Stronger Families Learning Exchange Bulletin No.1 Autumn 2002 pp.10-15
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At the time of going to press, 14 projects had been approved for funding from the Stronger Families Fund. Over the next three years it is envisaged that between 75 and 80 projects will be funded across Australia. We asked those projects which were up and running to answer four questions about what they were doing to provide an introduction for Bulletin readers. Below are the responses from seven of the projects.
This program is located in the largely government housing estate area in the western suburb of Ashmont in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales. Statistics at the local primary school indicate about 24 per cent of enrolments are Indigenous. A local church community had been actively working within the area of Ashmont over the last 20 years. Its interaction with the community by way of breakfast programs, kids' clubs, and drop-in centres had revealed specific family problems which needed extra professional assistance locally to address.
The area of Ashmont is geographically isolated with all the associated problems of social marginalisation. Availability of support agencies, increased networks, and access to teaching programs are necessary to address the issues of abuse and family dysfunction. A safe and friendly environment is needed where community members can seek support to strengthen their own self-help and self-determinism mechanisms.
The program follows a co-location model where key family support agencies are encouraged to offer an integrated service within the local community of Ashmont. The centre aims to provide coordinated services for local residents in partnership with government based bodies, private organisations and the community, covering issues such as parenting, relationship breakdown in the family, domestic violence, adverse effects of drugs and alcohol, budgeting, gambling, housing, education, employment, legal assistance, and access to counselling and clinical health services.
The project seeks to address the needs of a diverse range of community members including people who are unemployed, people with disabilities, single parents and Indigenous people, aiming to strengthen and support parents and families, particularly those with young children up to five years old. In the broad sense the project aims to respond to the need for family support in Ashmont and enhance the building of this diverse range of people into a socially functional and responsible community.
The funding covers the cost of refurbishment and fit-out of a building to provide suitable offices for counselling services, conference space for education programs, and administrative space for the liaison officers. Salaries have been provided for two part-time community liaison officers, one Indigenous. The liaison officers will build links with agencies which might offer their services from the centre, and offer education programs appropriate to local needs. The education programs will address issues of lack of confidence/self-esteem, and teach parenting skills and other skills that benefit the social, physical, and emotional well-being of family members. Needs analysis and impact studies will be undertaken concurrently with programs.
More generally, the liaison officers will aim to maximise the benefits of an interagency approach to meeting expressed needs, and conduct outreach to the community to encourage them to use relevant services.
The program is auspiced by Anglicare Canberra and Goulburn Youth and Family Services.
The Enfield Child Care Centre (next to the Enfield Primary School in Adelaide, South Australia) offered long day care and out of school hours care for children aged up to 13 until its closure in June 1999. The Child Care Centre is owned by the Department of Education, Training and Employment and is not currently occupied. The existing child care facilities will be used to establish a new model of service provision for children and families in the Enfield community. The programs and services provided will be designed to respond to the needs of parents and children.
The Enfield community has a high rate of unemployment and youth unemployment and a large proportion of disadvantaged households in the form of single parents, high proportions living in public housing and households suffering financial stress. Research strongly suggests that early intervention for young children is extremely significant in preventing later failure in educational attainment, the reduction of unemployment and in enhancing the ability to participate positively in society.
The Enfield Child Development and Family Centre aims to provide a broad and integrated array of supports to families and children in one of the most disadvantaged communities in South Australia.
It will provide flexible and sustainable services for families by employing a coordinator to establish a framework to facilitate and coordinate health, care, and educational opportunities for the families with children aged up to 12 years residing in the areas around the Enfield Primary School. The Enfield Child Development and Family Centre will have a designated leadership position (program coordinator). The program coordinator will take responsibility for the provision and coordination of the programs at the Centre. The Enfield Early Learning Service (EELS) will link with Aboriginal Education, the Enfield Primary School, and provide the opportunity for other services to provide outreach from the site. The service will be a collaboration between the South Australian Department of Education Training and Employment (DETE), Child and Youth Health (CYH), Enfield Primary School and local community organisations.
The following are the goals of the project.
A management team has been formed who will be firstly responsible for the management and development of the Enfield Child Development and Family Centre. It will act as an enabling group which will address issues and develop appropriate solutions to ensure the smooth establishment and operation of the centre. There will also be a local community advisory group who will support the program coordinator of the centre in planning and the day to day functioning of the centre.
The Enfield Child Development and Family Centre will operate on a day-to-day basis under the auspices of the Enfield Primary School Governing Council. It is planned that a sub-committee of the Governing Council will be formed with membership reflecting a range of partnerships in the Enfield Community.
The project is located in the precinct of Goodwood on the mid-eastern boundary of the City of Glenorchy, in the northern suburbs of Hobart, Tasmania. The public housing estate is nearly 50 years old and contains 990 people.
The local population includes high numbers of single-parent families, Aboriginal people, children up to four years old, and unemployed people. Most live in rented dwellings and have a low average individual income. The population is highly transitory.
Community consultation indicates low levels of trust, a high need for community services, and a perception by residents that they have a low ability to influence decision-making about issues that concern them.
The project aims to: build community trust and to develop generational and community links and service infrastructure; ensure community members have a voice, and are self-empowered; develop local enterprise, mentoring and volunteering; and develop programs that renew the community. Renewal programs include facilitating community participation and developing potential community leaders, improving the use of community houses, and developing and implementing early investment programs that provide better opportunities for children.
First, by connecting the community to the project, through building communication, trust, engaging the energy of the community, identifying community needs, recognising and promoting community strengths, and implementing ongoing dialogue with the community.
