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Community House
199 Bluff Road Sandringham
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Family Life was excited to celebrate the official opening of our new Community House in Bayside in February 2011. The house will provide benefit for the local community now and into the future.
The acquisition of the house was made possible thanks to many generous supporters, including the late Glen W.A. Griffiths, The Cybec Foundation, Cabrini Health, F. and M. Hoffman and the late June Rose Taylor. |
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The ceremony was attended by several beautiful little children who held a tea-party in the cubby house, proud mums and grandmas from our Keith Street Community House, generous donors, former residents of the house, Bayside Councillors and the Mayor, a State MP, and many of our wonderful volunteers and supporters.
The community house will offer a modest home-like environment where isolated parents gather to make friends, learn new skills, help each other and promote the safety and wellbeing of children in the neighbourhood - all with the support of trained volunteers.
199 Bluff Road will be modelled on our community houses at 12 Keith Street Hampton East and 8 Lochiel Avenue Edithvale. Evaluation of the family programs run at these community houses found that parents developed increased confidence, children experienced improved wellbeing and vulnerable babies were helped to stay living safely with their families.
One of the parents who attended our Hampton East Community House said:
"I would find it harder to be a parent without the help of the Community House. There are people to talk to, you can sit down and have a break and I have made some good friends. When I first brought my daughter she wouldn't even leave my lap. Now she loves spending time playing with other children. It's vital for me and my daughter to come here".
Our community houses are made possible thanks to the support of generous local families, business people and members of community groups.
Would you like to help local families too? Click here to make a tax deductible donation.
It's a Good Investment
It costs $100,000 per annum for Family Life to Operate a Community House.
It costs $51,000 per year, for the State government to undertake a Child Protection investigation and to place the child into the care of State government.
We only need to help 2 at-risk children to stay living safely with their families and we have achieved 'break-even'.
If we have helped 3 or more children, then the Community House has more than paid for itself.
