Foster Care Christmas Party
Save the date: December 14th for the Christmas pool party. The venue is yet to be confirmed, but be assured that there will be fun, food and a visit from Santa. Keep your eye out for email updates. We will let you know when everything is confirmed. 🎄🎅🎁
Congratulations and thank you to...
Luana and Ken Turner- 12/10/2023
Deborah and Tom Mayne – 16/10/2023
Jessica Davis-Graham – 19/10/2023
who have reached their one year anniversary of caring at Allambi Care 🎉
Hunter Interagency Picnic
After a few years of cancellations, the picnic finally was able to go ahead. There were lots of activities for carers and children to enjoy. Donations for the lucky ticket prizes were generous and many Carers went home with a prize. Carers from Allambi commented on the fun that their kids had and how much they enjoyed themselves. The Allambi team had a great setup to cook and serve gluten-free and vegan sausage sandwiches to hungry people. 😊
The Festive Season - not always a happy time for our children and young people
The festive season can be an unhappy time for our kids. There may be many reasons for this unhappiness and their trauma can be expressed through behaviours that can mask fear or shame. Their stress responses (flight, flight, freeze or fawn) can resemble anti-social behaviours and when negative language is used, they internalise it, leading to negative labels. The University of Sydney and the Australian Childhood Foundation have created a guide: 'Words Matter: Trauma sensitive language with children'. It’s important for us to remember that our words matter when we are talking with our children. 
My Forever Family - Recorded Webinars
These webinars are free for authorised Carers. You can learn at your own pace, in your own time, from the convenience of your own home. Carers, guardians and adoptive parents from out-of-home care, can participate in My Forever Family NSW webinars from anywhere in NSW. We regularly add new recorded webinars to ensure you have access to the highest quality, up-to-date content. Check back regularly for new opportunities.
All training content, including recorded webinars are available in the Carer Portal. To access them, please login or register for the Carer Portal. Once you have completed a webinar you will be able to access your Certificate of Completion, to download and share with your agency.
Whole-Brain Strategy #7:
This month we have the Whole Brain Strategy #7: Remember to Remember: making Recollection a part of your Family’s daily Life.
Last month we took a look at integrating implicit and explicit memories with Whole-Brain Strategy #6: Use the Remote of the Mind: Replaying Memories. The next strategy related to memory is Whole-Brain Strategy #7: Remember to Remember: Making Recollection a Part of Your Family’s Daily Life, and it gives us another way to help our children integrate implicit and explicit memories:
“Memory is like so many functions of the brain: the more we exercise it, the stronger it becomes. That means that when you give your children lots of practice—remembering by having them tell and retell their own stories—you improve their ability to integrate implicit and explicit memories. So our second suggestion is simply that you remember to remember.”
To help your children remember you can:
- Ask questions
- Play guessing games
- Make a special/memory book
We assume you talk to your children, so practicing remembering is not just conversation. Asking questions and playing guessing games will help our children become aware of recent events and connect them to their present feelings. The goal is to help your children understand their experiences because sometimes the past effects the present even though we may not be aware. That’s why we want to integrate our children’s implicit and explicit memories, so they can become aware of what they are remembering.
We practice “Remember to Remember” when we run into a case of the “I wants” or the “I can’ts.” When we were at family camp in Colorado, Elise had the opportunity to choose how she wanted to spend the day. If we noticed she was getting tired from her constant playing and planned a rest time, there was much whining from Elise about we never let her do anything. She was focusing on the one time we set a limit, said no instead of remembering all the fun she had been having. Instead of arguing, we took the time to remember the fun activities we had gotten to do each day. We continued to take time to remember the fun activities we were doing the rest of week, and Elise was able to handle the transitions between fun and rest better. She needed help learning what to focus on.
I think this exercise is as important for parents as it is our children. At the end of each chapter in The Whole-Brain Child is a section for parents. The end of chapter 4 addresses, “Integrating Ourselves: Moving Our Own Memories from Implicit to Explicit:”
“Unexamined (or dis-integrated) memories cause all kinds of problems for any adult trying to live a healthy, relational life…Implicit memories can trigger responses from us that cause us to act in ways we don’t want to… So the next time you find yourself reacting a bit too strongly when you’re upset with your kids, ask yourself, ‘Is my response here making sense?’ … By integrating your implicit and explicit memories and shining the light of awareness on difficult moments from your past, you can gain insight into how your past is impacting your relationship with your children … Then you can bring your former experiences into the present and weave them into the larger story of your life…You can make sense of our own life, which will help your kids do the same with theirs.”
