APM ParentsNext - Future Possibilities in Gippsland transcript

Tracey Jackson: Hi, and welcome to APM's ParentsNext program. I'm Tracey Jackson, general manager here at APM, and I'd like to start by saying how excited we are to have an opportunity to work with you and your families on realizing your own possibilities for the future. 

Here at APM, our teams across South Australia, Victoria and Cairns, are here to support you on your own individual journeys. We know that being a parent can be one of the most rewarding experiences. However, we also know it can be pretty challenging at times. So we're here to provide you with the supports, the networks, accessibility to training and programs that are going to assist you in being able to develop your own pathways. 

Throughout this video, we'll share with you some information that will outline training opportunities, share with you the community stakeholders that we have partnerships with in your local areas. And we're also really excited to share with you some stories from some of our parents across the country, who've realized their own successes, and hopefully you'll have an opportunity to find someone that you feel that you can align with. And it might even spark some ideas that you'd like to then take away and have a talk to your local consultant about. So let's have a look at some parents, just like you, who've started their journeys in realizing their own future possibilities. 

Rebecca: Hi, my name is Rebecca. I am 24 years of age and I have a four year old daughter. I'm a Gunaikurnai Monero Bidwal woman from [inaudible 00:01:38] area on Gunaikurnai country, and I've been with ParentsNext program for approximately a year now. When I first came here, I'm not going to lie, I was homeless. I was mentally not in the right head space. I was going through some financial issues, and then Jess come along into my life and she helped me get onto the appropriate resources. And she was chasing people up like no tomorrow as well. She really helped me, pushed me in the right direction. At the end of the day, it all comes down to you, really. It's just, what do you want to do? What do you want to do to help your children to be the next you? Do you want to be the role model to prevent them from being another statistic. Education is the key. ParentsNext for me has opened up doors to my self worth, really. 

Jessica: Hi, my name's Jessica. I'm the business manager for Gippsland. When Rebecca first presented, she always knew she wanted to be a police officer, but she was unsure how to reach that goal. After researching with Rebecca, we found that Victoria Police were running some training sessions down in Melbourne. Bec was able to attend that for a couple of weeks and realized that she really wanted to work in the justice system. So we supported Rebecca to gain employment down at our local courthouse as the security guard. And just recently, Bec has also gained further employment as a paralegal. Bec is a great inspiration to the community and she knows what she wants to do, but she just doesn't always know how to do it. So at ParentsNext, we were able to guide her, and give her the resources and information she needed to be able to get that job done. 

Naomi Dekaste: My name's Naomi Dekaste. I have four children, two boys, two girls. I've been in the ParentsNext program for 12 months and have loved every minute of it. I was actually quite nervous to come in to see Belinda. Obviously I haven't done anything like this before. Never been with a job provider or anything in my whole life. So when I come in to see Belinda, she ask a few questions and I'm like, I'm too old to do any of this stuff. But she was quite supportive and put me onto a program for Cert IV with Warner Institute. I've completed it in July and started working. To anyone that does come in, accept every bit of help and advice that Belinda gives, and jump into everything that comes at you. You'll get a job out of it eventually. Belinda definitely supported all the way through, so it was fantastic. Without her, I don't think I would've even started the course. So, it was good. 

Alison Wells: Hi, my name is Alison Wells. I'm a partnership manager with the Warner Institute. The Warner Institute is a private registered training organization. Naomi's gorgeous. So I rang her and invited her to an information session. Naomi is always very forthcoming with information and a really lovely person and spent probably an hour and a half to two hours with her, just talking about the program, what she might expect from it, and how she would go about undertaking her studies and enrolling. And in that session, she chose to enroll. 

Anyone who is interested or who is just starting with ParentsNext, I can't recommend it highly enough. It really is about empowering people to make changes within their lives, but not just to their lives, but to their children's lives and to their family's lives, and that's so important. 

Belinda Galea: I'm Belinda. I work for APM ParentsNext in Traralgon. I work with Naomi in Traralgon. I've been working with Naomi for about 12 months, 14 months now. When Naomi first come to ParentsNext, she was quite reluctant about the program, a little bit confused and frustrated on what she was supposed to be doing, couldn't understand why she was here. There was a few suggestions made to Naomi and she was quite excited about aged care. So we followed that path. We contacted Warner Institute and I spoke with Alison. I work quite closely with Alison. The change in Naomi didn't take long, which was quite surprising to me. Once Naomi was opened up to options and possibilities, it wasn't hard for Naomi to get excited about education. So that was good. Just to see the change from when Naomi first come to see me, to her up there receiving her graduation certificate was fantastic. And knowing at that point, that she'd actually secured employment, it was overwhelming for both of us, I think. It was a journey, well taken, I think. So yeah, it was good. 

Nathan Ford: My name is Nathan Ford, a single father of two boys, five and nine, and I've been with ParentsNext with Belinda for about probably over 12 months now. APM have helped with a lot of the setting up for courses and stuff, direction of where to go to next, or what to look at next to try and gain employment, just get ready for that. So that's been a big help. APM referred me to, Save the Children, to help me with Jackson. Save the Children definitely helped with little ideas and advice to get Jackson toilet trained, which has been really successful. He's quite good now with that. So yeah, there's definitely a lot of help here, that's helped me with Jackson, as a single father. Coming to ParentsNext definitely has made a difference for me and my two boys. 

Belinda Galea: Nathan was quite reluctant. He didn't understand the program and he was very concerned about it impacting him and Jackson mainly. So I reassured Nathan that he could bring Jackson along to the appointment, that we're very kid friendly. There's a lot of things for the children to do while we conduct our appointments. Referred Nathan over to Save the Children, which is a supported play group. The reason I did that is because I knew the supports would be there for him with Jackson's behavioral issues that he was having. So Nathan went along to his first supported playgroup and I remember getting a phone call from Nathan. He was just so excited because there was a family support worker that turned up to the playgroup session that he was attending, and they referred him onto a pediatrician, and also gave him a lot of tools to work with Jackson and his toilet training. 

If you are new to the ParentsNext program, I urge you to work with your pathway planner and express what your goals are, because ultimately, that's what we want to do. We want to help you get to your goals and we're here to do that. That's what we're here for. 

Lauren Beecroft: Hi, I'm Lauren from Save the Children. I'm team leader at East Gippsland and Latrobe sites. The Play 2 Learn program has a family support worker component in it as well as early childhood educator. So the early childhood educator can help with the families' concerns about their child's development, and the family support worker can help with any concerns in relation to what might be happening in a family environment that families are feeling uncomfortable about, and may not have anyone else to chat with about that. So we have people here that are trained and they are able to help you with linking you into any other services that might help you with that support. Because they're trained and qualified staff, they can also provide strategies on how to deal with those behaviors. It's a great place to be part of, and yeah, we really enjoy working with families. 

Tracey Jackson: So thank you for giving APM the opportunity to share with you, some of our parents' stories, introduce you to some of the networks and partnerships that we have across the country. We hope that you've found some value in what we've shared with you today, and that we've left you with the opportunity to really think about what the right next step is for you on your own journey, in establishing your possibilities for the future. We look forward to working with you.