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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-03-20 Daily Xml
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MISSION AUSTRALIA

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (15:17): I rise today to speak very briefly—

Members interjecting:

Mr ODENWALDER: —that was pre-emptive. I haven't finished yet—about an organisation that is familiar to everyone in this place, or should be, that is, Mission Australia. We all know the good work that Mission does generally looking after the most vulnerable in our communities and also and especially the work they now do in the employment space.

I am pleased that Mission Australia is now running several new programs from their new Community and Family Services Centre at Elizabeth. The service, as everyone there knows, is up and running already and going very well from all reports, but it will be officially opened by the mayor next week. The new services are largely based around supporting vulnerable and young families, and I just want to outline a few of them to the house.

The Playford Secure Families initiative is part of the Pathways to Strong Families and Healthy, Happy Children program. The Playford Secure Families initiative provides case management support to assist families to manage issues such as income, health, relationships and drug and alcohol issues that might affect the role of parenting in the home. It provides what they call 'free attachment based playgroups', where parents can meet other parents and make friends and share ideas about parenting and where children can get a chance to learn and grow through play with other kids, and it has volunteer family support workers who provide support to families in their homes by visiting and helping parents to establish routines that help children grow and thrive.

The Kids on Peachey program incorporates a staying safe education program into a range of fun activities so the kids can learn about health and safety and wellbeing in a fun and playful environment. This is targeted at children aged five to 12 years who reside in the City of Playford. The Kids on Peachey program (and, of course Peachey refers to the Peachey Belt in Elizabeth but it is not exclusive to people living in that area: it is just based there) looks at the needs of the child as a whole, and includes health and wellbeing information.

The program also provides opportunities for children and their families to participate together. It is located at the John McVeity Centre on Peachey Road, which is a place close to my own heart because it is where my son went to kindergym, and he helped the operators there rewrite the health and safety guidelines on a weekly basis by falling off everything.

Mission Australia's Elizabeth Dad's Shed also forms part of the broader Pathways to Strong Families and Healthy, Happy Children initiative. The Men's Shed aims to actively engage fathers or other significant males (such as grandfathers, uncles and carers) in the lives of their children and to help strengthen that attachment. That is good for both the male adults and also the kids; and I think it is probably something that can have untold lasting positive effects. This program is run in partnership with council, Anglicare and also Bunnings, which hosts Dad's Shed workshops on Thursday evenings during the school term at their Munno Para store.

Mission Australia at Elizabeth also runs a community rehabilitation project as part of its Pathways Away from Homelessness initiative. This project involves intensive non-residential services and activities that include group programs that focus on strategies around substance abuse and relapse prevention. It also focuses on more general life skills, employment and education pathways, and connections to recreation and communities. In some cases, they work on rehabilitation services, which include the development of individualised programs and also access to a range of group programs.

Finally, they also provide more general drug counselling, both one-on-one and in group settings. They work in partnership with the client to identify patterns of use, strategies for change, relapse prevention and to build on the client's existing strengths and the resources that might surround them. I congratulate Kim Holmes and the Mission Australia team that is working in Elizabeth who are doing so much to help the most vulnerable in my community in the north.

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