I’m not sure you can play a guessing game with yourself, but you can learn to be more reflective and pay attention to your feelings. I have identified moments where I feel at odds with the situation, but I am still sorting out the source. Even if I may not like what I find out about myself or my past feelings, I want to keep working on myself, so I can teach what I learn to my children and improve our relationship. I want to develop and nurture our relationship, and I hope you can do the same with your children.
Do you have a child/young person who loves to scooter?
There are 8 playgrounds with Scooter tracks in the Hunter/Newcastle/Lake Macquarie areas for you to explore.
- Bridges Hill Park Playground (Cessnock)
- Lake Macquarie Variety Playground (Speers Point)
- Maitland Park All-Abilities Playground (Maitland)
- Islington Park (Islington)
- Salt Ash Pump Track (Salt Ash)
- The Station (Newcastle East)
- Wallsend Active Hub (Wallsend)
- Wirraway Park (Thornton)
Did you know that Event Cinemas at Glendale hold monthly Sensory-friendly movie screenings for families?
The sessions are held on a Sunday and allow children with sensory needs and their families to enjoy their favourite films in a safe and accepting environment. There is modified lighting and sound, with cinema lights dimmed and the movie volume lowered for sensitive ears. The sensory session is the first screening of the day.
For more information, visit the Event Cinemas website at https://www.eventcinemas.com.au/EventsFestivals/SensoryFriendlyScreenings#cinemas=21
My Forever Family NSW
- Oct 24 – 10am to 12pm | Building your Child’s Emotional Awareness through Emotion Coaching
BALLINA SURF CLUB - 65 Lighthouse Parade, East Ballina
This training will cover how to build your child’s emotional awareness through emotional coaching. Emotional intelligence is a set of skills that define how well we perceive, understand, respond and express emotions in ourselves and in others. These critical skills lead to better well-being and better capacity to learn and grow. Children who have early trauma and attachment disruption can miss out key relational experiences that help these skills to develop.
- Oct 24 – 12.30pm to 2.30pm | Building your Child’s Emotional Awareness through Play and Art
BALLINA SURF CLUB - 65 Lighthouse Parade, East Ballina
The focus of this training will provide carers with the opportunity to engage in art making to build skills and ideas in using art and play to support children and young people in their care to regulate, express and connect through art and play.
- Oct 25 – 10am to 12pm | Self-Care for Carers
BALLINA SURF CLUB - 65 Lighthouse Parade, East Ballina
Please join us in-person for a lesson on how Yoga practices can be integrated into your self-care routine.
- Oct 25 - 12.30pm to 2.30pm | Carers code of conduct: It’s not just a piece of paper
BALLINA SURF CLUB - 65 Lighthouse Parade, East Ballina
Come with us on a learning journey as we explore the code of conduct’s purpose, compliance and administration requirements. The carer’s responsibility to the agency. The agency’s responsibility and how carers can utilise the Code of Conduct to improve the carer experience and ensure the best outcomes for children and young people in care.
- Oct 26 – 10am to 12pm | Online | The impact of domestic/family violence on children and young people
This session explores the types of domestic and family violence. How we can understand the impact on our kids who witness this violence. Understanding the impact of this violence in the Australian child protection system. Identify the best ways of supporting children who have witnessed this violence.
- Nov 1 – 8.30pm to 11.30pm | Online | Helping children to understand their own behaviours using narratives
This is advanced therapeutic parenting training and focuses on helping children to link their behaviours and fears to their internal world and history using empathic commentary and the curiosity element of PACE.
- Nov 1 - 10am to 1pm | Online | The Impact of Pornography on Children and Youth in OoHC
This two hour workshop session focuses in the impacts of pornography on children and young people, particularly to assist those who work with youth in the Out of Home Care setting.
- Nov 3 - 10am to 11am | Online | Ask a Cultural Expert!
Join into this session where we can talk through the issues we are experiencing with our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids in a safe, supportive environment.
- Nov 7 - 10am to 12pm | Online | Exploring Permanency Options
This session will provide an overview of guardianship and adoption
- Nov 8 - 10am to 2pm | Online | Cultural Connections: the Carers role
This workshop will be facilitated by AbSec who will equip you with the skills and knowledge to support the implementation of Cultural Care Plans and Cultural Support Plans for the Aboriginal children in your care.
