice again, gain strength, resilience and the inner fortitude to ROAR again. As traumatic as many of these ordeals are they also present the opportunity to build character, strengthen your resolve, develop your inner strength capacity and redesign your health, wellbeing and your life goals, dreams and aspirations.

Giving all people the ability to regain their self-esteem, self-confidence and their self-worth through experiencing social growth and learning to live their life after trauma. We went to do this through meaningful and inspirational resources, educational material reflective lived experience mentoring circles. With a focus on acknowledgement of the past, removing the guilt, shame, fear and anxiety and replacing it with courage, determination, resilience and HOPE.

Our Commitment: Tiger Conservation

The Purple Tiger Foundation also wants to have a real-world social impact and purpose which is why each year it donates funding to a range of endangered Tiger species around the world through various charities. Whilst we believe in upholding and safeguarding the rights of all people, we also believe in protecting the rights of animals and endangered species, particularly the tiger, which our Foundation is named after.

Through the World Wildlife Fund & The Taronga Royal Zoological Society we donate funding to:

1. Improve the safety, security and wellbeing of Tigers,

2. Support breeding programs,

3. Assist in the protection of their natural habitats and educate people about the challenges they are facing

4. Assist in Tiger conservation.

5. Raise awareness around all Tiger species which are currently threatened, endangered or have become extinct.

6. Protect our favourite Tiger, The Bengal Tiger

7. Ensure Tigers will be around for generations to come

My Sons: The Defenders of Tomorrow

I am equally inspired by all my sons (Sam, Darcy & Archer) but especially my son, Darcy "The Rhino" Wilsmore who has been helping me build The Purple Tiger Foundation for two reasons.

1. His never say die attitude, his incredible resilience, fortitude and soul strength who inspired a whole hospital with his courage, determination and bravery to overcome nearly dying three times in 2022 at John Hunter Hospital.

2. His ability to help people in need, uphold people's rights and show kindness to all people who are less fortunate or are vulnerable in today's society. He thinks not of himself but of others first. He did this even when he was dying and was making out his will to give his toys and belongings to his brothers and to people in need. He wanted his pocket money to go to the homeless people and to the guide dogs.

In 2024 his life came full circle when he was named Rugby Australia's & Land Rovers Defender of Tomorrow!

His love for Rugby is only matched by the strength of his character and his heart and soul.

Programs & Services

We aim to offer in the coming months:

1. Educational resources for children, young people, communities, families and adults to learn about how to cope with traumatic experiences.
2. Develop lived experience mentoring circles to rediscover stolen identities and build resilience and opportunity through empowerment.
3. Adventure Experience Vouchers for children and young people who are victims of crime or experience serious trauma or abuse.
4. Develop opportunities for children, young people and adults who are victims of crime or experience serious trauma the opportunity to re-engage socially and build new meaningful connections through the medium of sport, recreation and outdoor education.
5. Build opportunities for children, young people and adults who are victims of crime or experience serious abuse and trauma to have the opportunity to laugh, be happy and feel excited through the medium of live entertainment, concerts and sporting events.
6. Empower children, young people, families and adults to recognize what happened to them was terrible, to acknowledge it, accept it and then learn how to rebuild their life and move from Victim-Survivor-Achiever-Advocate.
7. A children's storybook which looks at exploring the loss of their identify, the help they need along the way and how like a phoenix they can rise from the ashes and shimmer like a star again.
8. With many more exciting stories, partnerships and customer experiences we are bringing to life over the course of this journey.

So, let's create some fun, excitement, a safe place and happiness again for all people through the power of a community of Understanding and the development of local, national and international Tiger Ambushes.

The Healing power of Coming Out

It took and enormous amount of courage and bravery one Wednesday morning in August 2023 in an Executive meeting to finally come out about my traumatic sexual assault abuse. This was at a time when I thought this group of people might be mature enough to understand my ordeal and my experiences and not be judgmental. As this was the first time, I had the courage to start to talk openly about my horrific ordeal.

No child, young person or adult should have to go through what I have in what I call my past life now.

I was nervous, fearful, scared and frightened of the prospect of coming out and sharing my story which was more a tragedy that something so horrific could happen to a child. I mustered all my Herculean and Hulk like inner strength to finally start to break the shackles that had caged and held me for so long.

I ROARED and come out about my tragic past!

To my surprise and relief my colleagues were proud of me, stood by me and showed a genuine sense of kindness and sympathy that is rare to find in workplaces today. It was a shining example of an organisation demonstrating in a brief moment how they could show a true level of authenticity in their culture and values approach to their employees.

My wife has been my pillar of strength, my strongest believer and my fountain of tears when my soul needed healing. She has repeatedly stood by me and helped me to redevelop my sense of pride, face my nightmares and break through adversity which had held me down for decades.

