House debates

Monday, 26 November 2018

Statements by Members

Lilly Pilly

4:42 pm

Photo of Bert Van ManenBert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the great work of Lilly Pilly, a supervised children's contact centre in my electorate of Forde. Two years ago, Darren Caulfield, together with his mother, Pamela, an experienced community and social worker within the Indigenous migrant and community services sector, founded Lilly Pilly, which aims to provide a private, safe and neutral environment for supervised visits to occur between children and their parents. Darren and Pamela's goal is simple: keep families together.

They recognise that contact visits are important not only for the child but for the parents, who are often experiencing difficult times. For a lot of parents just an hour with their children can be the one-on-one time they need to get through. Time with the family is invaluable, and Lilly Pilly is keeping children connected to their parents and extended families regardless of their history. Lilly Pilly facilitates a need for visits after hours and over weekends, and Darren is proud to see the centre fill up every weekend with approximately fifty-fifty mothers and fathers arranging visits to see their children.

It's great organisations like supervised children's contact centre, Lilly Pilly, that go above and beyond to reach out and offer support to families experiencing hardship while changing the lives of parents and children in our local community. I applaud Darren and Pamela for their hard work and dedication to bettering the lives of families in my electorate.