The Early Intervention team at KARI deliver a unique program called The Brighter Futures Program. Brighter Futures assisted 151 children/ young people in the last financial year.
The program is designed to help vulnerable Aboriginal families with children aged 0-9 years in need as well as provide them with support. The Brighter Futures team also provide support for families expecting a child.
KARI sat down with the Brighter Futures team to learn more about the fantastic work they do to help the community. There are four core programs that run throughout the year.
What programs do the Brighter Futures team run?
We run four programs throughout the course of the year.
- Our Parenting Program runs on a school term basis, which provides parents with the assistance and support they need after having children.
- Our Vacation Care programs run throughout the school holidays over one week. This is run for children in our care who are 5-16 years of age and offers a range of experiences. Some of these experiences range from bowling and movies as well as mini golf.
- Our Family Camps, which we are very excited to announce will run twice a year instead of annually. These camps are our most successful program as it opens pathways for parents and children to bond.
- Our Christmas party. We throw a Christmas party with all of the Brighter Future’s families to congratulate them for the hard work they’ve done throughout the program. This year’s party will be held at Luna Park!
How do you help out the parents and children who are in these programs?
As the Brighter Futures Program is an Early Intervention Initiative, we support the families by first inquiring about vulnerabilities the family unit is going through.
Some of these vulnerabilities include:
- Domestic and family violence
- Parents with significant learning or intellectual disabilities
- Parent mental health issues
After the vulnerabilities are identified, the Brighter Futures Program pairs the family with a dedicated Family Support Worker.
The Support Worker is paired with the family for 12 to 18 months. They offer guidance and support as well as making referrals and appointments when required. Regular home visits are conducted as well to support the parents with services such as parenting strategies.
There is also access provided to the KARI Multidisciplinary playgroup as well as access being provided to parenting programs, which can teach the parents new skills.
How are the programs tailored to the individual needs of each family?
As we support a large amount of families and give every family the opportunities to attend every program we run, families are able to self identify what they need assistance with. This involves them accepting responsibility for the decision making process in their lives.
We use Case Plan Meetings to give the clients a chance to discuss what they want to achieve. This could be anything from getting healthier to furthering their education as well as getting their finances in order. We then discuss how the program can help them.
What’s your favourite success story so far?
I had a young Mother who was referred by Family and Community Services. She was really young, just had her second baby and had lost her first to SIDS.
This Mother had endured physical, emotional and verbal violence that no young woman should ever have to experience.
She had developed severe mental health disorders. However, she was more than determined to do the right thing. She wanted to get in a better head space and be an influential role model for her young daughter.
This young Mother was actively engaged the whole time she was on the program. She complied with home visits, successfully completed a structured home visit and attended parenting programs.
The Mother also attended family camps and accessed community program initiatives such as swimming and community playgroup. She was one determined individual.
Every case plan meeting conducted she demonstrated meaningful change in all case plan areas and achieved all case plan goals.
What happened after the family exited the Brighter Futures Program?
Prior to exiting Brighter Futures, her partner secured a full time job and they entered into the private rental market. They have been exited for over 3 months now.
The family recently called two weeks ago to see how I was and just update me on their situation.
I was informed that the Real Estate has extended their lease for another 9 months and they are in a much better financial situation. Their relationship with each other as well as their Daughter is steadier.
I had never felt more proud and more grateful for their phone call. It justified my decision that they were more than ready to exit when they did.
They are excelling in life and benefiting from the support of Brighter Futures. The family have worked hard to build up their parental capacity, and enhance their job readiness skills. They are also successful tenants in the private rental market.
The Brighter Futures Program is important to a variety of families. It allows them to self identify issues within their family units and work towards a goal of fixing them. KARI has had great success with this program throughout the years as well as hearing the success stories that come out of the program make it more worth it.
