Family
The refugee experience can have a big impact on family relationships. As they settle in a new country, many refugees endure additional pressures on their relationships as a result of trauma, family separation, loss and grief, significant periods of time spent in refugee camps, and cultural differences once in Australia.
The Brotherhood supports newly arrived families by offering family support and family relationship services including counselling, positive parenting guidance, and support groups for both women and men, through the Ecumenical Migration Centre and the Napier Street Child and Family Resource Centre.
Our Stronger Families program provides services to refugee families whose relationships are under strain, to help them overcome any problems that arise during settlement in a new country, and build and sustain healthy, happy relationships.
Most families can benefit from support, particularly at times of stress or difficulty. The Brotherhood’s Family Support program works with refugee parents and their children to assist in the family’s transition to a new country.
HIPPY is a two-year home-based early childhood program that works with parents of young children in disadvantaged communities. Parents are trained and supported to help their preschool-age children develop literacy and numeracy skills and prepare for a successful start to school life.
Young children born to refugee families have often experienced prolonged periods in refugee camps and exposure to inhumane conditions. Their parents are often recovering from trauma, grief and loss. This program reaches out to refugee children through home visits in the City of Yarra in Melbourne.