Time for Kids Newsletter Winter 2011

Winter 2011

‘Mentors Matter’ at Time for Kids Hello, my name is Karen Fairbank and I am the Coordinator of the Time for Kids ‘Mentors Matter’ program. I am pictured with my two little boys, Ethan and Cohen, who keep me busy when I’m not at Time for Kids!

I have a Bachelor of Commerce, a Graduate Certificate in Loss, Grief and Trauma Counselling, and am currently completing my Master of Social Work. As you can see I love learning and broadening my horizons, and this is exactly what our ‘Mentors Matter’ program is all about.

There has been a great deal of research carried out on the benefits of mentoring to a young person. As a Time for Kids Mentor you can offer a 10-17 year old a break from a challenging home life and provide them with guidance, support and encouragement. Mentoring can be for just a couple of hours a week or fortnight, so is a great alternative for busy people who wish to support a young person but don’t have a lot of spare time.

‘Mentors Matters’ Coordinator, Karen Fairbank, with sons Ethan and Cohen.

Mentors Matter partners After 50 years of providing a unique model of volunteer respite care to more than 4600 children in South Australia, Time for Kids is introducing a mentoring service to increase the options available to young people. After talking to families and young people we discovered that other options would be welcomed and after two years of groundwork, Mentors Matter has evolved.

Designed by and for children aged 10-17 years, it combines all of the great qualities of Time for Kids respite care — reliable and regular, positive and interesting activities with trained, screened and supported volunteers.

Activities and relationships are built around the things young people are

If you’d like information about sharing time with a young person, or to hear more about the positive effects of mentoring a young person, I’d love to hear from you.

You can call me at the Time for Kids office on 8362 6311, email karen.fairbank@timeforkids.com.au or visit www.timeforkids.com.au

passionate about, whether that is music, food, football or go karts to name but a few. Mentors and participants meet regularly, usually once a week or fortnight for planned activities that they both enjoy.

Into the future we are delighted to be working in partnership with the Australian Hotels Association SA, Adelaide Football Club, Port Adelaide Football Club and are very pleased to announce our new Mentors Matter partner, BankSA Crimestoppers.

The Crime Stoppers SA Inc Deputy Chairman, Mr David Prince, said BankSA Crime Stoppers is sponsoring the Time for Kids mentoring program as part of its crime prevention strategy.

Over the past 24 months we have been able to develop a robust and dynamic mentoring service thanks to invaluable assistance from the State Government Attorney General’s Department Crime and Violence Prevention funding, the Wood Foundation, the Liquor Industry Continued on page 2 Charity Golf Day and the Minter Ellison Foundation. The in-kind, financial support and foresight of these organisations has been instrumental in getting Mentors Matter going.

Time for Kids welcomes Andrew Bradley to the Management Board market crash—interesting times! After working for many years with various brokers and investment banks, he returned to study in 1996 and completed a Masters Degree at the London School of Economics.

Andrew Bradley with fellow Management Board member, Kirsty Davies.

Following this, Andrew worked as a consultant at the Productivity Commission and KPMG advising the government on microeconomic reforms such as infrastructure privatization. In 1999, he returned to financial markets with a focus on advising private clients, as well as a range of charities, foundations and other not-for-profit organisations.

Andrew trained as an economist and has been working abroad in financial markets for 22 years. Now based in Adelaide, he is a Director of JB Were’s Private Wealth Management division.

‘From a very young age I knew I’d end up becoming more involved with helping people who haven’t had the same opportunities I’ve been lucky enough to experience,’ said Andrew.

Andrew got off to a challenging start in his career, as a money market dealer three months after the 1987 stock

‘I have a particular focus on disadvantaged youth and education. My first encounter was in 1993, when I took

a gap year with my best friend (now wife) and worked with a volunteers abroad program at “Casa Guatemala”.

This is an orphanage established by a private Canadian Foundation— a home for orphaned, abandoned or abused children, located in the jungle on the banks of the beautiful Rio Dulce. The children were often sent there by local courts because of difficult (and usually violent) family issues.

‘An outbreak of cholera and a political coup eventually forced us to leave. A poor excuse, I know. Otherwise I may still be there.

‘I see my role on the Time for Kids Board as one of stewardship, capacity building and developing strategic partnerships.

‘I look forward to working with everyone involved with Time for Kids, and meeting more of our supporters.’

‘Mentors Matter’ partners … continued from page 1 ‘This sponsorship is one of several crime prevention initiatives the Board has adopted this year to complement our long-running commitment to crime reduction through our hotline and website which encourage people to provide information to police about criminals and their activities,’ Mr Prince said.

