Our centres
Our early learning centre in Auburn had a delightful day celebrating Diwali! The children engaged in creating collage Rangolis and crafting traditional Rangoli patterns using vibrant powdered colors. They also dressed in colourful traditional Indian outfits and learned about the significance and customs of Diwali during group time. To top off the festivities, they participated in making and cooking roti, which was enjoyed for lunch alongside delicious butter chicken.
This celebration highlighted the importance of cultural inclusivity within our early learning centre. By sharing the traditions of Diwali, we cultivated an environment rich in diversity, respect, and understanding. The children’s enthusiasm and active participation reflected their capacity to value and appreciate diverse cultural practices. It truly was a day brimming with creativity, culture, and friendship!
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Congratulations to Vik Craig!
We’re excited to share that Vik Craig, one of our Program Managers, has been shortlisted for the NSW Youth Worker Hall of Fame! The NSW Youth Work Conference and Awards 2024 will be held on 31 October to 1 November.Vik is a committed and fearless advocate for young people and has been instrumental in shaping Barnardos youth support services over the years.
We’re so proud of Vik and wish him the best of luck!Please join us to celebrate and publicly highlight the outstanding achievements of the youth sector with young people.
Learn more at: @youthactionnsw
Warrawong NAIDOC 10th Anniversary Family Fun Day!
The 10th anniversary of Warrawong NAIDOC Family Fun Day finally took place on the 1st October, after being postponed in June. It was a fantastic event that united culture and community and a perfect way to celebrate 10 years of dancing, eating, and connecting with our community.
This year we had 58 registered stalls and more than 2,000 attendees. The day was lively and engaging, showcasing the enduring strength of First Nations people in keeping the spirit alive—Blak, Loud, and Proud.
This year’s theme Keep the Fire Burning! Blak, Loud and Proud – honours the enduring strength and vitality of First Nations culture – with fire a symbol of connection to Country, to each other, and to the rich tapestry of traditions that define Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Warrawong NAIDOC Family Fun Day featured a Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony performed by local Elder Gerald (Uncle Gee) Brown. Entertainment included local indigenous artist’s Matty Walker, Jess Rees & Merve Roberts, dancers – Kugang Djarmbi (Goog – ahn jarmbi), Yidaki player- Floyd Hogg, a free BBQ, arts and crafts, children’s activities, information stalls, giveaways and a St George Illawarra Dragon’s footy clinic.
Our MC for this 10 year celebration was Elaine Hudson, a proud Darkinjung Woman. Elaine was one of the original Barnardos founding members of the Warrawong NAIDOC committee in 2013, when we started with 7 stalls and 100 people in our Barnardos car park in Greene Street, Warrawong. Founding Members of Warrawong NAIDOC Elaine Hudson, Kristen Phillips and Kristy Thomas marked this milestone with the cutting of the cake to celebrate the journey. It was incredible to see how much this event has grown in the past 10 years.
The Warrawong NAIDOC Committee has grown considerably and now consists of local services including Barnardos Australia, Illawarra Legal Centre, Warrawong Residents Forum, Coomaditchie United Aboriginal Cooperation, Care South, Wollongong City Council, Mission Australia and Department of Communities and Justice. Congratulations to the committee on 10 years of successful NAIDOC events.
“I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to all the Barnardos staff who helped with setup from the early morning. Our stand looked amazing, and the activities for children received numerous compliments. Thank you to the teams from Warrawong and Shellharbour, assisting Rotary, managing traffic, offering cake, playing with kids, and engaging with other services and families. Everyone who contributed in any way helped keep the spirit alive!” – Maria Corsiglia – Centre Manager
Homelessness in Australia is a growing epidemic, and our children are paying the price
Opinion Piece by Deirdre Cheers, CEO Barnardos Australia.
With inflation continuing to push more families into poverty and increased demands for safe, affordable housing in an unscrupulous market, it is a national crisis that can no longer be ignored.
Our priority at Barnardos Australia is the safety and wellbeing of children. And sadly, children are the unspoken victims of homelessness across Australia. Our Children’s Family Centres have observed significant increase in families going without essentials and unable to afford safe accommodation, with many living in cars or in overcrowded, unsafe housing. Key findings from our recent YouGov survey indicate that 91% of participants agree that experiencing homelessness as a child impacts a person for the rest of their life. Without safety and stability, children and young people cannot reach their milestones and thrive.
