Child and Family Services

We Care is committed to providing culturally appropriate and trauma informed services for children, young people and families supported by the Department of Communities and Justice. We Care’s services endorse the outcomes of the Family is Culture Report and We are committed to delivering services that are consistent with our values – Caring, Accountability, Respect, Empowerment and Safety.

We Care believes in our staff to deliver services consistent with these values. We Care staff have completed or a working towards a minimum of a Certificate IV in Youth Work or equivalent and have completed accredited training in therapeutic crisis intervention. We Care staff are supported by Senior staff who are experienced in delivering trauma informed therapeutic care augmented through consultation with our allied health clinical team to ensure our services are designed to meet the individual needs of children, young people and the families whom we support.

We Care acknowledges and endorses the findings of the Family is Culture report and we are committed to support the implementation of recommendations made in this report.

The services we provide:

Family Preservation and Restoration Services

We Care’s family preservation services aim to work collaboratively with the child, young person and their family and with other formal and informal community supports to keep children safely together with their families. We believe that early and intensive supports that are delivered in a manner that calls on the strength and resilience within families and promotes connection and linkages with community and community-based support services is necessary for keeping families together and promoting safety, inclusion, and sense of being valued.

Our family preservation supports include:

1. Development of a collaborative case plan/ Cultural case plans with families which guide our practice and ensure the provision of supports to meet the individual needs of families.
2. We value the role of cultural and community connections and the role these connections play in promoting safe environments for children and families.
3. We provide training for parents and carers to refine their parenting skills to meet the individual needs of their child. Our training is informed by current attachment focused interventions.
4. We deliver formal training programs for parents and carers including:
   1. ABC parent training
   2. Circle of Security
   3. Reparative Parenting Programs
   4. Parent Child Interaction Therapy
   5. Connection focused group programs for children/young people and adults
5. We believe in ensuring the provision of appropriate physical and psychosocial supports for families, in particular families who have experience trauma.

Family Group Conferencing

We Care have a team of allied health clinical staff and senior staff who have the necessary training and experience to facilitate family group conferences to bring family members together in a positive way with an impartial facilitator to make a plan for their child.

Cultural Plans

We Care is an Aboriginal owned and operated service that has extensive experience in developing cultural plans for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people in alternative care placements and Out of Home Care Services. We Care believe that cultural plans need to promote a sense of connection and identity and are consistent with the shared lives - shared stories framework. Our plans include at a minimum:

1. Identify the cultural needs of an Aboriginal child or young person;
2. Outline can experience their culture to maintain their identity and connection; and
3. Maintain important cultural information for an Aboriginal child or young person .

We Care deliver our plans in a timely manner to ensure that the child and families unique cultural needs are incorporated into their supports as soon as possible and provide follow up support to assist with the plans implementation and review. We value the participation of the child or young persons family in the development, review and implementation of the plan and acknowledge that Family is Culture.

Alternative Care Arrangements

We Care NSW and our partner organisation Gringai Aboriginal Corporation are registered providers of Alternate Care arrangements for children and young people connected with the Department of Communities and Justice. We Care’s model of care believes that providing a care setting that promotes consistency, connection and collaboration is an essential step in promoting safety and wellbeing for children and young people in ACA’s. We Care staff value the role that the child and young person’s family play in their life and we are strongly committed to supporting the maintenance and development of these relationships during all stages of the child’s care journey. We deliver an ACA that promotes age-appropriate agency in the child to be involved in decisions which affect their lives and to actively participate in activities of daily living which promote and build their independence. We Care’s ACA’s are supported by a team of experienced carers who have a minimum of a certificate IV in youth work or equivalent, who have completed therapeutic crisis intervention training and who are committed to the values of We Care. We Care staff in ACA’s are supported by a team of dedicated OOHC professionals and allied health clinical supports who are committed to ensuring that We deliver on our model of care and importantly that we provide a safe and enriching experience for children and young people in ACA’s.

Referrals

We Care has current capacity to accept referrals for all of our service areas. To make a referral to our service please submit the form below.