Children's champions

How is it that three ordinary people from the same community have been honoured by being named Children’s Champions for 2007 by the National Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect?

I guess there are few communities in Australia that have worked so hard to change their status of social disadvantage, as Windale.

In 1999 Windale was identified as in the top 1 per cent of worst postcodes for child abuse and neglect reporting to the Department of Community Services. Thanks to an injection of government funding for a string of community initiatives, which galvanised volunteers, by 2003 the suburb had done an extraordinary about face, moving to the top 25 per cent.

Since that time, those workers have been replaced by a new generation, including Children’s Champions, grandparents Carmel Adamson, Roselea Newburn, Ray Smith and dozens of other selfless volunteers who give freely of their time and commitment to maintain those ground-breaking changes.

Meanwhile, some sectors of the community continue to taunt Windale, making jokes at the expense of residents who worked so hard to turn their community around.

One local radio station regularly runs a segment by “Wayne from Windale” which presents an insulting view of their community.

But isn’t the journalist’s code of ethics and agenda about presenting a balanced view and keeping up with the times?

Perceptions die hard, but I wonder if those who continue to rubbish those less fortunate than themselves understand that they are part of the problem for communities like Windale, not part of the solution.

The real solutions lie with people like the Children’s Champions, but it’s up to the wider community to give them a break - and the community their due.

“We just want to be seen and treated like everyone else,” says Carmel, the finalist winner of the 2007 National Child Protection Week Children’s Champion Award. Carmel left her home in Sydney to care for her three Indigenous Windale grandchildren after a family crisis.

Originally visiting the local Alcazar community house for support with her new role as full-time single mother at the age of 54, Carmel soon began to help at the house and offer support herself to other struggling grandparents. She is now working to establish a youth drop-in centre where teenagers can hang out and participate in communal activities.

Roselea Newburn, a grandmother of five, has spent the past four years working with the community to help dispel the myth that Indigenous kids don’t need to go to school. On more than half a dozen committees, she liaises with a Home School Liaison Officer, local shops, the library and other places to engage children in a positive way.

She is passionate about the health and wellbeing of children and has been instrumental in working with the local Aboriginal Health Services to bring services to Windale. Like a dog with a bone, she doesn’t give up. If it doesn’t work one way she will keep working until she finds a solution.

Ray Smith, also a grandfather, is an old hand. He has been volunteering his time in the Windale community for 30 years, organising sporting teams and events and now running the Rangers program, similar to scouts.

He also co-ordinates the local church soup kitchen, where kids come with their parents for a communal meal, but, with his eye always on the most needy, he is trying to convince the church to extend the program to lone kids.

“We have to reach out and help those who most need it,” says Ray.

With Child Protection Week starting last Saturday, on September 8, if we all made one effort this week, and every week, to reach out to a child in our community or street, what a burgeoning difference that could make.

Not everybody has the time to extend a helping hand. But even changing an attitude to be less judgmental and more supportive, to encourage kids to be the best they can be, goes a long way.

We only need to look at Windale, an example to the rest of us, to see what monumental changes can be made by a community that has children’s interests as a priority.