The quality of social housing in Australia, or lack thereof, is driving vulnerable families to the impossible decision of turning down properties because they are simply unsafe. Poor maintenance and structural issues are often what many desperate parents face. They are left with the absurd choice of accepting public housing that child protection would deem unsafe or risk homelessness. While recent commitments from the NSW Government have been encouraging, Barnardos Australia is calling on all levels of government to appropriately fund housing options and social support services, to ensure no child falls through the cracks.
While social housing remains questionable, there are close to zero appropriate rental homes available for families in Sydney for under $600 per week. Similarly, housing opportunities in regional areas and other capitals are extremely limited. Affordable housing options are often not affordable for people on a low income or single parent homes. A recent NSW Council of Social Services (NCOSS) study revealed 62% of households and 90% of single parents going without essentials or unable to afford essentials in 2023 (1). High energy bills and increased rents are contributing to debt accumulation Our case workers are regularly supporting families who have accumulated significant debts with AfterPay and similar companies because they have used these facilities to purchase groceries and other essentials. How can we expect them to survive when the rising cost of living continues to increase financial stresses? Measures such as rental subsidies and greater regulation of the private rental market could change the life trajectory of the next generation. We must take action to support families in crisis to ensure their children remain safe and can enjoy their childhood free from poverty and homelessness. If we fail to act, we face a future where the intergenerational trauma cycle continues. Even in cold economic terms this is not a future anyone wants.
Notable increases in domestic violence cases are also driving more people, especially women and children, to homelessness. Often the perpetrator remains in the family home, while the mother and children are forced to flee in an attempt to find safety. A lack of financial support and access to crisis accommodation means that they are left with no other choice but to live in their car, couch surf, or worse – return to the perpetrator. Our YouGov survey showed that 92% of participants agree there should be more housing options for domestic violence victims. By addressing domestic violence and with a greater focus on early intervention, we can prevent those most vulnerable from becoming homeless and keep families together.
The desperation felt by families facing homelessness is palpable. They’re struggling to survive on a daily basis and to secure a safe place to call home for their children. It is not a question of their ability to parent, but their means of surviving in a world where the rising cost of living is forcing more people into hardship than ever before.
Barnardos Australia will always be here to support children, young people and families in need because they have a right to a safe and secure home. We are willing to go beyond the point of crisis to ensure children remain free from homelessness and poverty – because they deserve the brightest future possible. Homelessness in Australia is a growing epidemic, but together we can get to the root of the problem by providing those most vulnerable with equal chances. Social support services just like Barnardos are exhausting all avenues to keep children and young people safe from homelessness, and so it’s time for our government to step up and ensure adequate housing and affordable living for all.
(1) NSW 2023 Cost of Living Crisis Report: Barely Hanging On – UTS and NCOSS, Inequality in Australia: Insights from the Life Chances Study 1990-2024
Linked In – opinion piece by Deidre Cheers
Our CEO Deirdre Cheers receives ACWA Lifetime Achievement Award
It is with pleasure we announce that at the ACWA National Conference Awards Dinner held last night at Doltone House Darling Island, our CEO Deirdre Cheers was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for service within the Children and Families sector.
The award was presented by Minister Kate Washington, with wonderful congratulations from many across the industry. This is a great reflection on Deirdre’s contribution to the Children and Families sector over many years.
And in the words of Deirdre, “Each of us, in whatever kind of children’s special care work we are doing, need to listen closely and carefully to children. Keep working together, but more importantly, keep standing up, and speaking out for children.”
Congratulations Deirdre for receiving this award. Well deserved and we are proud of your accomplishments.
Barnardos x sass & bide 2024 ‘Tribute’ jumper
Introducing the 2024 limited-edition sass & bide jumper ‘Tribute’ in partnership with Barnardos Australia, helping to raise awareness and vital funds with the support of actor, comedian and writer Celeste Barber.
This year, children of Barnardos Yalmambirra Learning Centre in Wellington, NSW, contributed to the design of the jumper by creating face drawings, as a tribute to their dedicated teachers.
