Healthy Parents, Thriving Children

All families deserve stability and security to help every family member thrive. For most families, this comes easily. For others, it’s a huge challenge.

The families attending First Step are vulnerable, struggling with financial hardship, unemployment, debt, mental health problems, drug or alcohol abuse, social isolation or special needs. For those with dependent children, this can impact their parenting capacity and their children.

These parents need support and guidance to do better for themselves and their children. They need a circuit breaker.

“The Women’s Space at First Step is a place where female staff support and empower female clients in a truly unique, compassionate and multi-disciplinary way. Thanks to the Victorian Women’s Trust we will be adding financial counselling into that service mix which has been the most common request from our clients. This will have a huge impact particularly in the areas of family violence, child rearing, Centrelink issue and budgeting.

At First Step we believe that everybody deserves every chance to turn their life around, and women who can do that will maximise their own children’s ability to (as they say at the Women’s Trust) ‘take up all of life’s opportunities with respect safety and dignity”

– Patrick Lawrence, Chief Executive Officer

Organisation: First Step

Grant Type: Small Grant

Amount: $10,000

Year: 2018-2019

First Steps’ Healthy Parents, Thriving Children initiative incorporates group parenting program Tuning into Kids, developed by Melbourne University, with ongoing financial counselling sessions delivered by First Step. Guided by a mental health social worker and a counsellor, parents are encouraged to share thoughts and ideas, helping each other to develop new strategies and insights into how to best parent and respond to the emotional needs of their children.

So that in this lifetime we can be:

equally paid for the same work
safe on the streets and in our homes
equally represented in our parliament and leadership positions
in charge of our own bodies

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