Category: News

Barnardos Auburn Children’s Family Centre was voted the favourite local community organisation in both Lidcombe and Auburn Commonwealth Bank (CBA) branch, twice in a year! As a result, we will be receiving two $500 cheques from Commonwealth Bank (CBA) as a funding boost from their Community Donations Program.

CBA’s Community Donations Program is a nation wide initiative. They have donated over $350,000 in July 2022 to organisations within local communities that make a difference. We were very grateful to be the successful recipient twice in a year. We are fortunate to have these champions for children join us in supporting struggling children and families in our local areas.

Eid Mubarak! Eid occurs at the end of Ramadan, where our Muslim brothers and sisters celebrate by having a special feast and praying together with their family and community.

At Auburn Children’s Family Centre, quite a few of our staff had entered a month of fasting and extra praying, which to them Ramadan means strengthening their relationship with God and showing kindness and patience. To some of us who don’t follow the Islam religion, we simply share the significance of the month by attending the Ramadan Night Market. It’s noteworthy to mention the Ramanda Market at Lakemba is something all of us should attend. It is a massive event hosted by the Canterbury Bankstown Council. You can try all different kinds of cultural food there. For the very first time, I had a camel burger, which surprisingly was very delicious! Few of our Auburn staff have visited the market to join the festivities. We also bumped in a few head office staff at the market as well.

So to all our Muslim colleagues and clients, Eid Mubarak to you and your family.

Introducing our Family Support & Intensive Family Preservation Team at Penrith Children’s Family Centre!

Melissa Cooke is the program manager for this team, but Mel also manages the:

Community Counselling Clinic with Western Sydney University, Legal Clinic with WSU, Art Therapist, Accommodation Program Onsite and so much more!

The team has:

Intensive Family Preservation case managers Hareet Klair & Sneha Suryakumar.

Family Support case managers Tamara McCann & Kristal Kellaway.

Intake & Community Support Worker Simone Reynolds.

Group Work Co-Ordinator Jessica Johnsson.

We’ve currently got 2 students completing placement with the program, Olivia & Mervyn, who have already been a huge help to the team with casework and events.

My name is Tonelle Lewis and I have been at Barnardos Southern NSW (Queanbeyan) since November 2020. My current role is now Team Leader, where I oversee the Family Preservation, Intensive Family Preservation teams and the Youth and Family Support team.

I love seeing the look on the parents’ faces when they share with me their stories of the good parenting choices they’ve made after being influenced by the conversations we have. Seeing parents being proud of what they’re able to achieve by providing their children with better outcomes and lives. Seeing them believe in themselves and develop the capacity to see the world from their child’s perspective. Their faces light up and their voices say it all.

My career has done a full circle – I started out in early childhood education. I studied teaching and worked my way up into a leadership role within the early childhood sector. I was in this field for 13 years. It was while I was in the early childhood field, I got a taste of working with children experiencing difficulties in learning and moved over into the disability sector. I then worked more closely with the families of children with disabilities and supported them to better support their children in everyday living activities. I was in this role for 9 years. I grew a strong urge to want to do more for families so I came across to Barnardos. ​​​​​​​

Funnily enough, as a child I had always dreamed of being a preschool teacher – I loved watching Playschool and always wanted to be like the Playschool presenters. As I grew, I then wanted to become a counsellor/psychologist. The closest I got to my other dream was becoming a Circle of Security Parenting Facilitator.

The most common issue I come across with the families that I work with is the mental health of the parents and the impact this has on their children and their relationships both with their partners and children. The parents’ mental health can affect the style and capacity of parenting, some cases are worse than others, it really depends on the severity of the mental health condition. The other common thing I see is undiagnosed disabilities both in children and parents. This also impacts the parents’ capacity to parent in child-safe ways and approaches.

My hope for the children and their families that I work with is that they have an opportunity to live a life that they can be proud of and that they feel safe, loved, and supported in all that they do. That they can live a life without fear and judgment from others.

My proudest achievement to date is when a mother reached out to me two months after she relocated to tell me how happy she was that I was able to help her. She felt good about the choices she had made to keep her and her family safe. At Barnardos, I hope to continue to help as many children and families to reach their full potential and parents to see their value and worth.

On Thursday 6th April, our Family Support program at Penrith Children’s Family Centre (Cranebrook) held their yearly Easter event and decided to go even bigger this year!

We invited Sweet Peas Cranebrook Childcare and Penrith Council Tamara Children’s Centre to our morning tea as well as the children and families currently working with our Family Support & Intensive Family Preservation teams.

We were extremely lucky to also have some amazing volunteers from the Australian Mutual Bank with one being lucky enough to star as the Easter Bunny!! Lots of photos and fun was had while they searched out playground for easter eggs and goodies!

There were lots of arts and craft activities that the teams put together for everyone on the day, this mixed with lots of yummy food made for an egg-ravagant event with heaps of kids enjoying the fun as well as the adults.