The Cooinda Model

by Thea Calzoni

What is Cooinda Family Support Group Incorporated? Try to define it and it will slip away. First it's based in N.S.W. Next thing you know it's based in Victoria. OK then, it's a rural service based in two cities. Full of bush ethos. It grows like a bushfire, builds an ocean of community support, then it's suddenly in a drought, in danger of being defunded. Next thing you know, its flooded with support. A groundswell of community action picks it up and wins it acknowledgement for its cross-border services. Officially in business in two States again. What next? A breeding ground for radical community workers?

Cooinda Family Support Group Inc is one of twenty Victorian regional parent support programs all of which have a connection with (but are not managed by) the Association for Children with a Disability, a peak advocacy organisation for parents of children with disabilities in Victoria. Some of the parent support programs are auspiced and managed by community organisations while others are incorporated associations managed by committees which include a majority of parent representatives. All regional parent support programs groups receive funding from the Victorian Department of Human Services to resource self-help activities for parents of children with disabilities. Most of the programs provide telephone support and information to individual families, parent education sessions or forums on topics of interest to parents of children with a disability and assist with the development and running of a variety of parent support groups. Some of the support groups have been developed using community development principles derived from The Yooralla Society's Family Networks programs for parent empowerment. Many of the regional parent support programs are also funded by the Department of Human Services Home and Community Care division to provide occasional camps for carers, siblings or whole families.

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Contact: Cooinda Family Support Group