The Tweed Youth Homelessness Matters Community Campaign kicked off in June last year and there’s been a number of positive initiatives established as a direct result.

One of the great outcomes achieved by the Tweed Community Campaign last year was to help secure, through strong and persistent advocacy, $1.5 million extra funding over the next 2.5 years to support homeless young people across the Far North Coast. This translates into an extra 10 beds and additional housing workers for our Connecting Home service in Tweed, Ballina and Byron Shires.

The Family Centre will be hosting a Youth Homelessness Matters day event on April 18 to celebrate the positive outcomes of the campaign and to thank community partners for the part they’ve played.

The event will highlight some great things our community has achieved for homeless young people in Tweed over the past year and you’ll hear more about these projects and the people behind them.

Of course there’s still much work to do, and we’ll also be raising awareness about the unacceptably high rate of youth homelessness in our community and what we can all do to make a difference.

Since 2006, Australia's peak Indigenous and non-Indigenous health bodies, NGOs and human rights organisations have worked together to achieve health and life expectation equality for Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This is known as the Close the Gap Campaign.

The campaign's goal is to close the health and life expectancy gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous Australians within a generation.

The Tweed Heads Close the Gap event was held at the Tweed Civic Centre on the 21st March.

More than 30 stalls represented various local community and government organisations. Approximately 200 community members enjoyed the day – activities included local entertainment, children’s craft and a free healthy catered lunch.

Close the Gap is an opportunity for The Family Centre to partner with the local Aboriginal and Islander community to raise awareness and support action to Close The Gap.

Thank you to our volunteers and community members who participated in the day.

BINGO! Each Monday at Cherry Street Bowls in Ballina the lucky numbers are called and community generosity flows. For the past 3 years Cherry Street Bowls has donated the proceeds from Monday Bingo to The Domestic Violence Escape and Recovery Fund (DVERF).

The DVERF assists women and their children experiencing domestic violence to escape or access financial support for their children, where they are financially unable to do so and other avenues of support have been exhausted.

Since 2015 donations to the fund have totalled $19,764. Thank you Terre and the team at Cherry Street Sports for your ongoing support and helping those in need in our community.

Budding entrepreneur Josh has started his very own car washing business. Josh first came into contact with The Family Centre through the Connecting Home Program when he was 17 years old – he had left school and was homeless. With the support of the Connecting Home team Josh was provided access to supported accommodation. Over the past 12 months Josh has been building his car washing business – he has obtained an ABN and works up to 3 days a week washing fleet cars for local not for profit organisations including The Family Centre.

Josh is now living independently and is hoping to expand his new business over the next year.

Terri has been a resident of the Tweed for 30 years. A retired draftsperson, having worked on warships in Portsmouth in England, she put her skills to good use for SEQEB (now Energex) for many years, drawing up infrastructure location plans not available before in the Tweed region.

When her role was computerised, she retired and became a volunteer for a number of organisations including Tweed RSPCA and NSW Police where she volunteered for over 20 years working on databases.

In 2008 Terri, trying to help the many pensioners struggling on their pensions, set up a free food stall with donations from local businesses that operated out of the Wharf Street car park. For this work Terri received the Tweed Shire Women’s Service ‘Wonders of Women Outstanding Achievement Award’ in the Aged Care category in 2010.

Terri now volunteers with The Family Centre two mornings per week, her knowledge of local services, attention to detail and database skills are an invaluable resource for our administrative team. Terri is also a member of our Volunteer Leadership Group that meets monthly.

Join us at our next Information Session

Thursday May 3, 2018
10am–12pm
The Family Centre, Unit 1/14 Amber Road Tweed Heads South

Get to know The Family Centre and find out about what we can do together to make change achievable

We’ll talk about:
•  what we want for our community, our values, role, strategic directions and practice  
   principles
•  the ways we work together with children, young people, families, schools and communities

EVERYONE IS WELCOME

parents or carers 
young people
community members 
service partners
students
volunteers, or you might be thinking of volunteering with us

Child minding is available please indicate if you need it when you RSVP

Lunchtime concerts create an opportunity to take time out from our busy schedules to relax and connect with others through the enjoyment of music

The Family Centre has formed a partnership with Ground Control Coffee who supports the concerts and provides a venue and music free of charge to the local community.

The monthly line up is made up of talented local and national musicians and artists who love sharing their creative expression and bringing people together. 

Concerts are held the 3rd Thursday of the month at Ground Control Coffee, 5/29 Industry Drive Tweed Heads