Stronger Families Learning Exchange Bulletin No.2 Spring/Summer 2002 pp.14-17
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In this section, readers are introduced to Stronger Families Fund projects which have recently commenced running. All the projects were asked the same questions, and here are their responses.
The Strengthening Families in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands Project is set in the Blackstone home of the Papulankutja Aboriginal Community. Blackstone is a picturesque community situated between the Western and Great Victorian Deserts and is located within the Ngaanyatjarra Shire. The shire of Ngaanyatjarra is a unique remote local government in that its community of interest is contained within the traditional lands of the Ngaanyatjarra people. Ninety-nine year leases are held by the Ngaanyatjarra Land Council on behalf of the traditional owners and also form the boundaries of the Ngaanyatjarraku Shire.
Blackstone is 800km from Alice Springs via Ayers Rock and has a population of 226 people. The community facilities include a shop, school, health clinic, womens centre, hall, swimming pool, football field, mechanical workshop and depot and a Youth Drop In Centre.
Senior men and women in the community have expressed a great concern for the wellbeing of their children and grandchildren. A number of issues affecting families have been identified by community members and the Ngaanyatjarra Council.
The priority issues include:
The entire focus of the project is to intervene as early as possible to support parents of young children develop their parenting skills. By raising awareness of issues such as nutrition, literacy, numeracy and sharing culture it is hoped that future problems in childhood behavior, health and development will be prevented or minimised.
Three project workers have been employed to work with the community to:
A number of strategies are planned. These include the establishment of a family centre which will provide a base for the project activities and a meeting place for families. A series of community workshops is also planned to encourage the Community to identify and explore ways of addressing those issues impacting on parenting and child development. The first Workshop was recently held at Yulara and facilitated by Waltja Tjutangku Palyapai, an Alice Springs organisation with vast experience in doing good work for families. This workshop was attended by ten senior women from Blackstone Community as well as women from Mt Liebig, Kintore Mulan and Balgo communities. A number of issues were discussed, in particular keeping children happy healthy and strong.
The next workshops will build on this theme as well as examining perceptions of family. The project workers are also mapping current service delivery to the Community by key agencies and developing networks.
The Connecting Families Project is one that looks at seven different communities, all but one of which are set in small rural towns within the local government area of Wagga Wagga. The towns are all under 1,000 population and range from 15 minutes to one hour away from Wagga Wagga. Therefore the worker is very much an outreach community worker based at the Local Council Office, under the Social Development Division. The seven communities that are the focus of this project are very diverse with different needs present in each community (ranging from commuter villages to mill and forestry settlements).
These small rural towns have been identified as having limited access to the services (such as health and child care) within Wagga Wagga. Families needing to access these services must travel into Wagga or neighbouring larger towns, which already have long waiting lists and high demands upon service providers. The project is attempting to identify what is needed within these communities, what already exists, both formally and informally, and to develop ways of catering for these needs.
The project relies on a strong working partnership with the service providers within Wagga Wagga to assist in the delivery of services.
The objective is to empower and strengthen the communities. The project aims to identify appropriate models that can be introduced into the communities to strengthen existing networks and connect families to existing services. The project also works towards the prevention of risk factors for children and families. It is necessary to consult and work with the communities to identify appropriate models and ways of implementing them. At the end of the project, it is anticipated that the models implemented will be able to function on their own.
The project worker has spent much time talking with members of each community, introducing herself and informing them of the project and asking for their feedback on issues that they see are relevant within the community.
The worker has also been networking with the relevant services within the area to identify the gaps that exist and look at the ways in which the agencies provide their services to the communities.
A useful engagement tool used by the worker to consult with one community, located within the city of Wagga was the setting up an activity session for children in the communitys local shopping mall. It was identified as a non-threatening method that the worker could use to ask parents while the children were playing what they identified to be the needs within their community.
This initiative became very successful with the need for childcare being strongly identified. As a result, the activity days have continued to run due to the overwhelming response from the parents.The activity days continue to gain attraction due to the open and public space allowing people to feel free to access and leave whenever they wish. The parents stay with their children while they attend the session and interact with the children and other parents that are there. The cost of these activities is also free which allows families who are unable to afford childcare to access them.
The project worker will continue to work with the communities to implement strategies, encourage strong working relationships between services and the communities and to build a strong community environment for all.