The money raised from the sass & bide jumper will have such huge impact on the Yalmambirra Learning Centre and elevate the children’s learning experience overall. We would love to update the facilities which are desperate need of improvements and repairs to make them more kid friendly, as well furniture and play equipment. – Shiree, Yalmambirra Program Manager
Barnados celebrates 60 years of changing young Canberra lives for the better
In 1985, the then Princess of Wales visited Barnados Canberra, to the delight of youngsters, their parents and staff. Photo: Barnados Canberra
For 60 years, it has been caring for Canberra’s kids. Children who have slipped through the gaps, others who find themselves in bad situations through no fault of their own, and even more who, for whatever reason, can no longer live with their families.
Barnados Canberra has been there all that time and celebrates its 60th birthday this year.
Barnardos Canberra opened its doors to vulnerable children and families at 2 Atherton St, Downer, on 29 February 1964. Sixty years later, it has become an integral part of the Canberra community.
Barnados Canberra started in the small Downer house with seven young residents, but as the years went on, it moved away from the residential home operation to work more within the community, offering support programs where they were needed.
In between, it has helped to save lives, improved the lives of young people and their families, and even received royal blessings from the Queen Mother in 1965 and Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1985.
It is a milestone for the organisation which, according to its centre manager, Michael Dunne, is the one that, when others give up, “we stay”.
Mr Dunne, who has been at Barnados for 12 years, said its purpose today remained the same – “putting the needs of children first to improve the situation for families – but the kids are our priority”.
Although times had changed, he said many of the problems had not.
He recalled a case in 1973 when a 17-year-old-boy pitched a tent near Old Parliament House to highlight the plight of the cost of rental accommodation in Canberra.
“So some things haven’t changed,” he said, “although today they are more visible, which forces people to be more accountable about what they’re doing to address the issues.”
The Queen Mother, surrounded by Barnados youngsters, waves to the crowd during her visit to Canberra in 1965. Photo: Barnados Canberra.
With the increase in the ACT’s population comes an increase of those in need of support.
“With the cost of living issues we’re facing now, we’re finding people who need support who may not have needed it five years ago.
“It is very hard for people to ask for help. If they get to that point, we just make it more accessible for them. We need to break down barriers and fit more around the needs of young people than the other way around.
“We are facing new challenges today—the high cost of rent, mortgages, and living expenses. The challenge we face is to ensure that the people who need help are helped.”
Mr Dunne attributed Barnados’ success to its staff, many of whom had spent their entire working lives there.
“One of our program managers has been with us for 36 years, another for more than 30 years,” he said.
“They are very invested in their work,” he said.
“You don’t get rich doing this sort of thing,” he laughed.
“Our people get rewarded by seeing other people succeed.”
Asked what was on the top of his wishlist for Barnados, Mr Dunne said more “boots on the ground”. Additional funding, was, of course, needed, but he said it was the staff who made all the difference.
“We have what we call a ‘no wrong door’ policy.
“That means we get referrals from families, schools, Community Services, Care and Protection, or any source, and if we have the capacity, we don’t turn people away.
“Yes, we always have waiting list and we try to get through it as quickly as we can. If we can’t find support immediately, we try to link with other services.
“We’re like many other services that operate on the smell of an oily rag, and of course, we’d do more if we had more.”
Barnados will mark its clients’ anniversary with a family day next week.
This article was first seen in riotact.com here
The Age: Sydneysiders Trent and Paul defied the odds to become parents
Paul Wood (left) and Trent Schatzmann with two of their three children. They want same-sex couples to have the same opportunity to adopt as other couples. Image credit: Rhett Wyman
As the proud adoptive parents of three siblings, Trent Schatzmann and Paul Wood believe there should not be any barriers for same-sex couples to adopt.
“Families come in all shapes and sizes and the way in which children are provided with a stable, loving home environment should not be determined by sexuality,” says Wood.
The couple from Lilyfield in Sydney, who have been together for 20 years and were married in Switzerland in 2012, knew they wanted to help children in need through permanent fostering or adoption. They approached Barnardos Australia because they knew the agency had advocated for the rights of same-sex couples to adopt.
The couple took in a brother and sister 10 years ago, then aged four and two, then their younger brother a few years later. Initially, they fostered the children, then adopted them. Like all adoptions in NSW, it’s an open arrangement where the children remain in contact with their birth family.
The couple say they have found fatherhood fulfilling, and have been embraced by their local community. They would encourage anyone thinking about having a family to consider fostering as a valuable way to do it.
