Ngaliya – Permanency Support Program
Through our Permanency Support Program (Ngaliya), Yerin is committed to supporting Aboriginal children and young people who are unable to live with their parents. This program aims to support families as well as provide support and healing for those who have been adversely affected. Our practices are informed by an understanding of personal and intergenerational trauma and seeks to holistically address individual and community needs from a culturally responsive framework.
Yerin seeks to keep families together and preserve culture. We believe that community and cultural connection is an essential part of remediating past and current struggles and for building strong and positive futures for Aboriginal children, young people and their families. We know that past government and social policies and practices have contributed to an over-representation of Aboriginal children, young people and families in welfare and state care-reliant programs. The lived experience of the Stolen Generations is reverberating for us, and we strive to not let history be repeated.
Providing culturally responsive care arrangements
Respite
Typically, a respite placement is between 2 and 28 days. A child or young person may need a carer for one weekend or during school holidays. It is designed to assist in supporting full-time carers.
Short to Medium Term
Short to medium term care can range from caring for a child or young person overnight, to up to a year. After this period of time, the child or young person may return back to living with their family, kinship or move into a long-term care arrangement.
This type of care can be required because of family emergency or crisis where families have voluntarily sought assistance, however, the most common reason is due to Family and Community Services (FACS) intervention; a child/young person is removed from their parents care due to ongoing safety and wellbeing of the child/young person that has been compromised.
Long Term
Long term care is provided to children who can no longer live with their birth parents and FACS has assessed all family options and feel that it is in the best interest of the child to remain in care up until the age of 18. At any stage throughout the long term order, a birth parent can take the matter back to court if they can demonstrate they have the capacity to commence caring for their child again.