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For 20 years, Karinya House has been taking young and vulnerable mothers and babies under its roof and teaching them skills for life.
WHEN JAZZ first met Catherine Cooney, client services manager with Canberra’s Karinya House, she was so deeply distraught she was almost catatonic. The trauma Jazz had experienced was every mother’s worst nightmare. Family breakdown and poverty meant she and her partner were homeless and her four-month-old-son had been removed from her arms by authorities. At just 23 years old, she fell pregnant again, and as the birth of her second son approached, Jazz realised she was at almost certain risk of losing custody of him, too. Family and Community Services told her the only way she could keep her baby with her was to move into supported accommodation—enter the 21 dedicated
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maternal health, caseworkers and support staff of Karinya House. For 20 years, the service has provided a home, and 24-hour assistance, for mothers and babies in crisis, as well as outreach programs to support these vulnerable women as they move towards independent living. When Jazz arrived she was at rock bottom. She felt utterly hopeless and was fast disconnecting from those around her as a coping mechanism. “I couldn’t stop crying. I didn’t have my partner with me. I’d just had a baby. I was really emotional and felt really alone even though there were a lot of people around me.”