Second, by developing a plan to support the above process, to identify and skill up potential leaders, develop structures and processes and ensure sustainability.
The project aims to support local residents in highly disadvantaged public housing estates in the bayside suburbs of Melbourne - Highett, Moorabbin, Hampton, Sandringham, Elsternwick and Cheltenham.
The project is needed to develop local networks and support programs responsive to the needs of families on the estates, in consultation with the residents and other service providers.
Via strategies like playgroup social activities and peer support groups, it is envisaged that residents on the estates will establish and improve links with each other and the wider community.
The project is set in Derby in the West Kimberley, Western Australia. Derby has a permanent population of about 3000 people, half of whom are Aboriginal. About 20 tribal groups live in and around Derby. The traditional owners of Derby are the Warrwa and Nygina people. The town has a long frontier history of genocide, with massacres occurring right into the 1930s.
One of the consequences of this recent history is that the community suffers among the highest levels of alcoholism and drug abuse in Australia, poor nutrition, unemployment, truancy, domestic violence, crime and suicide.
Since 1994, the Jalaris Aboriginal Corporation has established itself as a stable organisation in the community, providing low cost food and clothing largely out of its own resources. It is frequently used as a last resort source for emergency food supplies by people who are destitute. Jalaris also supervises Justice Department community service workers.
Truancy is a major issue for about 10 per cent of school children in Derby, and it appears to be a marker for problems relating to the welfare of the children's families. By attracting these truanting children to its drop-in facility, Jalaris hopes to begin assisting them and their families.
Scientific evidence has shown the links between poor nutrition and developmental problems in children. A range of recent studies quoted in the Kimberley Aboriginal Health Plan has found that: 'Dietary deficiencies are still widely prevalent, particularly in children. Maternal malnutrition has long been recognised as contributing significantly to unsatisfactory nutrition and health in infants and young children.' The consequences of this poor nutrition for our target group in Derby are typically chronic ill health, truanting and/or poor school performance.
The evidence of these scholarly studies is reinforced by:
This project was developed following extensive discussions with the people on our Advisory Committee, all of whom consider a nutrition project of the kind Jalaris proposes to be a matter of some urgency for the health and education of the targeted population.
On the basis of its kinship with the community, and the reputation it has developed over the years, Jalaris wishes to target the fundamental needs of the community's children for education, good tucker, safety and health care by providing a centrally sited drop-in facility five days a week. This already happens in a limited, informal way. The local children are frequent visitors to the Jalaris children and their aunties and uncles and their jabby (grandfather), and they get fed as a matter of course if they are hungry. The Stronger Families Program funding will be used to expand and professionalise this present informal service.
Jalaris estimates that there are as many as 200 children in the immediate area, of whom 50 or more are expected to drop in each day (including multiple visits). The kitchen will supply low cost nutritious meals, and sell cheap but healthy snacks like fruit iceblocks, and a small games arcade is available. Having attracted the children, Jalaris will watch for health, emotional and social problems, including truancy, and in association with the relevant professionals begin working to provide assistance.
A number of strategies are planned. These include employing family support workers and a nutrition worker to work with children, their parents, and other family and community members at the drop-in centre; teaching children and their parents to make their own nutritious meals, transport and supervision for children on bush tucker trips with elders; encouraging creative work with children at the drop-in centre; a low-income shop with good food; assistance with budgeting; referrals to other support agencies where needed; and developing networks in the community.
Families NOW is a families information centre located within Beenleigh Centrelink in Brisbane. The area faces extremely high levels of family breakdown, domestic violence, homelessness, crime and drug abuse.
The Families NOW Project aims to assist parents in the local community in a variety of ways. We are exploring the needs of families in our local community and works with other agencies, organisations, the community and businesses to develop strategies to strengthen the Beenleigh and Eagleby community and the families who live in it.
Families NOW works with agencies and schools in the local area to provide parenting workshops and a six week budgeting course. We offer parents the opportunity of doing business with Centrelink without the hassles or distractions of their children, as we have a playroom children can use while parents access the Family Assistance Office. We also have two display boards and many pamphlets on view to the public. We provide referrals to agencies and services for families that require additional assistance. An example of this is a referral to an emergency relief provider in the local area.
We open Families NOW five days a week with the same office hours as Centrelink. We update our information as it comes to hand, and we recruit volunteers as needed. We are constantly monitoring issues within the community to see who can service any gaps.
The project is located in a communitybased setting in the Goldfields region of Western Australia. The Goldfields, categorised as a rural and remote area, is the largest region in the state. The city of Kalgoorlie-Boulder is located 596 kilometres east of Perth and has a population of approximately 32,000. Mining is the major industry within this region, with the Goldfields nickel and gold mining and processing operations employing the largest number of employees in Western Australia's minerals and petroleum sector. The target community for this project is men working within the mining community within the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
Men employed in the mining industry in the Goldfields area have high needs due to isolation, prolonged work hours, family stress, industry-related trauma, long distance travel, and an intrinsically hazardous workplace. The nature of work in the region often draws a diverse range of people to the region. Many families in Kalgoorlie-Boulder do not have an extended family network in town, which can be difficult for parents at home with children. Anecdotal data points to a large number of family breakdowns in Kalgoorlie-Boulder and problems related to behavioural norms (spousal and child abuse, criminal activity, and illicit drug abuse). There are also many men in the region who are non-custodial fathers working in the mining sector and other industries.
Because most services operate within normal business hours, access to health and social services can be difficult for people working 12-hour shifts or shift work. Less job security results in families being moved from place to place to follow employment opportunities.
The project is attempting to:
The project is pursuing its aims in the following ways:
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