Annual Report July 2013 June 2014

Transcription

1 Annual Report July 2013 June 2014 Prepared by the Family Reconciliation Mediation Program Team September 2014

2 Table of Contents Introduction... 3 Staff comings and goings... 3 The FRMP Team... 4 Sector Capacity Building... 4 Statewide Family Reconciliation Network... 5 Brokerage... 6 FRMP Individual Brokerage Statistics... 6 Group Work... 9 Future Focus Family Reconciliation Mediation Program: Annual Report. July 2013 June

3 Introduction Welcome to FRMP s annual report for FRMP is funded by the Department of Human Service (DHS) to build the capacity of the homelessness service system to support young people who are at risk of or experiencing homelessness, to: - stay or return home, if safe and appropriate, - connect/reconnect with family, significant others or community, - recover from family conflict and breakdown - build on their capacity to create families of choice. FRMP holds a brokerage fund and provides resources, training, information and secondary consultation to the homelessness service system across Victoria. The FRMP team works with homelessness networks, youth networks, local governments and community programs to build capacity of sector responses, and advocates on a broad level to raise awareness of the issues facing young people experiencing homelessness in relation to family and community connection. FRMP has been delivering its services since 2005 and as part of continuous quality improvement the FRMP team undertook an internal audit of the program and consolidated systems to improve the guidelines, policies and procedures. As a result of this work, the FRMP Team has: revised the Brokerage Guidelines redeveloped its work plan commissioned a research synthesis on current approaches to family reconciliation and mediation undertaken a new Expression of Interest process for private practitioners interested in being included on the new register of practitioners commissioned the delivery of single session therapy and reflective practice sessions. Staff comings and goings FRMP bid a temporary farewell to Eloise Brown in July Eloise has has taken 18 months maternity leave, after giving birth to beautiful Heidi in August Congratulations to Eloise and her partner Simon! Eloise will return to FRMP in January Sadly we had to farewell our Senior Capacity Building worker Victoria Sobh in February Over the past 5 years Victoria has led the program to increase its statewide community development activities to a new level such as taking the FRMP to rural Victoria over 2 days and advocating for the brokerage to be utilized for respite care for young people. Although a great loss to FRMP we congratulate her in the role of Team Leader for Detour, another Melbourne City Mission program. The Team would like to acknowledge Victoria s huge contribution to FRMP during her time. Family Reconciliation Mediation Program: Annual Report. July 2013 June

4 Jane Billings commenced with the team July 2013 for 12 months, which meant we also had to say goodbye to another great colleague. Jane contributed much to the FRMP developments, including the development of a planning and evaluation guide, the FRMP film (which will be used at the Conference), and the rollout of Bouverie training to the Sector. Well done Jane and all the best for your future! Fortunately with farewells we do get to welcome new staff. Welcome to Poppy Fotiadis and Linda Schwan! Poppy is employed on a permanent basis full time and Linda part time until March Linda was one of the first staff employed by FRMP nearly 10 years ago. The FRMP Team The Team details below include past members appropriate to the reporting period and current members. Please note that FRMP staff titles have now changed from Capacity Building to Community Development Worker, which we believe better describes the work they do. Also included are the Regions staff are responsible for. *Sarah Langmore Manager, Early Intervention Services *Chris Soderiou Team Leader, Early Intervention Services *Yin Zhang Community Development Worker (Gippsland, Hume, Eastern and Southern Metropolitan regions) *Poppy Fotiadis - Community Development Worker (Grampians, Loddon Mallee and Northern Metropolitan regions) From July 2014 *Linda Schwan Community Development Worker (Barwon and Western Metropolitan regions) From August 2014 March 2015 *Jane Billings Community Development Worker (Grampians and North / West Metropolitan regions) July 2013 August 2014 *Victoria Sobh Senior Capacity Building Worker (Barwon South Western, Loddon Mallee and Eastern metropolitan regions) June 2009 February 2014 *Eloise Brown Capacity Building Worker (Grampians and North / West Metropolitan regions) Nov 2012 July 2013 (on maternity leave due back January 2015) Sector Capacity Building FRMP provides various resources regarding issues facing young people and their families through: - delivering training and conferences - providing consultation about suitable intervention for young people and families - facilitating family reconciliation network meeting - liaising with researchers to obtain current best practice models FRMP has held an Annual Conference in previous years however did not do so this year. The Team decided to pilot new approaches to capacity building by providing scholarships for homelessness workers to attend training to enhance their work with young people and their families and rolling out more short term trainings targeting Family Reconciliation Mediation Program: Annual Report. July 2013 June

