Annual Grants

2011 Community Impact Grants progress

A message from CLAN Midland about how Community Impact is developing...

It has been a privilege for CLAN Midland to work with United Way WA on this project.  It has enabled us to extend our service delivery by providing additional funds for programs and projects. CLAN Midland runs on a very tight budget and the additional funds has allowed us to reach more people within the community and also provide more volunteer and employment opportunities for people.

The aim of the Community Impact Strategy is to be more than program delivery. It is designed to bring communities together, people, families, agencies, schools and the like. Whilst some of this can be done by program delivery, the strength lies in collaboration within the community to deliver the program. At CLAN we feel that the current undertakings within the Community Impact Strategy have been successful in doing that as can be seen below.

The Clothing Day that is supported by United Way WA - Tim Allen through Corporate Volunteering from Pfizer - continues to be an enormous success. From the first day, one year ago with 20 people attending, to our fourth Clothing Day with over 100 people attending, it has now become an event that is looked forward to by many in the community. Tim does a fantastic job organizing volunteers, tables, sausage sizzle and everything necessary for a successful day. Whilst not officially part of the Community Impact Strategy, the Clothing Day has succeeded in bringing the community and Community Agencies together. Community Agencies are bringing their clients to the day or sending their clients along. As a result of the day some of the people who come along are invited to other CLAN Midland events such as Family Fun Days, Craft, Playgroup and Pamper Days. We are finding that a lot of people are hearing about Clothing Day by word of mouth hence community building is taking place.

On reviewing the Baby FAST and FAST programs for United Way reporting, it was yet another reminder of the impact that the programs have on the community. The goals of both programs are parent empowerment, strengthening families and connecting communities. It can be seen from both reports that both programs have been successful in doing this. Part of the strength of Baby FAST and FAST is that the team is made up of Parents, Schools and Community Agencies. Everyone on the team works collaboratively to help support the families.  Each agency then has its own connections and programs that they are able to share with the families as well.  United Way WA, in particular Justine Roberts, has been an enormous support to these programs. Whilst the support with finances, vouchers and product for gift baskets have been beneficial, it's the mentoring, networking and linking to other organizations that Justine has provided that has been extremely beneficial. She has worked hard to bring many organizations together to ensure that the Community Impact Strategy is successful and that good outcomes are achieved for the families in the City of Swan.

The BOOST Early Literacy Program run by Dyslexia Speld is another component of the Community Impact Strategy. During term 2, Dyslexia Speld came to Middle Swan Primary and delivered the BOOST. There were several families from the FAST Program who attended the BOOST Program which continued to strengthen their connections with the school with other Community Agencies and with other parents. Another session of BOOST was also held at the Midvale Early Childhood and Parenting Centre. Both sessions were well attending. The feedback from families was that they appreciated having access to such great resources at no cost, as had it cost anything they would most likely have not been able to attend. They have shared that they are using the packs they were given at home with their children and feel more empowered and educated in being able to help their children. Follow up sessions for both groups will take place in the coming months.

The Let's Read Project continues to grow stronger and more connections continue to be made. CLAN Midland have appointed a Let's Read Coordinator (who is a parent from Middle Swan Primary School) to liaise with all Let's Read trained facilitators. Her role is to distribute packs to the facilitators, follow up on their progress, get reporting information and report to CLAN Midland and send reports to The Smith Family who is the Lead Agency of the project. As a result of this the Smith Family have approached the CLAN Let's Read Coordinator to take on the role of coordinating all the Let's Read Facilitators in the area. A meeting will be held this week to go over details. This is an exciting step forward for the project as it will strengthen community connections, allow packs to be delivered to more families and continue to build on the basic building blocks of early literacy in the community. CLAN Midland has volunteers delivering the packs who come from CLAN Midland, Middle Swan Primary and Baby FAST. It once again shows the strong connections between the programs and projects, between the agencies and the benefits of the Community Impact Strategy. The funding from United Way WA in supporting Let's Read through CLAN Midland has been invaluable.

To date it has been a very busy but very successful 12 months of the project. We look forward to continued growth and success of the Community Impact Strategy which will include a Food-Budgeting-Health and Nutrition Course.

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Education and Health

FAST (Families and Schools Together)

FAST at Middle Swan Primary commenced on Wednesday 18th May.
Currently CLAN have 12 families enrolled in the program with a new team leader, being trained up.
Meetings are in progress with other local schools to engage interest in running the FAST program in 2012.

Baby FAST
For the sake of the baby...

Baby FAST^TM is a widely used multifamily group intervention model for young parents and their infants and toddlers (age 0-3). It works especially well for first-time mothers, and is intended to protect vulnerable families with risk factors, such as single-parent families, teen moms, isolated families, or within communities with higher risk factors.
Baby FAST is unique in its ability to draw grandparents, fathers, and other supporters into the family care process.

This model is the strongest intervention program because while it is preventive for the babies--catching them early in their cognitive and behavioral development, it also supports identified risks and provides a more assertive coaching approach than in other FAST models.

This program is well under way and is being delivered in Stratton with families from as far as High Wycombe attending.  CLAN are currently working on a new site either in Ellenbrook or as a joint project with Polytechnic West as part of their new Young Parents East Program.

The Baby FAST Stratton is proving a very successful program with 13 families participating. A  Review Day was held with 9 out of 13 families attending and giving fantastic feedback.

As a result of such a successful program in Term 1, the Young Parents have decided to start their own playgroup which began Friday 27th May 2011 at the Midvale Neighbourhood Centre.
A repeat program will be run in Stratton again his year.

Julia's story

Julia was a referral from a local Child Health Nurse, she lives with her partner and was supported by her parents in Law. Julia was 18 turning 19 during the program.
Julia's Feedback

"I didn't have any friends who were also young mothers before Baby FAST. Having just moved into the area I didn't know anyone or any services. After Baby FAST I have felt connected to the community and know where to go for support."

Julia is now co-leading the Baby FAST Playgroup with another one of the Baby FAST participants. She has also been invited to, and attended, the Let's Read training by Clan Midland and is delivering Let's Read packs to families. Let's Read is an early literacy initiative.

Let's Read  

Let's Read is an initiative to promote reading with young children 0-5 years and was developed by the Centre for Community Child Health, a key research centre of Murdoch Children's Research Institute, in partnership with The Smith Family. This initiative has been designed to support and empower parents/carers to read with their child, and develop the building blocks that are needed to make the transition to school as easy as possible. Let's Read is designed to be owned by and delivered in the community.

A one hour home visit is done by a trained Let's Read facilitator who talks to the family about the importance of early literacy, role models reading to the child with the parent/care giver and delivers the Let's Read pack which includes a book and a DVD on early reading. Facilitators also give families brochures on local agencies including CLAN Midland, the local library and Women's Health Care Place.
In the Midland area Let's Read is a MEYAG (Midland Early Years) Project. It is coordinated by the Smith Family and sponsored by Panterra Press. Facilitators from Clan Midland, Baby FAST and Middle Swan Primary have attended training to deliver the program.

To date 46 packs have been delivered. We are hopeful that the funding will stretch beyond the 50 families and we will continue to look at other avenues of additional funding.
 
CLAN had an additional training day for Let's Read volunteers at Middle Swan Primary, 15 people attended with approximately 10 being attached to CLAN Midland.
Packs are still being distributed and additional reports will be given at future meetings.
The next Let's Read sub committee meeting has been scheduled to look at future projects in the area.

First Aid

The First Aid Courses run by St John Ambulance and funded by United Way were held on 20th May and 23rd May at Swan Park Recreation Centre for CLAN Clients.