the best start in life - SDN Children's Services

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Families and communities are strong & caring SDN provides 8 family capacity-building services for 562 families: 277 supported in 4 Brighter Futures Early Intervention Programs 138 Child and Family Resource Centre, Granville 12 Child Care Links at Riverwood 135 Partnerships with Parents Program and Poet’s Corner Preschool Project SDN has a long history of working with disadvantaged families and communities from our earliest days 103 years ago. Our current approach to integrated service delivery has grown out of our evaluation of the Parent Resource Program and, more recently, an investigation of the success factors of our Family Resource Centre in Granville. Both evaluations demonstrated that working in an integrated way, across professional disciplines and from a mainstream base, focusing on families while still being child-centred were all contributing factors to enhanced family functioning and better outcomes for children. Significantly these findings are backed by international research, which also shows that early intervention programs that use multiple interventions work better than those using a single intervention strategy. SDN’s family capacity-building services work closely with families at all levels of our model of integrated services. For example, at the Child and Family Resource Centre in Granville our work with families ranges from giving advice about play and play materials (base/ mainstream/ preventative level), to modeling play and interactions, coaching, holding workshops, facilitating connections and exchanging information (middle/ supportive level), to individual family support (top/ intervention level). With our Brighter Futures program we facilitate the placement of children into a centre (base level) while providing case management to families in crisis, organising other specialist support services they may need (top level). Three examples of our program work follow. The Brighter Futures Early Intervention Program Results for families from working with our Brighter Futures staff include: • reducing the likelihood of family problems escalating into crisis within the child protection system • improving parent-child relationships and the capacity of parents to build positive relationships and raise stronger, healthier children • breaking intergenerational cycles of disadvantage • achieving long term benefits for children through improving educational outcomes and employment chances. Brighter Futures South Sydney is well received by families according to Area Manager Lynne Bennett: ‘In June, we had four young women arrive at the front door of our new office and want to self refer as they had heard in the community from friends and professionals that we are running a great service. One young woman said that her friend, who is in the (Brighter Futures) program, felt welcomed, supported and included in assisting her to change the way she does her parenting. It is really encouraging to hear that families say we are helping them, and that they feel respected and involved in making changes for themselves and their children.’ 16 the best start in life
Linking up services for children & families The Family Resource Worker, based at our Granville site, is employed to work across three programs – PlayLinks, the Early Learning Program and the Child and Family Resource Centre. This role has helped families to access more of our programs. Here, Family Resource Worker Megan Turner talks about how one mother and her children have been supported. ‘Aida* joined PlayLinks because she was worried that one of her children, Sophie* (3 ½), wasn’t talking much and was difficult to understand. She’d heard about PlayLinks from another organisation that hadn’t been able to help. She started coming to our groups with Sophie and her youngest child, Annie* (1 ½). Each week we were able to show Aida strategies to use to help Sophie with her communication and her social interactions. We also talked to her about concerns we had for Annie, who was having trouble moving from one activity to another and was having angry outbursts. Over time we became concerned about Aida. Sometimes she seemed frustrated and appeared to be having difficulty coping. During this time, she discovered that she was expecting another baby. This pregnancy had come at a very difficult time for the family and we were the first people she’d told. As the PlayLinks Family Resource Worker I offered to visit Aida at home between PlayLinks groups to help her plan for the arrival of the new baby. Aida and the children made substantial progress. I worked with her on strategies to lessen the stresses at home and to build capacity to cope. She also worked with the PlayLinks Speech Pathologist to build Sophie’s and Annie’s communication skills. Aida has now decided to join SDN’s Early Learning Program for more intensive early intervention. With the support of SDN staff, Annie will start child care before the arrival of the new baby. Aida has realised that the children are more relaxed when she is more relaxed. SDN’s Child and Family Resource Centre held an Open Day that was advertised to the PlayLinks families. Aida attended the day with her children and joined the toy library. Now she is attending the Child and Family Resource Centre’s Stay and Play sessions – and I support her as needed. She has invited her sister to come with her, and she has joined the Child and Family Resource Centre too. Coming to the toy library and Stay and Play is now something that they share together as sisters.’ * not their real names ‘Stepping Stones’: A new step for SDN This innovative program began in February 2008. Here, SDN’s Deb Mann, who has been seconded from her position as SCAN Manager to establish and run the Stepping Stones project, talks about the program. ‘Stepping Stones gives children and adults opportunities to make small changes that lead to bigger things. Children are stepping from home to small playgroups and from there to a range of early learning environments. Adults are stepping from home to a small learning environment and from there to running their own playgroups.’ The project has three parts: playgroup facilitation training for young Aboriginal women in inner Sydney, based at the Alexandria Park Community School; and a supported playgroup at the Aboriginal Children’s Service in Redfern which, on parents’ request, expanded to include a unit in parenting. Significantly, Eora TAFE provided this through their TAFE Certificate 111 course, offering an entry point for young parents to move onto further education. The Aboriginal Playgroup Facilitation course ‘This course has given 12 women an opportunity to develop their confidence in working with groups of young children. It’s enabled them to gain knowledge and experience in running playgroups, as well as first aid and other community support skills.’ The course, held at Connect Redfern Community Centre at Alexandria Park Community School, is a partnership between SDN, Mudgin-Gal and Connect Redfern. ‘We have worked collectively with community educators and mentors to adapt the course, and the graduates now have the skills to mentor young women and others in their community.’ In a major endorsement of the success of the program, the school has now decided to employ one of the graduates to run an Aboriginal playgroup. Children’s Playgroups A supported play session was provided for local children in conjunction with the Aboriginal Children’s Service in Redfern and Bankstown TAFE. ‘Being able to engage Aboriginal child care workers for the playgroups has provided meaningful links for the children, and the involvement of the Bankstown teacher and students has enabled high staff to child ratios and created a really dynamic learning environment.’ One of Stepping Stones’ aims is to develop better connections and links between local service networks, especially between non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal groups, enabling a sharing of knowledge between the women, the teachers, the community and SDN. To this end the program offers Early Childhood Scholarships to support the enrolment of Aboriginal children in our centres. ‘Another way we develop better links is through small group visits, such as when children from the SDN Redfern Child and Family Learning Centre come to play with us.’ It’s great to see families and communities being strengthened through this project. Stepping Stones gives children and adults opportunities to make small changes that lead to bigger things SDN ANNUAL REPORT 2008 17
Page 1 and 2: the best start in life ANNUAL REPOR
Page 3 and 4: conTENTs Mission/ Values/ Vision/ P
Page 5 and 6: Achievements for 2007-08 For childr
Page 7 and 8: SDN ANNUAL REPORT 2008 7
Page 9 and 10: Early Childhood Australia, NSW Bran
Page 11 and 12: SDN’s model of integrated service
Page 13 and 14: SDN Erskineville Early Learning Cen
Page 15: SDN Redfern Child and Family Learni
Page 19 and 20: This year Michelle began quarterly
Page 21 and 22: Conference Presentations • Chang,
Page 23 and 24: Financial Highlights The surplus fo
Page 25 and 26: Board of Directors The Directors in
Page 27 and 28: We thank everyone who gave permissi

the best start in life - SDN Children's Services

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