New Poster Display for Communities for Children Shellharbour!

Pictured Above : Graphic Artist
Ellie Holder-Keeping

Our new conference poster was presented to us
here today at Communities for Children by Graphic Artist
Ellie Holder - Keeping.
Tessa will be taking the new poster display to the
Australian Child Welfare Agency (ACWA) conference
next week from Monday 2nd August through to
Wed 4th August at Darling Harbour.

Look out for it coming to a venue near you !

Barb

NAIDOC Celebrations

It is NAIDOC Celebration time and the theme is "Unsung Heros". C4C staff and Community Partners were very happy to participate in activities at the Lake Illawarra PCYC on 1st July 2010. The event was organised by a broad team of people lead by Wendy Ainsworth from NSW Community Services. The majority of families participating are engaged with the many family support programs in the Illawarra and there was a presentation to Foster Carers who open their homes to children in need.

Richard Davis gave a Welcome to Country and the Wadi Wadi Mixed Tribe Dancers performed for the crowd. It was great to see the children join in as 'joey kangaroos'. The team from Park and Play were there to showcase their service along with displays from Housing NSW, National Parks and Wildlife, Community Services, lots of games and activities for the children. It was all hands on deck to cook the BBQ and serve the healthy salads and fruit salads. There were also tastings of kangaroo meat, crocodile and damper with native plant jams - my favourite was the Lilipilli spread.

Communities for Children sponsored a native animal display from Symbio Animal Park. Staff brought down a Golden Possum, baby Crocodile, Shingleback Lizard, Water Dragon and a beautiful Python. The children (Big and Small) were fascinated and learnt a lot about these beautiful animals, where to find them and how to look after them.

Tessa

Latest News from CfBD

Congratulations to Deb Langridge on the progress of their project as detailed in the attached letter. Another step closer to a Child Friendly City.

Well done Healthy Cities !

Barb

Park & Play School Holiday Activities

It's that time of year again when school holidays are fast approaching !
The Park & Play Team will be providing their service at the below mentioned parks during these July school holidays and would love to see some new faces.
Come along to either venues :

Wednesday 7th July 2010
Little Park Addison Avenue
SHELLHARBOUR
9.30 - 12.30 (o-12 Years Welcome)
Tuesday 13th July 2010
Drysdale Park Drysdale Road
ALBION PARK
9.30 - 12.30 (0-12 Years Welcome)

Visit the Park & Play link on the Family Services Illawarra Website for more information about their Term Program
www.fsi.org.au/section.content/park-play

Barb

WIDA - Breastfeeding Group at Shellharbour Hospital

Barnardos and the AMIHS (Aboriginal Maternal and Infant Health Service) want to support more Indigenous women to breast feed their babies. Elaine at Barnardos can be contacted on
42 75 85 75 to give more information on the service that is now available to any Aboriginal woman who currently is pregnant or has a newborn baby, be willing to try breastfeeding and attend a group regularly. With support given by way of transport where possible,vouchers as an encouragement to begin and continue breastfeeding, with lots of info on parenting as well.
There are culturally appropriate activities provided by Aunties from within the local community and a chance to form new friendships.

The Groups meet on a Wednesday from 10.30 - 12.30.

If you need assistance in transport please call Sara on 42 95 2417.

Barb

C4C Meeting

Communities for Children recently held their Committee meeting last Wed 9th June at the Headquarters and heartbeat of the Park and Play vans in Albion Park Rail. It was announced that the new Community Partners PCYC and Access Community Group will be delivering the Family Outreach Learning Activity targeting 8-12 Year Olds in Shellharbour. We are looking forward to the next two years of more valuable outcomes for the community.
There were many other ideas discussed with all Community Partners attending.

Barb

Tessa takes a trip Outback

Last week C4C program manager Tessa Parsons took a trip out to Nyngan, (637kms west of here) to present the new Talking Realities Young Parenting program DVD and evaluation report to a group of Barnardos Adolescent Services workers. The group were very interested in the program and are keen to look into the opportunities to adopt this great program.

It is always interesting to visit another site and the two hour drive from Dubbo to Nyngan brought home how isolated these communities can be. The youth workers told us that one of the complaints of the young people is that it is a three hour trip to the nearest McDonalds (some of us city slickers would say that was a blessing!) Severe drough conditions have eased a bit and the Bogan River is full for now, the countryside looked quite beautiful.

While in the area Tessa also took the opportunity to call in on the Communities for Children Dubbo and district program coordinator Rikki Price. Rikki has an office at Narromine and coordinates activities in Wellington, Narromine & Dubbo Shires. They exchanged resources from their sites and compared the challenges and successes of their sites. Tessa is looking forward to showing these beautiful resources at the next C4C Advisory group meeting in June.

Thanks to the extension of C4C funding to 2012 both program managers agree that more sustainable results are being achieved and many more families are better connected to their community and services.