In harmony with National Families Week the Department of Health and Community Services' Family and Children's Services (FACS) Program and the Multicultural Council of the Northern Territory have collaborated to launch the multicultural parenting resource Strong Families Sharing Cultural Parenting Knowledge.
As part of the initiative a DVD and supporting literature have been created to celebrate the strengths of families from around the world. The DVD portrays families from a breadth of cultural influences: Somalia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea, Thailand and Aboriginal.
The DVD depicts different cultural parenting practices and beliefs, and explores ways of successfully integrating into Australian family life.
Assistant Secretary, Jenny Scott was proud to launch the initiative at a ceremony held at the Multicultural Council, in Malak.
"This is a wonderful project which showcases the uniqueness of family life from many different perspectives," said Ms Scott.
Dr Fergal Fleming, President of the Multicultural Council of the NT, said this is time to reflect on the positive aspect of families and their strengths.
"We often talk about what's not working within families instead of looking for family strengths and what is working within families."
At the launch the Department of Health and Community Services will focus on its 7 Steps to Safety kit - developed by FACS to help parents give their children the skills and confidence they need to feel and be safe at home. The pack consists of activity sheets for families to work together on ways to make their home safer, to develop effective rules with children and to assist children in learning about what to do in an emergency.
FACS will also be promoting Parentline - 1300 30 1300 - a department funded telephone counselling service to support Northern Territory parents and carers.
The 7 Steps to Safety is available free from www.families.nt.gov.au.
Media Contact: Lorraine Hook, DHCS Media Manager 0401 116 203
Release date: 14 May 2008
