Berry Street Web Docs Annual Report 2014 | Page 26
The power of perseverance
Jacky’s story
A couple of months ago, Jacky successfully moved
from her lead tenant home to private rental closer
to her fulltime job. We first got to know Jacky when
she was nine months old, removed from her family
and went into foster care. After several years, her
foster care placement broke down and she spent
two years in residential care before we helped her
to start moving to independence. After 18 months,
with the support of her lead tenant and our Berry
Street case manager, Jacky was ready to move out
on her own. We will continue to provide support
to Jacky for at least 12 months through our leaving
care pilot program.
BERRY STREET ANNUAL REPORT 2014
Therapeutic
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Every year we are learning more about the impact
of trauma on the child’s developing brain and how
we can help the child recover.
This year, we celebrated 10 years of Take Two, a
unique partnership funded by the Department of
Human Services with La Trobe University, Mindful,
the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency, 13
community service organisations and seven
Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations.
The continuity provided by the 15 staff who joined
us in 2003 has given Take Two such a strong
foundation on which to build.
^^Working intensively with 823 children and young
people and another 275 young people through
the Bushfire Youth Counselling program
^^Providing training and professional development
to the sector on: Calmer Classrooms; kinship
care; trauma and attachment; ‘With Car e’ for
all residential staff in Victoria; ‘Fostering Hope’;
creative healing and recovery; introduction to
high risk infant mental health; person-centred
training for young people with a disability; and
partnering for the Graduate Diploma in Child
and Family Practice Leadership
^^Expanding our partnerships with Aboriginal
Community Controlled Organisations, especially
through a new coordinating role in Aboriginal
Therapeutic Home Based Care
Our 81 clinicians located across Victoria work
one on one with children and young people, help
their parents and carers to understand what they
need to do, contribute to care teams and provide
consultation and continuously look at what needs to
be done to make the system work better for these
children.
All of these children have been referred by Child
Protection as their highest priority. We believe most
of the children in Child Protection would benefit
from this approach.
Although each young person has their unique strengths and
needs, the first step is always establishing a relationship and
earning their trust
Becoming independent
Kaley’s Story
Kaley, a 19 year old Aboriginal woman, was living
with her grandmother and partner when the Police
became involved. There were grave concerns about
both of their safety as the partner had threatened
to kill both of them. Working closely with the Police,
the partner was eventually remanded for a number
of offences. This gave Kaley the break she needed
to understand how destructive the relationship with
her partner was. Fifteen months later, Kaley has
moved back with her grandmother, is living without
violence, is loving studying business management, is
planning to get her driver’s licence and car and can
now see a real future for herself.