Yet, in 2024, adoption is still not as straightforward for LGBTQ people as for heterosexual people because much of the work of government is outsourced to private agencies with a legal right to discriminate.
NSW changed the law in 2010 to allow same-sex couples to adopt children, but that law is inconsistently applied.
The NSW child protection system is heavily reliant on third-party providers, with more than 40 different fostering and adoption agencies, in what the Public Service Association has branded a “failed experiment”.
Each agency has its own policies: some only take couples not single people, upper age limits vary, and some openly say they do not place children with same-sex couples. The providers with religious affiliation are legally exempt from discrimination laws, despite being publicly funded.
Last year Australia was criticised in a United Nations report for allowing government-funded foster care and adoption agencies to reject prospective families based on sexuality, gender identity and faith.
In a recent case, Anglicare Sydney, an agency licensed for both fostering and adoption in the Greater Sydney region, refused to assess the aunt of an Aboriginal baby as a prospective long-term carer because she was in a same-sex relationship.
As first reported by The Guardian, the baby was instead placed with a non-Indigenous heterosexual couple and the Department of Communities and Justice recommended adoption.
NSW Minister for Families and Communities Kate Washington has asked for a review of this case and met with Anglicare Sydney to express her concern with its policy regarding same-sex foster carers.
LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Australia legal director Ghassan Kassisieh says: “The outdated prejudice of faith-based service providers must never take precedence of the lives and wellbeing of children.
“As a Christian man, I was offended.” – Dwone Jones
“People should be judged on their merits and not their sexuality, especially when a service provider is acting as an agent of the government.”
When Jay Lynch and Dwone Jones tried to adopt a child in 2012, they found their sexuality was an insurmountable hurdle.
The two men, who are celebrating 20 years together this month and are married, wanted to provide a home to a child in need rather than bringing a new life into the world.
The only positive response the couple received was from Barnardos Australia, but the agency did not cover Tamworth where they lived at the time.
Jones, who emigrated to Australia in part to escape the oppression he felt as a gay, black man in the United States, says he felt “surprised and hurt and angry”.
“We’re in the highest tax bracket and our government is taking our taxpayer dollars and putting it into these Christian organisations that, in my opinion, don’t reflect Christian values,” Jones says. “As a Christian man, I was offended.”
Lynch, an agnostic who grew up on Sydney’s northern beaches, was less surprised though also disappointed. He says if there had been options to adopt in Australia, he and Jones would have a family, but it’s now too late.
The couple also researched overseas adoption only to find many countries barred adoption to same-sex couples as well. They seriously considered fostering and attended a weekend course before realising it was rarely a pathway to adoption and deciding it was not for them.
“I realised that for me, I wanted to be a dad, I wanted to have a family, I didn’t want to be a ‘carer’ and they are two really different things,” Lynch says.
“I really admire people who are capable of providing that care that is so needed for a month, or three months or a year and then be comfortable with the child going back to their own family or to another environment, but it wasn’t something I could do.”
Schatzmann and Wood shared these misgivings, but took the risk. “We had originally wanted to take children with permanent orders, but when we took our [first] two children … it was under temporary orders,” Schatzmann says. “There were some stressful periods at the beginning, but it did become permanent, and then that did lead to adoption.”
However, the couple’s smooth run from being foster parents to legal adoption is unusual. Several dozen children are adopted by their carers every year, a fraction of the 15,000 children in care across NSW. Being in Sydney, they had more adoption providers to approach,
Besides the Department of Communities and Justice, there are 43 private agencies licensed to manage foster care in NSW, including 17 Aboriginal organisations specialising in First Nations children.
Just six of these agencies provide adoption services out of the child protection system, and two of them – Anglicare Sydney and Wesley Community Services – openly state on their website that they do not place children with same-sex couples.
The other four – Barnardos Australia, Life Without Barriers, Key Assets and Family Spirit – say they do not discriminate, but three of these don’t cover the whole state. Greater Sydney is well represented, but in some parts of NSW, there are only one or two adoption agencies in operation.
Anglicare Sydney and Family Spirit are the only two agencies that also provide voluntary local adoption services, where the birth parents voluntarily give up a child and the agency introduces them to prospective adoptive parents.
The NSW government is working on large-scale reform of the child protection system overall, including the arrangements for adoption, a process it says will take time.
