Fantastic Turnout for Fishing by The Lake

Wow! What a great night we had at Fishing by the Lake last Friday night. It was a bit hard to count but we think we had more than 70 children and their families turn up at Pelican Park on Lake Illawarra, that is over 130 people.

The night was a joint effort between Katie from the C4C Family & Community Engagement (FACE) program, Janelle and the C4C Aboriginal Community Engagement (ACE), Layne the Police Aboriginal Community Liaison Officer (ACLO) and the PCYC. Watched over by Tessa & Judy from C4C.

Invaluable assistance came from Steve, Andy and the team from Fishcare Volunteers who brought along prizes for the lucky door prize, their information caravan and their expert advice for any novice who needed help to get their line in the water.

Thanks to Mark & Mark from PCYC for organising the fishing equipment and providing the BBQ trailer. A BIG thank you to Uncle Gerald & Uncle Alex from the Illawarra Koori Men's Group who cooked up the barbecue sausages and patties. What a team!

Feedback from families has been very good, lots of people want to do it all again, one mum said she had never been fishing before and just loved it. My own granddaughter Freya is certainly 'hooked' even though she didn't catch anything she had lots of fun trying.

The hero of the night and the winner of the Best Catch was 13 year old Leeton (pictured) with his Flathead. Leeton won a fishing rod and took his catch home for tea.

We look forward to seeing everyone back at Fishing by the Lake on Friday 20th May as part of KidsFest 2011.

Tessa

Welcome Back for a Great New Year

Hi Everyone

Welcome back to the C4C Blogspot for another year. Firstly our hearts go out to everyone effected by the floods all over the country. There are many opportunities to offer support coming up and we know you will all be very generous.

The weather has not been so dramatic in Shellharbour but we hav had quite a bit of rain and unfortunately this affected the first event of 2011. The team from Park and Play and Katie from FACE planned a session at Koona St in Albion Park Rail on 13th Jan but it was just too wet and miserable. That was not the case the following week when a good crowd turned out at Stewart Place, Barrack Heights.

The morning started with a wonderful example of Good Neighbourliness when John, who lives next to the park, got out his mower so that the children had a clear space for their ball games. The children soon got stuck into all the great activities set out for them and later in the morning Craig and Megan from Council arrived with the BBQ to provide yummy sausage sandwiches for lunch. "Thanks Craig!"

All the children had fun making colourful masks and to finish off there was a sing-a-long and story time. The best bit was when Jack let some of the kids try out his guitar.

Fingers crossed for fine weather on Tuesday 25th January at Cove Park Shellcove. See you there

:)

Tessa

Child Friendly by Design Toolkit Launched

Congratulations to Healthy Illawarra's Debra Langridge, Geoff Woolcock, Prue Walsh, Elle Holder-Keeping and every single person who contributed to the development of this fantastic and unique resource.

Over 80 people enjoyed a delicious breakfast and the stunning facilities at Ravensthorpe Guest House in Albion Park for the launch ceremony.

Local Members of Parliament Steven Jones MP (Throsby) and Matt Brown MP (Kiama) spoke and the Toolkit was officialy launched by NSW Commissioner for Children & Young People Megan Mitchell.

The launch was followed by a demonstration workshop that generated some lively discussion and reminising on childhood escapades!

Debra and team will now be offering facilitated workshops to other Local Government areas, developers and community groups.

Tessa Parsons

program Manager

Family Gathering at Barrack Heights Community Garden

On 6th October 2010 Barrack Heights Community Garden hosted a family day attended by visitors and local residents.

Shellharbour Council Community Services , Access Community Group, FACE, Housing NSW, NSW Police Community Liaison, Barnardos C4C, Baptist Community Services, Park & Play and Illawarra Children's Services Barrack Heights Children's Centre joined forces to create a great atmosphere at the garden.




Proud volunteers conducted talks and tours of the garden, Katie & Kac provided face painting. Wendy supplied her ever favourite 'Slime'. The police Community Safety van was there with lots of information and Craig's Good Neighbour BBQ was most popular.


Park and Play were on hand with craft, games and activities. Children and adults all joined in with the drumming sessions and some budding architects made teepees and decorated them with materials from the garden.




The Garden is open to everyone, especially residents of Barrack Heights and new volunteers are welcome. Working Bees are held every second Tuesday from 2pm - 5pm. Contact Aileen or Megan at Council for more information ph 4221 6170.


Tessa

Welcome Janelle Brown

Please welcome our new member of the C4C team Janelle Brown.

Janelle has accepted the position of Aboriginal Community Engagement Facilitator. She will be working 21 hours a week to assist C4C activities to be responsive and welcoming to Aboriginal families and to engage the Shellharbour Aboriginal Community to make sure they are aware of all the opportunities available for families.

Janelle is well known and very well connected in the local community so we are very excited to have her on the team working with us towards "The Best Possible Start in Life for Children in Shellharbour City"

You can contact Janelle on 4295 4268 or jbrown@barnardos.org.au

Tessa

C4C Program Manager

Fun in the Sun for Child Protection Week

On Friday 10th Sept The team from Park and Play were at Little Park Shellharbour with some extra friends and helpers to promote safe and healthy fun and games for families.

To celebrate Child Protection Week 2010, C4C Community Development Facilitator Judy organised for Craig and the Good Neighbour Crew from Shellharbour Council to provide a BBQ lunch. Ryan and Beth from Pink Fox Face Painting were also on hand to provide free fancy decorations for hands and faces.

Once again proving that Shellharbour is a Child Friendly City there was a great turn out of 48 adults and 51 under fives! The weather was kind and the rain held off till after everyone had gone home for a rest.

Thanks to Glenda and Fiona from POPPY playgroup who brought their group and helped with games.

They are under there somewhere!

Tessa

Introducing Katc Medenis

We are very happy to welcome Katc Medenis, a TAFE student studying Community Services, to C4C.

Katc will be with us for the next couple of months. She is taking on some research/evaluation work for us while she is on placement and will be working her way around to all the Community Partner activities. You will be able to meet Katc at the C4C meeting on Wednesday 8th Sept at the PCYC.

Tessa