The Farm in Galong aims to provide a place of restoration for women and children affected by substance abuse. Their life skills program help women with the support they need to emerge from a life of chaos. Women go to the Farm often having missed out on the basic things like learning to cook, clean, budget, and garden. With the help of a well-being coach, they will gain these life skills.
With this new found competence comes increased confidence and self-efficacy, helping them to recover from trauma and low self-esteem. The program also helps them to meet the requirements of child protection authorities who often want to see these changes before they will consider returning the children to their mother’s care.
The Farm believes in holistic long-term care for its residents so that they can achieve sustained recovery from the problems that have brought them here. Over a twelve month period we expect our clients to be capable of running a home on their own and able to care for their children responsibly.
The Farm's model of care is the Therapeutic Community Model. Part of the requirements of this model is that the participants run the facility themselves once they prove they can. We will know they have achieved the levels of practical responsibility for themselves and their environment required for restoration by day-to-day monitoring.
A group of 12 women will benefit from the completion of the life skills program but the flow-on effect will be onto their children with the mother's achieving restoration of them because they have proven capable of giving them a good standard of care.
A cookbook was written and published by the clients who participated in this project in 2020. It clearly showcased their capacities for cooking, planning menus and budgeting on a shoestring. We called this cookbook Volume 1. The group who participate in this life skills project will plan, design and publish Volume 2 to show the impact of the project for this group.
The Farm in Galong is a unique place of peace and restoration for women recovering from addiction, domestic violence and other life limiting circumstances. We aim to provide women with a safe and nurturing space in which to grow in confidence, develop new skills and establish a brighter future for themselves and for their children.
We specialise in holistic, long-term support and firmly believe in setting women up to start afresh. By receiving expert educational and psychological care, our residents gain qualifications and skills that will help them to build a life of their own.
While The Farm is a place of restoration, it is not a holiday. Our women work hard towards a better life for themselves and their children, and we are proud of the progress they make. For us, success is about giving women the best possible chance of a happy future with their family.
In real terms, this means the women leave The Farm with:
• A nationally-recognised qualification that will allow them to find a job.
• Custody of their children, confidence in their motherhood and a plan for the child’s future education and needs, where possible.
• An improved relationship with their wider family (e.g. siblings, parents) thanks to facilitated reunion sessions.
• Access to a new home, a new support network and employment so that we know they are going from a position of strength to strength.
• Usable life and wellness skills, including knowledge of exercise, nutrition, and budgeting.
Think lens, think glasses. Glasses correct limitations of vision and enable clearer sight. And so it is with a gender lens, which helps us to see more clearly the role gender plays in shaping our male and female lives, our work, experience and choices.
Also known as Australian Women Donors Network (ABN: 28 141 197 471), Australians Investing in Women is a registered charity endorsed by the Australian Tax Office as a deductible gift recipient (DGR1) under a special listing, all donations over $2 are tax deductible.