A department spokesperson says it supports “all eligible families who want to adopt or foster children in NSW, including members of the LGBTIQ communities”.
Wesley Mission chief executive Reverend Stu Cameron says the agency tries to ensure children have positive, nurturing relationships with their biological mother and father and, when that is not possible, to provide them with carers who are similar to their birth parents.
An Anglicare Sydney spokesperson says the agency “serves in accordance with the doctrines of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney, which believes the best interests of a child are best served by giving access to both mothering and fathering, wherever possible”.
A spokesperson for Key Assets, which covers Sydney, the Central Coast and Hunter New England, says the agency supports adoption by members of the LGBTQ community when it is in the best interests of the child or young person.
Life Without Borders, which operates statewide, says it has been open to LGBTQ foster carers since 2001, but has only been licensed for adoption services since April 2023.
Barnardos Australia, which covers the Sydney-Wollongong-Newcastle region and out to Orange in the Central West, pioneered adoption to same-sex couples in 1985 by facilitating LGBTQ people to adopt as individuals.
Family Spirit is affiliated with the Catholic Church, but chief executive Sheree James says it operates at arm’s length from the church and assesses LGBTQ couples on an equal basis with other applicants.
The agency, which was established five years ago, operates its adoption services from out-of-home care in the Nepean Blue Mountains and Southwestern Sydney areas, but its small voluntary local adoption program is statewide.
James says about half of its applicants are LGBTQ. For voluntary local adoptions, it is up to the birth parent to choose the adoptive parents, and most are open to LGBTQ couples.
“I remember one woman saying she would love to have her baby adopted by two dads because then she would always be her mum,” James says.
This article first appeared in The Age here.
Barnardos Australia at the Business of Esports & Gaming summit
At Barnardos our vision is to empower every child in Australia to reach their full potential. One of the ways we aim to achieve this is through our newly launched fundraising initiative called the Barnardos League of Champions.
With this, we are collaborating with online streamers and content creators across Australia, challenging and rewarding them to champion a cause which is close to everybody’s hearts, whilst raising vital funds for Barnardos at the same time!
We’re delighted to announce that we have been selected as the official charity partner at a national event called the Business of Esports and Gaming Summit in Melbourne on April 26 – 27.
This is an amazing opportunity for Barnardos to be able to raise awareness around the League of Champions and what this will enable us to do in the future.
In addition to being the official charity partner, some staff from Barnardos will be speaking at the event, talking about how eSports are borderless, and that gaming is for all abilities and all communities. Other companies who will be speaking at the event include the NBL, Activision Blizzard, Monster Energy and many more.
If this event sounds like something you would be interested in attending, you can find out more here
As the official charity partner, we have a discount code which provides a $300 discount on the ‘Regular Bird’ ticket price. The code to use here is DAN300
A legacy of care
Margaret Ogden remembers her mother, Betty, as “a very caring woman and a wonderful lady whose life was all about service.” Her mum had a profound influence on the values Margaret still
holds dearly today.
Betty shared the same values as Barnardos, and in memory of her mother, Margaret is leaving a gift to Barnardos in her Will. Growing up in a small country town in the English Midlands, Margaret then headed off to university and worked for a year in a hospital as part of her degree. She recalls first meeting the social workers and having a lightbulb moment: “I can do the same as mum and get paid for it”.
A few years after completing post graduate studies in Social Work, Margaret married an Australian and moved to Sydney. Initially she worked for the NSW Community Services Department until she was appointed as a case manager to Barnardos Find-a-Family in 1995 at the newly opened Gosford office.
Margaret has fond memories of her 16 years at Barnardos working with children and their foster carers. “I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved working with the kids in care and met some amazing foster
parents. It was more satisfying; we had a smaller number of children on our caseload which meant we had time to really take care of their needs.”
Reflecting on her experience of working with Barnardos, Margaret’s unwavering belief in the organisation is evident: “I trust that Barnardos uses the money well. They’re very professional
and have a long history of helping children and changing their lives”.
Since her retirement, Margaret has been volunteering with a number of community groups on the Central Coast, as a continuation of her life of service, just like her mother had done. Margaret’s daughter has adopted those same values and spent some years volunteering overseas.
The values passed onto her from her own mother were key to Margaret’s decision for including Barnardos in her Will. “It’s important to give and I hope my gift will help others”.
You can learn more about leaving a Gift in Will here.