Category: News

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.

Last week, South Coast Childrens Family Centre held their Open Day to launch the new children’s garden play area, the Lilli Pilli room. The playground was transformed into a natural and calm environment for families and children to connect with nature and build strong relationships. They had a stall in front of the centre and welcomed the community to have a look and a morning tea for all.

The ceremony was hosted by Program Manager Lisa O’Grady-Back. It started off with a Welcome to Country by Aunty Lorraine Brown, followed by speeches from CEO Deirdre Cheers and Centre Manager Maria Corsiglia. We even had a special visit from MP Paul Scully Member for Wollongong, Shellharbour Mayor Christ Homer and Barnardos Board Director Professor Fran Waugh.

Thank you to the South Coast team for all their work in putting a great event together.

See the 20-second video on Instagram

Last Thursday, we were so proud to launch our STRETCH Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) 2023-2025. This is an important journey for all of us.

This is Barnardos third RAP. We’ve achieved so much but there’s so much more to do. The important relationships we have built will inform this work.

As part of our Ceremony, our special guest Brendan Kerin from Metropolitan Aboriginal Land Council welcomed us to Country and held the Smoking Ceremony. Followed by a presentation hosted by Melissa Bell, Executive Leader, Practice Quality which included the following speakers:

• Deirdre Cheers, CEO
• Rick Macourt, Board Director
• Kerry Moore, Senior Manager, Special Projects
• Members of the RAP Working Group: Zanette Clements & Catherine Turner

Thank you to everyone involved for your ongoing commitment to this process.

View the RAP

Harmony Day at Canberra Children’s Family Centre

Office Administrator Tegan Gilliland describes the day below:

“The Canberra Centre celebrated Harmony Day yesterday with a morning tea for our staff. Our centre works with families and has a range of staff from across many different cultures. We talked about how different cultures raise families and traditions. Some of the foods we had ranged from Greek, Asian, Scottish, Turkish and English.

Harmony Day is a time for everyone to celebrate the enormous benefits of multiculturalism. The day recognises the importance of cultural respect, participation, and inclusiveness for everyone who calls Australia home.”

Harmony Day with HIPPY Wellington

HIPPY Coordinator, Hayley Lambourn shares their activities for the day:

“HIPPY Wellington held a parent group and celebrated Harmony Day by making a tree out of handprints that they decorated.”

HIPPY is a two-year, home-based, early learning and parenting program. It provides a structured education focused program which lays the foundations for success at school and empowers parents to be their child’s first teacher. Parents delivery the education packs to their child with the support of their HIPPY tutor.

Harmony Lunch at Auburn Children’s Family Centre

Centre Manager, Grace Wong says:

“Happy Harmony Day from Auburn!

Harmony Day is about celebrating cultural diversity. And you can’t celebrate cultural diversity without food! Today at Auburn, we all brought a plate of food to represent our own cultural identity. We had a great time talking to each other about how we would cook that food at home, and where we could get that food from the restaurants or the shops.

Apart from food, music is probably the next best thing that brings people together. Fadi surprised us all with a drumming performance! The whole room lit off with some awesome dancing from our Transitional Accommodation Program (TAP) staff. What a show that was!

We are now full with food, entertainment and laughter. I hope your Harmony Day was as good as ours :)”

Last month, Barnardos Sydney Metro Program Manager, Vik Craig and Acting Centre Manager, Anna Hoyles joined 200 representatives, including young people and representatives from the Youth sector for the NSW State Election Forum: What matters for young people.

Participants heard from Felicity Wilson (Liberal Party), Julia Finn (Australian Labor Party) and Dr Amanda Cohn (The Greens), who spoke about their platform and plans to address issues relevant to young people. Following this, there was a diverse panel of young people who spoke about the issues that matter to them in the election.

The primary issue that came up over and over again was the cost of living pressure and how this is impacting the day-to-day life of young people. They also discussed access to health and mental health services, disability services, supports for refugees and migrants, education, youth arts and domestic violence.

One young person received applause for suggesting that parties be required to inform young people of previous election promises and how they have followed-through with these, just to be sure they are held accountable. Most of the young people raised concerns that minimal education is provided for them on how the government and election processes work.

The main message that Vik and Anna walked away with is just how aware, engaged and driven these young people are to ensuring a stable future for their generation.

Last Thursday, the Auburn Early Learning Centre celebrated Holi.

​​​​​​​Holi is a Hindu festival that celebrates spring, love, and new life.

Some families hold religious ceremonies, but for many Holi is more a time for fun. It’s a colourful festival, with dancing, singing and throwing of powder paint and coloured water.

Holi is also known as the “festival of colours”.

For the children at Auburn, it was a day filled with colour where they created a beautiful brightly coloured piece of artwork. They approached culture with humility, respect and curiosity.

The team and kids then all enjoyed a delicious Indian lunch with roti that was made by the children.

It’s been a busy week here at the Barnardos Australia Penrith Centre, part of it was our invitation to an International Womens Day morning tea at Nepean Community & Neighbourhood Services (NCNS) just two doors down.

There were guest speakers who came to share and talk about their stories throughout life, we also had various performers such as the Hamava band, a Bollywood Dancer who got us all up to do some Bollywood dancing and the Hands Heart and Feet who got everyone to join in with some drumming and music together.

We then enjoyed a lovely lunch with many discussions happening around the tables. Followed by a Henna workshop and pottery workshop which gave everyone a chance to learn something new and get some wonderful Henna done.

We always value the opportunity to join in these events, spread the word of what we do and learn so much about what everyone else offers in the community to support one another.