Gunawirra is a preventative service

This was foremost in our minds as we and the directors of several partly and fully Aboriginal preschools from the community and DET section designed our work together in the Girrawheen Project.

Girrawheen:

• Supporting the parents of preschoolers in the country.
• Supporting our preschool directors
• Supporting preschool staff

The Girrawheen Project is a multifaceted program specifically aimed at meeting the needs of teachers and other professional workers in the preschool setting. The directors in country preschools look after the whole family and indeed their own staff in a very special way.  It is often left to them to help the parents and refer them to appropriate sources. They sometimes feel isolated and even at times undervalued in their community for the very long hours of work and sacrifice they make to make a “go” of their centres. Gunawirra is constantly in admiration of the preschool directors it works with.

Because of the remoteness and realities of their communities, preschool directors are isolated and working with many needy Aboriginal young families.  Often these families lack a partner or a father for their children and the young Aboriginal  mother struggles with that loss heroically. So many of her relatives will also die young or move away. The protection of community so important to Aboriginal people may be missing for her.

The Girrawheen program uses a variety of strategies to support preschool directors and to help them improve their work. It also works to support the parents through six programs.

For the parents:

1. Strongman Project Inverell.
2. Art therapy program. Inverell.
3. Peak Hill family home visiting and woman’s group at preschool
4. Camps for families at Gunnedah and Kootingal
5. “Start in Life” for Gunnedah
6. Gardens Projects

For the teachers and directors.

1. A weekly or fortnightly call between a highly-trained professional in the field of psychology, psychiatry or social work and the preschool director.  It is a time for allowing professionals to express their difficulties without judgment or intrusion.  Their problems can be heard and held with absolute confidentiality. The support encourages a space where thinking through and practical solutions can be shared, where a validation of the burden they are carrying can take place, and where all the problems they face can be heard.

   In practice, the director can then mirror this space in their own preschool setting to better hear and to listen to the staff’s particular needs and distress. The staff can in turn pass this on to the children in their care and will feel able to involve parents more.

2. The Marte Meo program. There is a burgeoning concept of using the preschool centre as the one safe place to treat and heal early childhood trauma. This is a simple easy program in which the directors and their staff train.
3. Baralga Weekends on trauma and the treatment of loss for the staff are important places where the staff can use our added knowledge to support their work. It is also a time for their debriefing and talking about the difficulties they face in the country.
4. Booklet Let’s go to Preschool and DVD – I go to preschool now.
5. Early Learning Activities Project.
6. Pre-literacy program

Some thirty  centres from Community and DET use Gunawirra services. There are five special designated centres.