Housing crisis in the Northern Rivers
 

The Northern Rivers is in a housing crisis, new research shows that over 12,000 households are experiencing rental stress and more than 3,000 households are on the social housing waitlist. Tweed Heads is the eighth least affordable housing market in the world.
 
“We have over 11,000 children living in poverty in our region and well over 800 young people will experience homelessness this year – and housing affordability is the primary contributor to these shocking statistics,” Mr Boutkan said. “If we don’t act now, thousands of children, young people and their families will remain severely disadvantaged.”
 
Before you vote this weekend check what actions your local candidate is doing to solve the housing affordability issue in your community.
 
See what it is going to take... Urgent housing actions for the Northern Rivers
 
Suicide prevention
 

The Family Centre have been engaged by the North Coast Primary Health Network to manage the implementation of the Tweed-Byron Suicide Prevention Strategy. The focus is on initiating and supporting local responses to reduce the prevalence of suicide. The Strategy has the following 5 priorities:

• Strengthen early intervention through schools
• Improve crisis and aftercare support
• Strengthen the capacity of GPs, frontline workers and professionals
• Develop local, culturally appropriate strategies to identify and respond to those most at risk in the Tweed Aboriginal community 
• Train and equip the community to recognise and respond to suicidality
 
Importantly, we have many residents and professionals actively involved in developing responses within these priority areas. We are focused on strengthening the suicide prevention initiatives that are already underway. We are also initiating new programs, activities and training. If you are interested in participating in any training or programs, please call The Family Centre on (07) 5524 8711
 
Storytime Tee Pee's
 

Recently our Playgroup workers set up a play space in our Amber Road Office. The space has been getting great feedback from little visitors to The Family Centre. One of our young visitors really enjoyed reading in the Tee Pees – she enjoyed it so much our playgroup workers let her borrow the tee pee and take it home.

Creating a comfortable and inviting reading space naturally draws children in and gives them a reason to fall in love with the world of books and reading.
 
Young mums to be

Young Mums to Be is a group for pregnant women under 22 years of age to find out about pregnancy and birth, meet other young mums to be, and to learn about being a mum. The group consists of interactive information sessions, practical exercises and group discussion in a safe and supportive environment.

Recently 3 young mums returned to the Young Mum’s to Be group to share their experiences of pregnancy, birth and being a new mum.

It was a lovely for the young mums to be to see first-hand other young women parenting their babies and sharing experiences.
 
Turning burgers into cash
 

Thank you to everyone who put their tokens in The Family Centre jar at Grill'd Tweed City for The Local Matters campaign. We came in second place which gives us $100. This will go directly into our Creating Opportunity Fund... Thank you to the team at Grill'd Tweed City
 
Staff profile – Kate Binder

Kate is a ball of passion and energy when it comes to talking about her work with young people in our community. Kate has been with The Family Centre since 2008. She first joined the team as a sessional facilitator with REALskills High Schools program. She then stepped into a position as a Youth and Family Worker. In 2015 Kate took over heading up the REALskills High Schools program. While in this role Kate built on and strengthened relationships with the five public high schools in the Tweed Shire delivering programs on respectful relationships, bullying, life skills, resilience and self-awareness.

Kate says the programs are successful because of local schools’ long-term commitment to work with the community sector for their student’s welfare and wellbeing.
 
Kate is now heading up the Youth and Family Services team as a Senior Coordinator. She believes her previous roles in the team give her a better understanding of the work in her team and she feels proud that she is now able to support an extraordinary group of people doing fantastic work with young people in our community.
 
Kate’s passion is community and young people – the biggest shift she has seen is that young people and community are having conversations on real life issues such as bullying, mental health, relationships violence and sexual assault. It is inspiring to have these conversations with young people because they are so willing to talk through tricky parts to share their wisdom and come up with strategies to support themselves and their friends. This engenders hope in Kate that it if it is a natural conversation for them now we are more likely to see caring relationships and stronger communities in the future.

Kate pictured with Uncle Jim
 
Creative community skills share
 

Do you have a skill that you would love to share with others? We are inviting people who would love to give a few hours of their time toward teaching a small group a new skill. It could be cooking, gardening, origami, sewing, collage, budgeting. Whatever your interest might be. You do not have to be an expert, just a willingness to share your skills and knowledge in a relaxed and informal setting. Sessions will start in Term 2 on Monday mornings. It Takes a Town will cover all the cost of materials. If you are interested in sharing a skill contact Carmen Stewart on 0438 140 589.
 
Volunteers we need you – Bunnings BBQ

We are looking for volunteers for our annual Bunnings BBQ on Saturday April 6 at South Tweed Heads. This is our best fundraiser of the year and great way of raising a significant amount of funds quickly to support children and young people’s activities via our Creating Opportunities Fund.
 
If you are a super sausage flipper, a friendly server or a fabulous organiser and can give of a few hours please call (07) 5524 8711 or register below
REGISTER HERE
 

SELF ESTEEM FOR WOMEN

Saturday 25thMay and Saturday June 8th– 9.30am-3.30pm

Do you feel self-conscious or anxious? Do you fear meeting people?
Are you struggling to control feelings of worthlessness and negative self-talk?
Want to feel con dent in your interactions with others?

WHAT’S THE COURSE ABOUT?
Self Esteem for Women is a course that assists you to build self-esteem providing the knowledge and skills to develop a healthy sense of self.

WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT?
Through information sessions, practical exercises, group discussions and brainstorming we will explore:
• The nature of self-esteem and why it’s important
• Our ‘boundaries’ in relationships and interactions
• How self-talk impacts on self esteem
• The impact of our communication style on our self esteem
• Meet with other women facing similar issues in a welcoming environment and learn from each other.

WHAT WILL YOU LEARN?
• Skills to deal with negative self-talk
• Communication and assertiveness skills
• How to say no without feeling guilty
• How to identify and set our boundaries and the connection to our self esteem
• Strategies to identify and face fears

VENUE: THE FAMILY CENTRE, AMBER ROAD.
COST: $30 (includes lunch) 

Child minding is available for all courses
Bookings are essential please call (07) 5524 8711