About Us

 

ALICE'S COTTAGES INC.  is a medium-term, supported housing scheme for women with a history of psychiatric illness and/or psychological distress who have dependent children in their care. They also need to be homeless or facing homelessness in the near future.  This means that there is a complicated referral procedure unsuited for crisis situations.

Each family is accommodated in their own house within the Blacktown LGA.                                                                      

Blacktown is an Outer Western suburb of Sydney with its own crisis care team and is set to be one of the largest growth areas of New South Wales.

Families accepted into our service are given a team of workers comprising:

• A primary support worker for the mother
• A backup worker 
• A child focused worker.  If there are several children in the family, then two child focused workers will be assigned to that family's team.

Families are visited once or twice a week depending on their needs and the scheme also provides a fortnightly lunch day for the women.  This enables them to socialise with each other and some weeks the staff will also organise educational groups or outings.  The children are given at least one outing in the school holidays, suitable to their age group.  There is also a playgroup run fortnightly for all pre- school aged children.

Referrals may be made by other community agencies or by the woman herself.  When vacancies occur staff will interview all referrals and then must decide which family has the greatest need, and who it is believed would benefit the most from being accommodated in the service. 

Alice's Cottages Inc is a non-government agency funded by the Department of Community Services under the National SAAP programme.  Our scheme is named after an Aboriginal activist Alice Briggs who fought tirelessly for the rights of not only Aboriginal women in general, but for those in particular who suffered with a psychiatric illness.

Traditionally women with a history of psychiatric illness are not seen as being capable of caring for their children, and are therefore at a greater risk of having their children removed from their care.  However, it has been demonstrated that with some long term support and assistance, many women have been able to have an illness and still maintain their mothering skills.

It is therefore our aim to make as many women as possible, despite having a mental illness, achieve the ability to have a meaningful relationship with their children through stable and affordable housing and on-going consistant care from their team.

ALICE'S COTTAGES PHYLOSOPHY OF SERVICE.

As a feminist service we have the belief that women in this society are systematically disadvantaged, especially those who are poor, homeless, psychiatrically distressed and have dependent children.

We believe that all women are entitled to have the opportunity to access all resources, to experience equal status in society and have the freedom to reach their full potential.

Our objective is to assist women in developing their own independent living skills, as well as, their parenting skills thereby enabling them to live with their children in a secure, nurturing and happy environment.  Each member of the family is encouraged to develop and ultimately achieve his/her own goals.