NSW CARER OF THE YEAR AWARD

Carers provide unpaid care and support to family members or friends who have a disability, mental illness, drug/alcohol dependency, chronic condition terminal illness or those who are frail. National Carers Week was held between the 17^th October 2016, and 21^st of October 2016. To Launch Carers Week the Carers Awards Ceremony was held on the 17^th of October to kick of the week’s Events. The NSW Carers Annual Award is hosted yearly by Minister Hon John Ajaka, Minister for Aging, Disability, Multiculturalism and Volunteering and our very own Community Junction Team Member Sadie Arida was awarded the 2016 NSW Carer of the Year Award. Well Done Sadie.

 

BOYS SHED

Young men from Chifley College Dunheved Campus who participate in our‘Boys Shed’ Project have complete three weeks of graffiti art workshops that has culminated in the creation of a North St Marys Community Mural at the Outdoor Reading Room in Parklawn Place Shops. 

 

Young people from the high school mentored children from St Marys North Primary School with a lot of success. The young men have expressed they are proud of their work and didn’t think they could achieve so much.

 

We received so much positive feedback from residents on the day; the mural depicts the journey of a young person with reference to ‘footy mad’ youth culture present in the community through the image of the panther.

 

ODD SHOE DAY

Statistics indicate that around 1 in 2 Australians will be effected by mental illness during some point in their lifetime. To raise awareness and stomp out stigma, Aftercare celebrated individual differences with “odd shoe day” and Community Junction was lucky enough to be invited and get involved. Be it cooking the BBQ or colouring in, it was terrific to see so many community members working together and celebrating diversity across all life aspects.

 

 

CHILDREN'S SERVICES

North St Marys Preschool and North St Marys OOSH are located on the safe school grounds of  St Marys North Public School. 

During Term 3 they have been exploring diversity, inclusion and belonging to our world. Children Services have been fortunate to work with educators from Aboriginal background who engaged in a   variety of indigenous group art projects, dance and  discussions with the children and educators.

The service has also been working closely with St Marys North Public School and as a community have celebrated and participated in the Book Parade and Athletics Carnival. Preschool will continue to extend this partnership through school orientation visits in Term 4.

The children that attend our OOSH service have also planned, shared ideas and helped prepare the After School Care menu, Masterchef’s in the making! 

Our Mobile Children Service provides child care support for groups/agencies that run in the Penrith LGA in various locations. Our Mobile Educators have been busy this term supporting groups/agencies such as family support, disability, and health, through child care support for children 6 weeks to 5 years of age, making positive connections with children, making quick decisions about the best way to provide an appealing  environment and experiences for children in the variety of spaces worked in.

As one Care Pair educator has commented some children are upset when they separate from their parent/carer. “there was one child who had not left their family before, I  encouraged and engaged with them, they enjoyed many of the activities we had on offer and by the end of the course they was interacting more with the other children. Some groups run once where as others may run over several weeks.

If you would like more information about our service please call  96230331. 

 

NATIONAL CARER'S WEEK EVENT

"Carers Day Off"

 

With the rollercoaster of life around us, anyone at any time can ricocheted into the role of an unpaid carer. Unpaid carers contribute an estimated $60.3 billion per year in unpaid work and caring responsibilities. However, the hard work carried out by Australian carers is often forgotten and as a group, they often experience social isolation, find it hard to enter and maintain employment or participate in education.

As such, to celebrate and raise awareness of the valuable work carried out in caring roles, Community Junction and Ability Links held “Carers Day Off” – a pamper day for anyone in a caring role at home. Participants received a facial, manicure and pedicure for a bit of indulgence, and had the opportunity to participate in a Pilates class.   One attendee became emotional that she broke down in tears, thanking us for organising the event because “I often sit at home thinking, why me, why can’t I just die. But today I feel good”.

 

Our thanks go to Hogs Breath St Marys who catered lunch for the participants and Coles Cambridge Park provided a gift card which we were able to purchase salads, drinks and sweets for morning tea. 

 

 

 

 

 

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CAMBRIDGE PARK LIONS CLUB DONATION

We would like to thank the Cambridge Park Lions Club for their generous donation of two iPads.

 

Having these devices will enable us capture photographs and document activities and events within the community. It is this kind of community and interagency support that ensures we are able to provide quality services to our community members in an engaging and interactive way.

 

THANK YOU!

We would like to acknowledge and sincerely thank Penrith City Council's Community Assistance Program (CAP), ClubGRANTS NSW and Carers NSW for recent funding.  All funds will gratefully go towards developing and supporting programs within our communities.

 

One of these programs will be our National Children's Week events ‘Play, REaD with Rooby Day’ to be held at Colyton Neighbourhood Centre (Cnr Jensen & Willoughby St) on  Tuesday 25th October 2016 and Nth St Marys Neighbourhood Centre (Cnr Debrincat Ave and Oleander Rd) on Thursday 27th October 2016.

 

Bring the family along and meet Rooby Roo and enjoy a variety of activities such as face painting, baby animal farm, children's entertainment, Rooby's reading tent, show bags and more.  

 

Both events will run from 9:30am - 11:30am.  We'd love to see you there!

 

Our Community Engagement Worker Frances was presented with the cheque from RSL & Ex-Serviceman's Club Ltd CEO Michael Wiezel.

 

 

COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER - CJ NEWS.

Our Term 4 newsletter 'CJ News' is now available.
To view our newsletter you can click on the link below. 
http://www.communityjunction.org.au/files/cj%20news%20Term%204.pdf

COMMUNITY JUNCTION NEWSLETTER

WOULD YOU LIKE TO RECEIVE OUR NEWSLETTER VIA EMAIL?  You never have to miss an issue of our  newsletter.  You can request to have a copy sent to you, via your email, or postal address.  Please email  info@communityjunction.org.au  requesting a copy with your email or postal address and we will add you to the list. 

FEEDBACK   We would love to know what you think about our Newsletter.  Is it informative?  Is the layout easy to read.  Tell us what you think, good or bad.  Email info@communityjunction.org.au with your comments.

 

ABORIGINAL ART PROJECT

An Aboriginal Art Project was run at Werrington Youth Centre during Term 3, where the Indigenous Team from Community Junction Inc. popped out to teach young people Aboriginal art and storytelling through art.  The assistance of the Aboriginal team not only provided the young people with new art skills but also an education around cultures within the community.

Over five weeks young people at Werrington Youth Centre were able to use their new knowledge and develop

Aboriginal art skills through canvas and clapping stick painting. During the last two weeks young people created a final art piece where they painted a larger canvas which would enter a competition. Young people from the youth centre and workers from     Community Junction Inc, voted for their favourite art piece. The winner of this competition will receive a trophy and have their art piece transferred onto a piece of clothing for the Community Junction Inc, Fashion Showcase at the  Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney on the 24th November, 2016.

 



The winning piece of art work.