St Mary's Support and Accommodation Program - Toowong
The Church of England Rescue Home (St Mary’s) was opened on September 21 1894 by the Sisters of the Society of the Sacred Advent, at West End. In 1898, St Mary’s Home moved to Taringa (Toowong) and was overseen by the Sisters until 1907 when lay management took over. In 1992 St Mary’s became part of Anglicare Brisbane and now as Spiritus since 2005.
Today, St Mary’s Support and Accommodation Program is a service for young pregnant and parenting women under 25 years, who are homeless or at risk. At St Mary’s we aim to provide a safe and supportive environment to young women and children that meets their needs as determined by them, as well as respecting their choices. We work to empower women to enable them to make their own decisions. We also aim to resource them to take control of their life and to participate fully in their community.
Housing support services
- Residential onsite Accommodation Program based at Toowong accommodates 26 women, 22 children.
- 3 short to medium term community properties located close to the residential program for families whose support needs may still be high.
- 1 long term community property.
- `ParkSide’ – a collaborative community housing project undertaken with two other Spiritus programs Alina and the Anglican Women’s Hostel, which offers medium to long term housing via 6 townhouses.
- ‘Meldrum Lodge’ another collaborative community housing project undertaken with Spiritus' Alina and Anglican Women’s Hostel which offers medium to long term housing via 6 townhouses.
- ‘Ridgegate’ 8 community units located on the north side of Brisbane offering medium to long term housing.
Programs
- ‘GET EQUIPPED’ - Life skills program which focuses on educating and equiping young families with independent living skills to enable them to maintain a roof over their head and provide a safe environment for their children.
- ‘LET’S GO TRIPPIN’ – workers take families away to experience a fun day outing with their children (role modeling program). This is run throughout the year. The young women also are given the opportunity to go horse riding and ice skating throughout the year with childcare being provided by our service. This activity gives the young women much needed time-out from their children which allows the young women to relax, have fun and be young for the day.
- Parents, Health, Education and Wisdom Program –We deliver an eight week program focusing on communication and interaction with your child and for half an hour at the end of each workshop, the young mums and their children are videotaped interacting with their child, which they can view and analyze at the next workshop.
- Resource Centre – there is a large space to conduct workshops, forums, training and meeting area. The centre is fully equipped with educational and developmental resources for children.
- TIME OUT Childcare Program – a program that provides parents with time away from their children while children are cared for in Family day care. (early intervention program for families at risk of Departmental intervention).