Caring for children and supporting their families

Caring for Children.

Caring for Children is a new resource that will help ease the settlement journey for parents new to Australia.

Launched today in Ashfield by CEO Association of Children’s Welfare Agencies (ACWA), Andrew McCallum, the Caring for Children booklet was developed by SSI to provide information to help parents respond to some of the common challenges of being a parent in a new country.

SSI CEO Violet Roumeliotis said that SSI has a special place in its heart for newly arrived families.

“With the support of funding from NSW Family and Community Services, SSI has been able to implement a range of projects to support recently arrived families and services working with those families,” Ms Roumeliotis said.

“We know from the coalface work of both our member agencies and from our own, that you can’t over-emphasise the importance of investment in early intervention.”

Australia’s first National Children’s Commissioner, Megan Mitchell, was the guest speaker and spoke about asylum seeking and refugee children requiring special protection and support to protect their human rights.

“These children are some of the most resilient and inspiring young people I have ever met, however they are also at serious risk,” said Ms Mitchell.

“The Caring for Children booklet assists parents to understand and respond to the issues facing children growing up in a new and different culture and environment; an important step in helping parents to navigate their settlement journey as parents,” said Ms Mitchell.

The Caring for Children booklet is available in English, Arabic, Tamil, Swahili, Dinka, Dari and Farsi on the SSI Publications page.