The Illawarra region, which includes the local government areas of Wollongong, Shellharbour and Kiama, is located approximately one hours drive south of Sydney on the East Coast of New South Wales (see map). The Illawarra Child and Family Community Development Partnership covers the Wollongong and Shellharbour local government areas.
Wollongong's stunning natural environment includes pristine beaches and the Illawarra escarpment offers networks of walking trails and dazzling views of the coastline. Wollongong, 80km south of Sydney, is the eighth largest city in Australia and is largely known for its history of farming, coal mining and steel making. However, Wollongong is now looking towards education, information technology and telecommunications, manufacturing and tourism as future industries.
The Shellharbour City area, which nestles between Wollongong in the north and Kiama in the south, is a thriving and diverse community offering growth and opportunity. The City covers an area of 154 square kilometres, located just over an hour's drive from Sydney, and within two hours from Canberra and Newcastle. Shellharbour is bounded by the Illawarra escarpment, Minnamurra River, Lake Illawarra and the Tasman Sea.
The project is a partnership between Barnardos Australia South Coast, Albion Park Neighbourhood Association, and Shellharbour City Council. The project will target high need, vulnerable families in three different housing types. It will measure the impact of different organisational structures on early intervention, prevention and community development outcomes.
The Partnership Project provides three Child and Family Community Development workers based in high need public and private housing estates in Warrawong, Albion Park and Shellharbour.
In Warrawong, the Barnardos' project is located in a medium to high density Radburn style housing estate of 178 households in an old urban area. A community centre located on the estate serves as an outreach of an integrated Child and Family Centre.
Albion Park's project is set in two low density cluster style public housing estates in a semi rural area. No community centre is located on the estates but a general centre is nearby.
Shellharbour Council's private Flinders Housing Estate is newly developed and has approximately 1,200 households. A Child and Family Centre is located on the estate.
The workers will be allowed to individually develop their practice within each of the areas under their respective organisations. Each area has a slightly different socio-economic profile and housing type.
Research will be carried out into child and family community development practice. Action research involving focus groups will be used to address practice, databases to identify service type, and quantum and specific community work statistical measurements to look at the styles of community work undertaken in each area.
This research will specifically target issues of:
The project has just commenced its data collection and analysis, and will report on its interim results next year in quarterly newsletters.
The Redland Community Centre covers the Redlands shire and the bayside suburbs to the south of the Brisbane River. It comprises suburban areas as well as geographically isolated areas (such as Stradbroke Island, the Bay Islands, Redland Bay and Victoria Point). It covers a cross section of socio-economic groups.
The previous work of the project manager identified the need for parenting education through client contact, as parents in the area appeared to be lacking self-esteem and self-confidence in their parenting skills. The Toddler Tactics parenting program was created in relation to this need and was run twice a year in a previous program. However, it was not possible to run it more than this due to funding limitations. The major barrier to participation in this program was identified as lack of child care/minding facilities.
The project is trying to increase the self-esteem of parents of young children and provide these parents with a tool kit of skills that may help them with their parenting. It aims to assist parents to network so they can support each other. Finally, it aims to explore whether, and in what ways, the wider community can be encouraged to support parents.
The project presents the Toddler Tactics six-week parenting course. On completion of the course, the parents have the option of forming a parent support group, or of receiving at home support that can be provided by parent support workers and/or a network of volunteers.
Toddler Tactics is based on the Parents Matter II Training Package, developed through a federal and Queensland state funding initiative in conjunction with the Brisbane Education Centre during 19981999. This course uses a predominantly strengths based approach, starting from where parents are at and acknowledging the strengths they already have through encouragement and praise. This is supplemented by behavioural strategies that examine how parental behaviour affects children. This approach includes elements of positive parenting, anger management and spiritual development.
A steering committee has been formed from management committee members, students, parents and others who had shown an interest in the project. An ongoing and actively involved Reference Group has emerged from this.
An extensive volunteer network has been mobilised to implement the program. Volunteers are actively engaged in providing administration, child-minding and in-home support. A volunteer is also coordinating this network. Volunteers are being comprehensively resourced and have reported increased self-esteem from their involvements. The local paper has been very supportive in recruiting volunteers. The goal of the program is to empower the volunteers.
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