I saw an opportunity to raise awareness, break down the stigma attached to victims of horrific sexual trauma and experiences by standing up and lighting the path for HOPE!

As the months have gone by, I have challenged myself to break down the mental, social, emotional and physical walls I had erected to protect myself from harm and my secrets being discovered. This has been uplifting, motivating and inspiring with a huge sense of relief as I finally put the rest of my demons out into the sun to break the last remaining shackles of fear, apprehension and control.

The Importance of having a Tiger Ambush 

What I have learned over the decades since this occurred was the importance of having and even finding a strong, understanding, non-judgmental and a forgiving group of people that you can call family. As at times unfortunately the people that you once thought were family or even your closest friends can leave you in the dark at various stages in your life.

In the last couple of years, I have been fortunate enough to start to surround myself with some amazing friends, community leaders and members of my extended family who have stood by me and I am proud to now include them in my Tiger Ambush (another name for a group of Tigers, similar to a Pride of Lions). In these situations, whether it is with family, professional colleagues, friends or workplaces, communication is critical and at times the lack of this will define the breakdown of any support unit.

Many children, young people and adults that have gone through these traumatic experiences don't have the benefit of calling in their Tiger Ambush as many times the actual perpetrators exist within this usual safe space of family, friends and trusted work colleagues or community relationships.

We all have a responsibility to safeguard, protect, support and empower the most vulnerable in our communities, families and in our friendship groups to live beyond their traumatic experiences, as many don't. I was lucky enough to be strong enough to be able to move past the dark times, but there have been times where this nearly didn't occur.

Understanding the Early Warning Signs

As I reflect on my trauma and abuse years it became apparent to me that I needed like so many others a way to find the strength, courage and indomitable will to rise above the abuse, coercive control and the tragic experiences to find my voice to tell someone what was happening to me. but as with most other traumatic and abusive experiences fear can be a powerful weapon to control anyone especially a child or young people.

So, I encourage you all who read this to look for some of the early warning signs which could point to some abuse, neglect or trauma being experienced by someone close to you. There are so many they could be contained in this list but some of the early warning signs could include:

• Weight gain or loss
• Excessive buying and purchasing of materialistic items or products.
• Wasting of money or increased spend thrift habits 
• Physical injuries
• Apprehension or fear when they come into contact with family, friends or community members.
• Dependency or screen time, video games, movies or single player activities or games.
• Reluctance to engage socially.
• Anxiety, depression or fear after hearing about certain topics or events in movies, songs or the news.
• Mood, behaviour, patience or tolerance changes especially in response to seemingly trivial things.
• Self-Harm to themselves or to others.
• Apprehension, confusion or reluctance around physical contact
• Easily distracted and poor sleep patterns including frequent nightmares.

In adults this can manifest into many things which can include domestic violence, reclusion, anxiety, depression, inappropriate boundaries with people and turning to a dependency on food, alcohol, drugs and petty or major crimes to counteract their fear or to act as a coping mechanism due to the absence of a strong and supportive Tiger Ambush.

For me one of my coping mechanisms was transporting myself into super fantastic worlds and learning about modern superheroes, myths, legends and fairytales in movies, comic books and through play therapy with action figures. Thank-you Stan Lee

Star Wars it's worlds, its characters and the idea of the FORCE will forever hold a dear place in my heart as through the years it helped me regain and see the light again. Thank-you George Lucas

Looking to the Future

I have breathed new life in the last three months into my health, fitness and well-being journey to break the last shackle of darkness over me. Due to my serious abuse and trauma my weight has plagued me for decades and in my times of stress like so many eating was my comfort thing in the absence of having a strong, understanding and supportive Tiger Ambush.

It was Ice-cream and dim sims!

As I looked to the future, I saw an opportunity to share my story, hopefully save people that are going through something similar, raise awareness around the stigma attached and empower all to begin to believe that there is life after trauma!

I plan to give back to the people, communities and workplaces that have supported more over the years, whilst looking to encourage others to become part of a Tiger Ambush movement across the nation and around the world.

Through the creation of our Company Experience Social Growth and the creation of our three Strategic organisational pillars of:

1. ESG Mindset Consulting

2. ESG Inclusive Homes

3. The Purple Tiger Foundation

We plan to give back to the communities that we operate in and empower the customers, families and people that we provide services and opportunities to in an effort to encourage them to regain their life, identity and their sense of purpose. Universal Citizenship.

Don't be ashamed of your stripes, wear them with pride and colour them purple so that all people realise you have become a survivor, and your will is stronger than your traumatic experiences.

Providing motivation and inspiration for others to Learn how to ROAR again!