Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I start by commending the member for Chifley for that moving and eloquent contribution to the adjournment debate tonight. I wish to speak here tonight about a particularly special organisation as a starting point. It is called Christians Helping In Primary Schools. During Education Week, which ran between 15 and 21 May, I was pleased to visit CHIPS. It is funded under the government's Family Support Program. The actual organisation itself is run by a very special individual called Eric Wieckmann and CHIPS is funded for about $84,000 under that program over a particular period of time to assist a significant number of local families. The funding is for the continuation of programs run by CHIPS until 30 June 2014. Through the Family Support Program, the government funds community organisations to deliver services like parenting skills training, playgroups, relationship counselling and post-separation support. CHIPS also provides seminars for students, teachers and parents, counselling for children in crisis and programs for disadvantaged children in places like Lysterfield Lake. It runs innovative programs such as Life Gets Better camps for children and their carers who have experienced major grief, divorce or loss. There are many ways in which this organisation uses props such as bright and witty puppets as part of its program in conveying messages to participants in a fun and understandable way.

It is all well and good to talk about these sorts of programs but experiencing them drives home the value of them. I went down to visit Captain Eric, as he is known, at his facility at in Berwick. Seeing the programs that are running and the profound effects that they have on the children that they are dealing with really drove home the importance of continued government funding to organisations like this to ensure that these organisations exist and continue to provide these services that words cannot really describe. As an example of the number of kids who need the help of CHIPS, and this is among some of the examples of the work that is being done, we could talk about a young boy who attended one of the programs and whose family forgot his birthday, so one of the exercises that was run was to have a birthday celebration with him. There was a young man whose family life had been so abusive and so terrible that, to give him an experience of what it was like to behave normally as a child, he was taken to a farm to get his inhibitions out of his system so he could communicate and feel safe. Seeing these sorts of programs and hearing about them and about the transformational effect that they are actually having on the disadvantaged children in our areas make the work that Captain Eric does worthy of an incredible tribute to him and the organisation that he runs. In particular, when I went to see Captain Eric a program that was being run was brought to my attention. It is in action and it is called Life Gets Better. I was invited to visit Hampton Park Primary School to see a program that is being run by this organisation with a young lady called Elley with a dog called Baileys, who is a groodle. For the education of this House, a groodle is a cross between a golden retriever and a poodle. This dog and Elley were visiting Hampton Park Primary School as part of this experiential program for young children in this particular region. I note the incredible work that is being done through this program and, as I said, its transformational effect. The dog actually goes into the classroom and can discern children who are experiencing anxiety, depression, grief or loss and spends time with them. I had the good fortune to spend some time with one of the young men that had been through a particular experience of grief and it was incredible to see how he was interacting with the dog and the changes that were occurring given some of the difficulties that I was aware he had experienced. So to Captain Eric and the program run through CHIPS I say this: yours is a great example of fantastic funding going to a very worthwhile program. (Time expired)

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