[Sub ID 4471] Partnerships with mainstream and specialist employment and holistic support for young parents (Marsden Families Program)

Submission ID: 4471
Organisation name: Marsden Families Program
Contact name: Ms Valmae Rose
State: QLD
Contact email: valmae@marsdenfamilies.org
Contact number: 0417300146

Which priority group of the Try, Test and Learn Fund does your idea support?
Young parents

What need or issue are you trying to address?
Of the 120 individuals and families we provide intensive family support and/or counselling to every year, many have had training and employment pathways disrupted by their involvement with child safety, incarceration, loss of housing and/or poverty. For a range of reasons – systemic (costs and requirements associated with training and credentialling), individual (loss of confidence, loss of support network etc.) and community (fear and negative perceptions) many people give up on their dreams and their future becomes closed. Similarly the future for their children becomes closed. As a community service sector, we know first hand the value both socially and economically of having a member of such families having paid work. We know the consequences of not supporting people to be the best parents they can be, and we know the consequences of living in poverty for a family that experiences poverty and disadvantage.

What is your idea?
Our idea is to provide a specialist service which focuses on overcoming disruptions to training and employment pathways, in parallel with our existing counselling and intensive family support work. This service would include working closely with local mainstream and specialist employment services and training providers, building direct relationships with the local education and business communities, and providing mentoring, direct support and child care to resume and complete interrupted studies. This service would be co-located and well integrated with the existing supports we offer to address housing in jeopardy, parenting skills, financial resilience, behavioural change, integration of trauma etc. Specifically, this idea takes a holistic, family inclusion based approach to supporting individuals who would otherwise be unlikely to resume their training and employment pathways due to internal and external barriers to doing so. The idea fits well with our current approach which is to create the conditions where individuals and families at their personal best in engaging with the future, in acknowledgement of the powerful impact on successive generations of their family.