What better way to share some love than National Volunteers Week?
National Volunteer Week is a chance for all of us to celebrate and recognise the vital work of volunteers and to say thank you. Together, through volunteering, we are changing communities for the better. We are better together.
We asked several Brophy teams to highlight why volunteers are valued and vital to their operations. The result?
Brophy Foster Care
Volunteers are valued by the Brophy Foster Care Team as they are…..
- dedicated
- offer stability and safety
- want to make a difference
- are people who give with empathy
- are resilient and prepared to deal with trauma
- they provide solid foundations of what family life can be
- they keep our local kids in local homes and connected to their communities
- they give kids opportunities they would not have had
It was similar for Brophy Kinship Care.
“Kinship carers are similar to foster carers they are seen as volunteers taking on the carer of children within their family network when the parent for various reason are unable to provide the care the child or children require,” Pam Jackson, Manager – Kinship Care said.
“Our program supports the Kinship carer and the children they are for.
“The majority of the direct support we provide is where the children are on child protection orders and the Kinship carers are under the same legislation requirements as foster carers and receive a level of financial reimbursement for DFFH.
“However within the community there is another cohort of Kinship carers, where they, as a family, have reach agreement that the child or children will live with another person in the family network. This is referred to as informal as child protection are not involved. This cohort do not receive financial reimbursement from DFFH and have limited knowledge of or access to supports.
“Our Kinship program provides support to all kinship carers through our support group, training, and social activities.”
Brophy’s NILS (No Interest Loan Scheme) team, STOKED surf therapy and Brophy’s opportunity shop team are also examples of volunteerism and why it’s so vital to the organisation.
Forty-nine young people currently volunteer their time, energy, passion, ideas and experience across the Brophy Youth Services and headspace divisions to ensure other young people have access to opportunities in our community, that we continuously find ways to improve our programs, and that our support is focused where it’s needed most.
To all those young people volunteering with Brophy and headspace, we say thank you – your involvement is vital to our organisation. And to those young people who choose to volunteer in other ways, we thank you for contributing to our community.