Project Reports
Report on Family Weekends
The Mary MacKillop Foundation has regularly supported an initiative of Kuringai-Partners who organise a venue, accommodation, food and transport for disadvantaged Aboriginal Families from Penrith and Minto areas to spend a weekend together in beautiful natural surroundings.
Most of those attending are on welfare benefits, live in housing department dwellings and have experienced the distress that comes from struggling with alcohol and drug issues. The weekend provides them with an opportunity to share their culture and their stories. They experience an opportunity for bonding and networking that enable relationships to form and be strengthened.
The families are involved in the preparation of the weekends and spirituality forms a natural part of the weekend with the worship being developed by the group and all participating in appropriate ways.
The weekend provides opportunities for craft workshops and fun nights where all ages participated. Care was taken to provide a peaceful situation with adult supervision in which children were free to enjoy themselves safely and adolescents found a place to express themselves appropriately.
As the evaluation summary noted 'the weekend at Mittagong was success with a lot of participation and shared duties at the venue.'
