Supporting families in East Arnhem: Working together to create change

Anglicare NT’s Family Support Service (FSS) in Nhulunbuy is staffed by a real-life mother and daughter team, Lara and Jayde. As senior case workers, they work alongside families to create safe homes, build parenting confidence and strengthen connections to culture, community and Country.

Senior case workers, Jayde (left) and Lara.

Lara shares about her work in East Arnhem and the unique experience of working alongside her daughter.

Trauma-informed practice

“We work with families referred to the Family Support Service. In addition to working alongside the family and extended family, we work closely with the Department of Children and Families, lawyers, Aboriginal organisations, other social services and health organisations. There may be domestic violence in the home, alcohol misuse impacting a parent’s capacity to meet children’s needs, or developmental delays. Parents might also be struggling to find the right supports or understand certain behaviours.

There can be a lot of emotions – families have experienced significant trauma and sometimes have issues controlling their emotions. That can filter into their parenting and their family life. There can be issues with overcrowded households and there’s a lot going on. We are very aware of all these things when we are working with families.

Families have usually experienced trauma in some form, so we use a trauma-informed approach. We listen to stories and work with people to develop a family support plan – identifying their goals, where they’d like support, and sometimes additional areas to focus on. We often work with extended family members, such as grandparents, aunties, uncles and siblings.”

Building relationships

“As a senior case worker in Nhulunbuy for over five years, I’ve built strong relationships with families in the region. They know me well – we’ve formed long-standing connections and been through a lot together. It’s all about relationships: showing respect and embracing two-way learning from a cultural perspective.

We learn a lot from the families we work with. We value time we get to spend with them on Country. We’ve been fishing and swimming in waterholes, and it’s great to see families in environments where they shine. These trips can involve families whose children are in care, giving them the chance to spend time on their homelands celebrating birthdays on Country, visiting family graves, and enjoying time together as they work towards reunification.”

Reunification is the main aim

“Part of our work is helping families to reunify. In one case, we worked with a family for five years to reunify a child, which was incredibly rewarding. Jayde led this case and built a strong relationship with the young mum. We’re proud of the mum and of the work both the mum and our team have put in. We have coffee catch-ups together, where we share feedback from both our perspectives and the mum really enjoys our mother–daughter dynamic.

We do a lot of court-related support, working with lawyers, clients and other stakeholders. We also help people access things like birth certificates and licences, which can support employment opportunities.”

Breaking the cycle

“Support can be short-term or long-term, depending on the family’s needs. Sometimes families move back to homelands, or there may be an immediate crisis such as sorry business or domestic violence. We support victim-survivors to find safety, working closely with women’s shelters and other services. Where it’s safe and appropriate, we may also work with the perpetrator.

We support mums with education around the cycle of violence and can work with fathers through perpetrator mapping, education and building healthy relationships, especially where DVOs are in place.

The work can be tough, and there are challenging days, but we know we have strong support from our managers. We can engage members of our wider team for broader supports, or access other supports when needed.”

Mother and daughter team

“I moved back to Nhulunbuy around five years ago, and my daughter Jayde joined me at Anglicare NT not long after. After initially working in the youth team, Jayde transferred to the Darwin youth team.

When a position came up in the FSS team, where I worked, Jayde applied to broaden her knowledge and skills and learn more about working with families. We’ve been working together in the FSS team since July last year.

Sometimes Jayde calls me Mum, and other times she calls me Lara! Outside of work, we don’t talk about cases – it’s important for both of us to have that break and to maintain confidentiality. At work, we support each other and our clients, but we have different caseloads and can spend whole days doing separate work.

It’s an unusual situation working as a mother–daughter team. However, having already worked in the same office space, we knew we could work together. At work, we maintain a professional relationship while also having our own connections with staff and clients.

As a mum, I want Jayde to do well – she organises her own work and manages her own learning, and I’m very proud of her. We share similar values: we’re empathetic, sometimes emotional, and we genuinely care about people. She has a strong work ethic and a very caring nature, and I’m proud of how she interacts with clients.

Jayde and I won’t always work together, but we are loving it right now.”