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Beyond Our Core Business

Homework Hub

 

CareSouth’s vision to create a positive future for the children and young people we work with every day was a key factor in the development and launch of The Homework Hub two years ago. The weekly program is designed to help students with their school work and also provide a safe space where children and young people, ranging in age from 5 to 18, can meet and develop friendships with others on a similar path to their own.

 

Volunteer mentors from diverse backgrounds, including a police officer and teaching, social work and psychology students from the University of Wollongong and TAFE, tutor and mentor the students both academically and socially.

 

The mutually beneficial program gives mentors the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in their chosen field while providing positive educational experiences for vulnerable children and young people.

 

Homework Hub activities are tailored to students’ needs and include all key learning areas as well as yoga and mindfulness techniques to promote self-regulation. Students are always encouraged to read during each Homework Hub session and are rewarded with a sticker. When they achieve five stickers, students can take home a book of their choice from our library to keep as their own.

 

The Homework Hub not only improves numeracy and literacy but promotes social engagement by connecting students from similar backgrounds, provides positive role modelling through mentoring, improves emotional regulation using mindfulness and yoga and helps students build capacity and resilience.

 

An outcomes assessment of the Homework Hub has found that improving confidence, school engagement and life skills leads to better educational outcomes and increased social inclusion. A Social Return on Investment (SROI) study – an outcomes-based assessment using evidence and research to determine the impact of a program against the investment – found that for every dollar invested in the Homework Hub there was a $2 social return, thereby increasing social and economic inclusion for vulnerable students in the long-term.

 

The Homework Hub is just one of the many ways in which CareSouth goes beyond our core business to create positive futures for children and young people.

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Community Hub

 

When CareSouth opened its purpose-built Berkeley building three years ago CEO Deb Tozer wanted the space to belong not just to our staff and clients but also to the community.

 

Deb and her team created CareSouth’s Community Hub with a vision to build cohesive communities by bringing together people from all walks of life. Each week CareSouth’s Community Hub runs activities which focus on improving the health and well-being of staff, children, young people and the greater community. These include free health screening checks, educational and physical activities and healthy communal meals.

 

A healthy community is a happy community and CareSouth’s Hub Development Officer Natalie Nicastri has been working closely with local service providers to ensure our community has access to obesity workshops, dental clinics, and eye screening tests. These Health Hubs are a regular, free service, with over 40 children seeing the dentist and optometrist in the Community Hub, some for the first time.

 

“An 11-year-old who visited our health hub had been living with the pain of broken teeth for three years. His mother hesitated to get help because she was embarrassed,” said Natalie “But he saw a dentist for the first time at CareSouth and both the dentist and the mother shed a tear as they made plans to have treatment done without cost.”

 

CareSouth has partnered with Go4Fun to run school holiday clinics out of the Hub. The free 10-week healthy lifestyle program for kids aged 7-13 who are above a healthy weight focuses on improving eating habits, fitness and confidence. Natalie has also set up a weekly community walking group to reinforce the importance of a healthy lifestyle and self-care.

 

Communal eating and growing fresh produce also plays a key part in CareSouth’s Community Hub development plan. Each month CareSouth holds a Meet and Eat where staff and students from Illawarra Sports High volunteer their time to cook up a feast for the local community.

 

“Meet and Eat numbers are increasing each month, with families from across the Illawarra enjoying the opportunity to eat out and catch up with friends,” said Natalie. “We were able to get students from the Work Related Alternative Program prepare and serve food in the Berkeley Community Hub on the first Thursday of each month and this counts towards their school achievement record,” said Natalie.

 

CareSouth, in partnership with Wollongong Botanic Garden and Berkeley Neighbourhood Centre, has also been involved in a community bush tucker garden beside our Berkeley office. A horticulturist from the Wollongong Botanic Gardens has donated 30 native, edible plants and will teach the community, including young people from Berkeley Neighbourhood Centre’s Youth Project, how to grow, maintain and care for them.

 

“Gardening gives everyone the opportunity to contribute,” said Natalie. “And with a little effort we get immediate results that we all can see. The kids are taking ownership of the project and are genuinely excited to see what they have produced.”

 

The Hub also runs supported playgroups and Music Time Twist sessions for children who are not yet in school to encourage literacy, learning, play, and movement.

 

“My vision is for the Hub to become a gathering place within the Berkeley community, providing space for locals and other service providers to participate in activities and to access services,” said Natalie.  “I’m always looking for new opportunities to offer appropriate activities. It’s been great getting to know the local community and being able to respond to their needs.”

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