The 2018 Homelessness Week theme is ‘Ending Homelessness Together’. This is a fitting theme that reflects The Family Centre’s (TFC) approach to addressing youth homelessness in Tweed Shire with our community partners.

Homelessness is a national crisis with over 116,400 people affected, an increase of 14% since 2011. 54% are under 34, and 1 in 6 young people aged 15–19 have experienced homelessness.

NSW has both the largest and fastest growing homeless population; there has been a 37% increase in the number of homeless people in the five years to 2016, and a 27% increase in the rate of homelessness. 

In the Tweed Shire, 310 young people aged 15-25 presented to The Family Centre as homeless or at risk of homelessness in 2016–17. In 2017–18, we saw a very slight increase (less than 1%) of young people seeking our assistance.

This is in contrast to the upward national and state homelessness trends and provides an early indication that our collective and integrated Tweed Youth Homelessness Matters Project approach is making a difference.

In the past 6 months TFC have worked with Family and Community Services (FaCS) and Housing NSW to increase supported transitional housing beds from 9 to 16. We have also provided low support, subsidised housing for 6 young people with another 9 approved for housing through the Rent Choice program. This is an increase from 9 to 21 young people who now have the housing stability and support they need to succeed. 

Working closely with our community partners, we are focusing more of our resources on early intervention, increasing supported transitional and subsidised housing options and providing better opportunities to participate in education, training and employment – it is having an impact.

Investment by our partners has allowed us to do more early intervention to prevent homelessness and has given us more time to collaborate with our community on innovative projects that lead to better family, housing, health, education, training and employment outcomes.

Some of the promising results from 2016/17 to 2017/18 include: a 3% increase of young people staying with or returning to family, a 9% increase of young people gaining private rental, a 10% increase of young people gaining shared accommodation, and we’ve seen a 22% reduction in the number of young people who disengage from our service.

Place-based collective impact approaches like the Tweed Youth Homelessness Matters project are an all-of-community effort with a common agenda for change. The results show we are starting to ‘turn the curve’ in the right direction. This is only possible through a coordinated effort to achieve our common goal - to end Youth Homelessness in the Tweed Shire.

We will continue to report on more of the outcomes achieved through the Tweed Youth Homelessness Matters Project in future editions of The Difference.

Thanks to our partners for your hard work and commitment to making a difference to ‘Ending Homelessness Together’.

The Byron Central Hospital and Tweed Base Hospital run Childbirth and Early Parenthood Education Courses running between 4 to 7 weeks. The courses prepare women and their partners for birth and parenting. Information is discussed on subjects such as breastfeeding, labour and what to expect in the first 6 weeks with a new baby.

One session of the course is dedication to new dads, which is facilitated by male family workers from The Family Centre (TFC). The session is a discussion with the new dads focussed on the initial few months following the birth of their child talking about realistic expectations and how they may be affected. There is also talk around how their relationship might change and adapting to parenthood

Family Worker Simon Hall said “The session is often quite light hearted and enjoyable with most dads saying that they find it really useful having some time just for them.”

One month after the birth of the child the family worker makes a follow-up call to see how things are going and to offer any further support if needed to the new family. If you would like to enrol or find out more about the Childbirth and Early Parenthood Education Courses contact:

Tweed Base Hospital 07 5506 7325
Byron Central Hospital 02 6639 9400

It Takes a Town Creative Community Skill Share Sessions are back.

Come along and connect with other people in your community and discover some new skills to enrich your home life and help make ends meet.

The series of workshops are run by locals with a skill, knowledge or craft to share. The sessions include: zentangle mindfulness, nutritious snacks and interpreting food labels and making our own cleaning products.

Mondays 10am–12pm, 27th August–24th September
Murwillumbah Community Centre

Children’s activities and child minding are available. Cuppa and snacks are provided. $5 contribution per family per week.

Places are limited to book please call Paula 0476 837 090

Our playgroups are meeting places where parents & their children can play, share experiences and enjoy the support of other families and our playgroup facilitators.

The Family Centre’s Ballina playgroup has participants with diverse cultural backgrounds. Many are from other parts of Australia, and some are from other countries. One of the Ballina playgroup mums is from India – after having many conversations with our Playgroup worker Ela about her love for her country, Ela asked her to share her stories with the Playgroup.

Ela made a display with images about India to compliment the mum’s stories. The whole of playgroup enjoyed the stories and it was topped off with yummy traditional Indian snacks.

Playgroups are run in NSW school terms in the Tweed, Byron and Ballina Shires.

Monday – Banora Point
Tuesday – Tweed Heads West
Wednesday – Tweed Heads South and South Golden Beach
Thursday – Murwillumbah and Ballina

An exciting opportunity exists for a Support Coordinator with DAISI Services Limited, an NDIS Service Provider. Based primarily on the lower Gold Coast and Tweed, they will deliver services to customers in the Gold Coast and Tweed Shire.

Thursday August 30, 10am–12pm. The Family Centre, Frances Street

FIND OUT ABOUT:

Our people and where we are located

Our work with children, young people, families, schools & communities

Our community activities and our partners

EVERYONE IS WELCOME!

We look forward to seeing you at the info session

RSVP: Tuesday August 28 to (07) 5524 8711or [email protected]

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