‘By assisting 20 vulnerable children through a credible and authorised mentoring program over the next 12 months, BankSA Crime Stoppers is making a tangible contribution to keeping young at-risk people out of the criminal justice system.’

Mentoring revolves around the shared interests and passions of the participants. For some the relationship develops around a shared love of

football or a football team, for others around other sporting or personal interests such as woodworking, building a go-kart or cooking.

One of the new mentoring projects is the Time for Kids masterchefs. This group of mentors and their young charges meet in a fully equipped commercial size kitchen, cook up a storm and share a great meal. In the future the Time for Kids masterchefs have plans to visit the Adelaide Central Market and local food producers in the Adelaide Hills.

Young participants form strong relationships with their mentors who can offer time, undivided attention, good advice and role models. Together they share their stories and we are often told that it is as valuable for

mentors as it is for participants.

One mentor recently commented, ‘As I didn’t have children of my own I wondered what I had to offer, but it turns out a lot! I’m not sure who looks forward to our get-togethers most, me or (my mentee). I always leave feeling on top of the world.’

Time for Kids has a dedicated team member, Karen Fairbank, leading Mentors Matter. Karen is urgently seeking 33 mentors to match with young people.

We hope you enjoy folding your bonus mentoring cootie catcher in this edition of Time for Kids news.

It helped me to remember how much fun it is to be a kid and how much fun it is to be with kids!

Building partnerships to support children and families At Time for Kids, supporting the children in ‘It’s changed the way I view my daughter’s our program involves forging beneficial tantrums,’ said one participant. ‘Instead of partnerships with a wide range of services. seeing her as naughty and demanding I now know she is struggling with We are very excited to be working in something. Instead of yelling at her and partnership with the Hand in Hand sending her to her room, I listen to her and Organisation to enhance the relationship after a while she is happy and enjoying between children and their caregivers and herself again. Thank you for making to strengthen families. We know that parenting so much easier!’ building the skills of the people who care for children has enormous benefits for We look forward to continuing our work everyone involved. with Hand In Hand to build family resilience and skills. The program was Parenting by Connection workshops were delivered by Parenting Educator, Ann recently held in the Time for Kids office, Hefferan who has also provided ongoing providing caregivers with practical tools to support, education and training to Time resolve universal family challenges for Kids staff. through positive parenting strategies, and giving hands-on support for managing If you would like more information about children’s behaviour. this Time for Kids initiative please contact Mia Clifford at Time for Kids at: Those who attended the course found it a mia@timeforkids.com.au or positive and helpful experience. visit www.handinhandparenting.org

Family fun at the farm for grandparents raising their grandchildren Thanks to the generosity of hosts, Ros and Peter Richardson, Time for Kids grandparents and their families were recently invited to spend a ‘day at the farm’ on Ros and Peter’s 50 acre Yatala Vale property. Children had the chance to enjoy a wide range of farmyard activities, including pony rides, golfing, quad bike rides and marshmallow-toasting on a bonfire. CFS volunteers also helped out on the day, and treated kids to rides and a tour of the fire truck. As well as enjoying all the great activities, the day provided a chance for grandparents to catch up with each other, and for the children to develop new friendships.

Thinking of joining this year’s City to Bay fun run?

Time for Kids staff will be brushing off their running shoes for this year’s run, and we’d love you to join us.

The City to Bay will be held on Sunday 18 September. It has three starts – 3k, 6k and 12k and extends from the City along Anzac Highway to Glenelg.

You don’t need to be an experienced runner to join the fun – you can choose to either run or walk, and past participants have ranged in age from toddlers in prams, to people aged over 90.

To be part of the Time for Kids team, simply register your participation at www.city-bay.org.au, and choose ‘Time for Kids’ as your group and team. We’ll keep you updated with event information as we get closer to the date, and post progress updates on the Time for Kids Facebook page.

Gallery On June 3 Charlotte and Tony Moore hosted a magnificent cocktail party to raise funds for Time for Kids. Thanks to the tireless work of the volunteer fundraising committee, over 200 guests enjoyed refreshments and entertainment and raised over $25,000 to enable Time for kids to match even more children with volunteer carers and mentors.

1 Alison Hains with Peter & Gordana Kleut; 2 Ken Williams, Clare & Andrew Bradley and Philippa Williams; 3 Josh Carr, Jo Wickes and John Phillips 4 Flip Keeves, Evelyn Kakoufas, Caroline Hockley and Jane McMahon; 5 Amanda Blair and Vickianne West 1

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Time for Kids 72 Fullarton Rd Norwood SA 5067 PO Box 932 Kent Town SA 5071 P: 08 8362 6311 | F: 08 8362 6711 E: info@timeforkids.com.au www.timeforkids.com.au Our office is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm.

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