Families4Families

Ms DIGANCE (Elder) (15:51): I rise today to highlight the outstanding work of two inspirational community groups who came together for a high tea fundraiser at the Active Elders Association at Ascot Park in my electorate on Sunday. The Edwardstown Lions Club began supporting the young and disadvantaged people of the local area more than 50 years ago. As well as assisting many schools in the nearby suburbs through a variety of projects, the local Lions have lent a physical and financial hand to a host of needy people and worthwhile causes.

Supporting people with disabilities has been high on the agenda for the Edwardstown Lions. One group they have backed since before it even had a name is the Families4Families Acquired Brain Injury Support Network. Families4Families has a stated mission to assist adults who have acquired brain injury and their families, and to build resilience and maximise quality of life and wellbeing by providing them with information, education and resources as well as social opportunities and other family-focused support, including online group discussions and phone support.

Families4Families developer and project manager Dr Jennifer Farnden was guest speaker on Sunday and gave a really moving account of the personal challenge she and her family faced as a result of her husband, Michael, being seriously injured in a car accident in 2008. Prior to the accident, Jennifer ran a jewellery design and manufacture business, showcasing and selling her art. She was also an experienced university lecturer and researcher in business and accounting. She did not expect to become a full-time carer to Michael or that her daughters—Sydni and Cassie—would become carers at ages eight and nine.

Prior to the accident and for more than 25 years, Michael also ran his own furniture business, selling his woodwork on a retail and wholesale basis. He did not expect to have his business closed by a car accident. Michael lost a leg, had an extremely damaged ankle and, most tellingly of all, suffered a severe brain injury.

What Jennifer could not believe in the wake of this horror was that there was no existing support group for families in similar situations to be able to share their fears and their coping strategies. In 2011, Jennifer wrote a submission for a grant to start such a group. She says she somehow managed to talk Flinders University's Community Re-entry Program into being the auspicing agency for the application as well as forming a research team to take on a project as part of the setting up of the support group. The team continues to research the impact of Families4Families today.

In May 2012, the grant that set Families4Families on its way was approved. Jennifer says that the Lions Club of Edwardstown's support as she and her family relentlessly worked for the establishment of a support network was absolutely vital. The service club and family members helped the Farndens make home-made cakes, biscuits, relishes, marmalades and other produce to sell to bus tours of people visiting the family's farm south of Adelaide, to see their home, their art and hear their story in 2011.

Thanks to the money raised through raffle ticket sales, the Farndens were able to host a gathering for people interested in establishing a support group, and this led them to the formation of a management committee. Today, Families4Families has 16 local support groups that run across South Australia in locations including Glandore, Enfield, Mount Barker, Sellicks, Gawler, Mount Gambier and Port Lincoln.

I want to conclude with some of Dr Jennifer Farnden's inspirational words about her own family's experience and the underlying purpose of Families4Families:

We are not families who have had bad luck and who now live in despair. We are families who have had bad luck but who are working to turn that around. We are families who live their best lives possible with brain injury. Some days we fall off the path, but we continue with the journey.

Thank you to Dr Jennifer Farnden for sharing her family's story and to Families4Families for the important work it does, and thank you also to the wonderful Lions Club of Edwardstown for continuing to support those in need in our community and the local area.