Last Saturday, the Office of the Guardian’s beloved safety symbols – OoG and Nunga OoG – walked, danced, and hopped the 3.5km pageant track that led Father Christmas to Adelaide’s Town Hall, and marked the official welcoming of the ‘big guy in red’ to Australia.
This year’s pageant was a special milestone for the Office, celebrating Nunga OoG’s very first appearance.
Welcome to Claire, our new Advocate for children and young people in care.
Often, we hear about children and young people in kinship or foster care living with families – and, in fact, this is the most common type of out-of-home care arrangement here in South Australian and nationally. However, there are over 700 children and young people in South Australia who are not living with families, but instead living in what are technically known as “Residential Care Facilities”.
Our office knows that children and young people in residential houses can face particular issues and vulnerabilities. This is why we operate a “Child and Young Person’s Visitor’ Program”.
In our role as advocates and helping to project the voices of children and young in care, we are often privileged to build long lasting, respectful connections with the young people we work alongside. Felicity Graham is an amazing woman who we have the absolutely honour of having such a relationship with.
We are pleased to welcome three new advocates to our team. The new team members come from varied backgrounds, and we know that their extensive and diverse experience will be of great benefit to our office and to the children and young people who call us in need of support and advocacy.
This is a story of how our vulnerable young people caught up in child protection and youth justice systems need our love, care and support. They need to be listened to, have a say in decisions that affect them and know that we believe in them.
We are pleased to share our updated Charter of Rights for Children and Young People in Care Flashcards are now available to order!
As the refreshed Child and Young Person’s Visitor Program gets into full swing, we wanted to introduce you to the new team.
The first action plan under the new Safe and Supported framework designed to make sure that children grow up safe and connected to their family, community and culture has just been launched.
I still consider myself a newbie to the roles of Guardian, Child and Young Person’s Visitor and Training Centre Visitor, with four months having passed since I began. All I can say, four months in: I am worried… and you should be too.
We acknowledge and respect Aboriginal People as the traditional owners
and custodians of the land we live and work on, their living culture and their unique role in the life of South Australia.