North Otago welcomes much needed child services
By Joanna Jones | Posted: Monday December 5, 2016
Anglican Family Care has officially launched its new Family Start and OCEANS Grief and Loss Programmes in Oamaru. Nurses, child care workers, police officers, local community and parishes gathered at St Luke's Church last Friday to meet the Anglican Family Care team and discuss how their presence is impacting the North Otago community.
Waitaki Mayor, Gary Kircher says the new North Otago services have been very well received “Society these days is becoming more and more complex… (Family Start is about) helping those people who may not have family support.”
The Family Start Programme which currently already runs in Dunedin, provides intensive on-going support to parents of young children focusing on health, education and development. The OCEANS Grief and Loss Programme is for children and young people experiencing the pain of loss or separation from someone they love. Anglican Family Care's presence expands throughout North Otago with the main office in Oamaru and some clients as far as Hampden and Palmerston.
Director,
Nicola Taylor is very excited about the launch saying there has been a “very
real need in this community for support around parents and children… (and) the
Bishop thought it was time for us to pick up the challenge.”
The new Oamaru Family Start workers Marise and Sue say they have been "wowed" by the programme. Since opening their doors
to clients in October, the service has been embraced by
the community and proving to be very popular, "we work with families affected by daily stressors. Some of these families don’t even realise they are in a crisis and it’s our role to support them” Sue said.
To learn more about the North Otago services visit our website.
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