Thanks to their partnership with Mundipharma, Barnardos developed parenting resources to help young Aboriginal families and hosted educational sessions in the small town of Nyngan, Western NSW. Supporting 20 children and their parents, the sessions have been held for a few months and have been a great success.
The redesign of the ‘Parents as Teachers’ materials has been a staggering success. Where the parents’ attention span was around 15 minutes initially, Barnardos saw parents now focussing for a full hour. Engagement rose significantly, and after attending the program, parents declared having more confidence in their parenting abilities, interacting more with their children and as a result seeing positive behaviour changes in the family unit. The friendships formed amongst parents have strengthened and they now meet outside the sessions, helping and supporting each other – something essential for these highly isolated families.
All members of the Mundipharma Executive Team visited Nyngan to witness the program in action in April. During this time Mundipharma staff engaged with families who attend the program and also built two vegetable gardens for them. The visit highlighted the great need in the area for services such as the ones Barnardos provides, and why Mundipharma’s support is so important.