Busy Day at Ingle Farm

I spent today at LCC's Ingle Farm location, the Family Zone. They have a sort of partnership with a primary (elementary) school and occupy a building on the school's campus. Here they provide many weekly services for families including English classes, day care, Busy Fingers, parent groups (parenting skills and techniques), post pregnancy support group, Move & Groove (sort of a toddler exercise/dance class, very cute), an Afghan women's group, new mums baby group, twin group, and playgroups. In addition to the weekly services Family Zone also holds classes about parenting - from discipline to cooking. Much of my time will be spent caring for children while their parent/s are in groups or classes. The Family Zone does some really great things here and I hope to be involved in a lot of it.

Today was pretty busy for an introductory day. I arrived at 7:30am to help serve breakfast to kids who hadn't gotten breakfast at home. We made 5 1/2 loaves worth of toast (some with butter, jam, and vegemite), 1 platter of cheese sandwiches, and 2 platters of pancakes. Everything was eaten and this breakfast program is so popular they are looking for ways to fund it for everyday, not just every Monday.

After serving breakfast and cleaning up I accompanied a social work graduate student doing a placement at Family Zone on a 2 hour home visit. The mother stays home with the 5 children and home schools the two eldest (9 and 6 years). While they were learning, the other social work student and I played with the 4 and 2 year old while the 5 month old mostly slept.

We returned back to Family Zone for lunch. After lunch I helped watch the children of mums who were taking part in Busy Fingers. This group of women are those who have been or are currently in an abusive relationship and it's a safe place for them to come and talk and get support from staff at Family Zone. After the group had finished I was packing up my bag and joined a discussion with a couple other staff. Almost at once I wished I had packed up a few minutes earlier because the story was so grave.

One of the women in the Busy Fingers group had a 5 month old baby who I had been watching and playing with much of the 2 hours Busy Fingers was in session. The woman had announced during the group that she was pregnant again - 9 weeks in fact. During her pregnancy with her now 5 month old, the woman's husband had threatened her numerous times and once told her he would kick the baby out of her if she didn't do what he demanded. To be in such a threatening situation again and so soon has to be incredibly terrible. The woman is seeing a professional counselor and weighing her options about the new pregnancy.

It's things like this that need prevention. I don't know much history about her and her husband or how long she's been attending the group, but hopefully Busy Fingers will help her feel supported and staff at Family Zone can listen and give advice when appropriate. Right before I left we said a prayer for her and her children.

Although the light shone on such a sad story today, I'm looking forward to more experience here and hopefully some uplifting news.