5 specific identified themes according to Sector need and to a greater range of geographical areas. Following a training needs survey conducted with the Sector last year, training in Single Session work with young people and families was developed and delivered by The Bouverie Centre this year. The training is being rolled out three times in Melbourne and five times in rural Victoria, with eight Reflective Practice sessions as a follow up for training participants into The next FRMP Conference will be held on 18 th 19 th March 2015, at Melbourne City Mission Conference Centre. FRMP also provided training scholarships for the Sector to attend the Tuning in to Teens training, an evidence-based, emotion-focused parenting program, developed and researched over several years by Mindful at the University of Melbourne. The training can be used across a range of clinical and community settings and is widely used throughout Victoria, in other states in Australia and more recently in the United Kingdom. The training helps adolescents learn to understand and regulate their emotions and teaches parents awareness and regulation of their own emotions; awareness of their teen s emotions; to use teen s emotional experiences as an opportunity for closeness and teaching; and skills to assist in problem solving and guidance with teen s behaviour. The Team will survey the sector during 2014/15 on the respective benefits of the Conferences, scholarship program and targeted training. Statewide Family Reconciliation Network FRMP convenes and supports the State-wide Family Reconciliation network meetings quarterly, with the aim to improve overall quality and effectiveness of service responses that supports early intervention and prevention and improve client outcomes by supporting young people to stay connected to family, significant other and / or community. In , FRMP shifted the focus of this network meeting. Apart from supporting the professional development of this network, FRMP also encouraged members to take more ownership of the network and utilise it as a platform to enhance the incorporation of youth focussed family inclusive approach into case management practice. This network also adapted a reflective practice model that provides a chance for workers to share their expertise and have peer supervision. The Eastern Metropolitan Region Homelessness Youth Practitioner Network Forums were previously facilitated by FRMP but is no longer in a position to do so following a review of FRMP worker roles. FRMP continues to support and participate in network forums across the regions. Late last year FRMP commissioned Synergistiq to provide a literature review on Family Mediation and Reconciliation Interventions in Youth Homelessness to inform FRMP and build upon an evidence base for early intervention in youth homelessness specifically focusing on best practice models. For the full report you can go to Family Reconciliation Mediation Program: Annual Report. July 2013 June

6 A new microsite for FRMP is being developed and it is aimed to provide easier access to current brokerage and community development activity information. It will also have a user-friend version for smart phone users. FRMP has also started a mail list to inform the sector of the latest news from FRMP. For further information about training or the FRMP Conference you can go to Brokerage Changes in brokerage have been made in the following areas: Brokerage guidelines Group work guidelines Respite guidelines Expression of interest from private practitioners and developing a new list of Private Practitioners Workers and Private Practitioner responsibilities One of the most significant changes has been that applications for individual brokerage are now open to any referring agencies that provide case managed assistance to young people experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness to purchase short term specialist interventions such as counselling, mediation and family therapy on behalf of their clients. Previously only Specialist Homelessness Services were eligible to apply. The criteria has been extended to: focus the assistance of the needs of young people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, rather than on who their support agency is funded by; enable earlier intervention with young people who are homeless or at imminent risk of homelessness by providing assistance at their first point of contact; and In recognition of the fact that the need for homelessness services is beyond the capacity of the system to respond. For further information about brokerage you can go to FRMP Individual Brokerage Statistics FRMP brokerage is available to assist young people to reestabalish the connections with their family or significant others, or recover from family breakdown and conflict. The brokerage supports both therapeutic interventions and respite care. In total of 84 individual applications have been approved in the Year 2013/14. The breakdown of the statistics is shown below: Family Reconciliation Mediation Program: Annual Report. July 2013 June

7 Graph 1 demonstrates the number of applications from each region. 79% (N=66) of applications were from metropolitan regions, and 21% (N=18) were from rural Victoria. Out of 84 applications, 81% (N=68) sought individual counselling, 11% (N=9) requested family therapy, and 5% (N=4) applied for family mediation. FRMP aslo approved 2 respite care application and supported one young person to participate in Group Work. Family Reconciliation Mediation Program: Annual Report. July 2013 June

8 In the year 13-14, 75% (N=63) young people who accessed FRMP brokerage were aged between 17 to 22, 12% (N=10) were years old and 14% (N=11) were in the age group. As exhibited from Graph 4, 21% (N=17) of the young people were staying at home but at risk of homelessness when their applications were received, 30% (N=24) of the young people had experienced homelessness for up to 3 months and 16% (N=13) had been away from family or significants from 3 months to 1 year. 37% (N=30) were reported in the homelessness sector for over 1 year. Family Reconciliation Mediation Program: Annual Report. July 2013 June

9 Graph 5 shows of 56% (N=55) the young people were female, 44% (N=37) were male. Group Work FRMP has made changes to the way it funds group work. Our research shows that some group work activities in the Sector did not have evaluation tool to measure outcomes. Others were not able to provide evidence of need in the planning and development of group work activities. FRMP has developed a project planning and evaluation guide and is available on the FRMP website. Group work that uses such a tool and has an evidence base will be considered to be funded by FRMP. FRMP has also compiled a resource list of group work projects that exist in the field of early intervention, homelessness; family reconciliation and/or mediation. This will be the preferred method for funding agency run group work. Group work practitioners can also submit their own group work proposals for inclusion on this list. Family Reconciliation Mediation Program: Annual Report. July 2013 June

10 Future Focus The FRMP Team is currently exploring early intervention in youth homelessness and the role family work plays within this. The Team has met with Dr Phil Crane, University of Queensland and Dr Justin Barker, Australian Catholic University, to draw on their extensive knowledge and research in this area. The Team are hoping to extend the resources on the FRMP website and to provide regular updates on training and research that supports the work of the Sector in supporting young people to connect to family and community. The Team will undertake a consultation in December/January to inform a six month review of the updated Brokerage Guidelines. A key focus for the Team in 2014/15 will be on embedding themselves more firmly in the homelessness sector by attending Local Area Service Network (LASN) meetings and meeting with individual homelessness services. Family Reconciliation Mediation Program: Annual Report. July 2013 June