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Staff
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Julie Langdon
MSW, BSW, Cert IV Workplace Training and Assessment.
Julie is an experienced social worker and manager with over 25 years experience in the human services field, specialising in child and family welfare and disability services. Julie’s work as a practitioner, manager, trainer and consultant has taken place in the health, government and community sector where she has successfully developed many new services as well as undertaken extensive service reviews and evaluation. Julie is passionate about families and children having the best opportunities for development, wellbeing and community connections.
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Rosemary Nicholls
BSW, B Soc Sc
As Team Leader, Rosemary is responsible for supervising the team of Regional Coordinators and play group staff, having previously coordinated the Extended Families Western Program for 5 years. She enjoys the ongoing challenge of raising three daughters with a part-time job and other commitments.
Rosemary trained as a social worker after initially working in the administration / personnel area for several years. She now has thirteen years experience working in community organisations in the child and family welfare area, working mostly in the areas of adoption and permanent care and disability. Her own experience of volunteering has been as a telephone counsellor for a crisis line and as President of her children’s kindergarten Committee of Management. She is committed to the idea of volunteers being able to make a difference in people's lives and also sees volunteering can be very important to an individual's self esteem.
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| Development Project Worker: |
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Julia Klieber
BSc (Microbiology), Grad. Dip. Nursing, Cert IV Management
Julia has a registered nursing background with over 17 years of experience in the community services sector in the areas of health, planned and emergency respite coordination, management and community development. She has worked for both local government and not for profit organisations in Australia and in the UK and has volunteered for a variety of organisations locally and overseas. Some of these volunteering roles have included working in an aboriginal women’s centre and friendly home visiting in Australia, teaching English as a second language to new migrants in Canada and as a fundraising committee member for the Alzheimer Association in the UK.
Julia enjoys travelling and meeting people from diverse cultures and has a strong interest in programs that build community capacity and promote social justice.
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| Quality Project Worker and Senior Practitioner: |
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Tamara Williams
BSW
Tamara is a social worker with an extensive experience in child and family services.
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| Marketing & Volunteer Recruitment Coordinator: |
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Bernadette Kelly
Dip Prof Writing & Editing. Cert IV Workplace Assessment & Training
Bernadette has come to Extended Families from a corporate communications role. She is a published author of educational and commercial children’s books and has written articles for local and metropolitan newspapers and magazines. She has delivered creative writing programs for children and taught numeracy and literacy in a community based VCAL program. Bernadette has a history of volunteering and working with committees in the areas of sport and recreation, preschool and childcare.
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| Regional and Program Coordinators: |
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Northern and Western
Leila McConnell
Leila has been working in the areas of Foster Care and Social Support for the past 8 years and is an experienced Case Manager and Volunteer Coordinator. Prior to raising her own 4 children, Leila also worked in local government Aged and Disability Services and also has experience in pre-schools.
Leila’s experience of volunteering has been as a member of Kindergarten and Playgroup committees, School council, Sporting clubs and at a residential facility for the homeless.
She is passionate about supporting and valuing the wonderful contribution volunteers make to our community.
Laura Heffernan
BA (Human Services), BSW
Laura has recently completed a Bachelor of Social Work/Human Services degree and is in the finishing stages of writing an honours thesis on parenthood for people with intellectual disabilities. She has always been passionate about work in the disability field, stemming from professional experience in Early Intervention and various volunteer roles.
Laura is committed to promoting social inclusion for young people with disabilities. She has a strong belief that they have as much right as any person to all the benefits that come with living within the community, and have a great deal to offer the community in return. She is looking forward to working with volunteers and families to assist in creating positive matches and lifelong friendships.
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Peninsula and Southern
Kerrie Brown
BSW
Kerrie is an experienced Social Worker hainvg worked in child and family services, foster care and disability services over many years. Kerrie works part-time with Extended Families as well as facilitating a local (Rosebud) Carers Group and being associated with Peninsula Home Hospice in a voluntary capacity. Kerrie enjoys living on the Mornington Peninsula with her family.
Kerrie is motivated to better support families who have a child with a disability and children with a disability to enable them both to get the most out of life.
Outer Southern / Inner Southern
Jan Johnston
Jan has a background in Special Education. She has worked with families in an early intervention program for children with Down Syndrome and has taught in primary and secondary schools, mainly in the role of the Special Education Coordinator. In the last 5 years Jan has learnt Braille and worked as a Visiting Teacher with children who are blind. She has also taught Certificate III Education Support and Certificate 1 Transition Education at TAFE.
For several years Jan worked as a volunteer with refugee families from South Sudan. This involved teaching English and family support for families who had just arrived in Australia.
Jan views her role at Extended Families as facilitating connections between families and volunteers as a link to community participation and greater equity.
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Eastern
Carol Belford
Grad Dip Educ, BS (Intellectual Disability), ACRACS
Carol comes to us from a strong disability and education background. She spent 9 years working as a Special Education Coordinator, has run community programs for adults with intellectual disabilities and has worked as a volunteer supporting her own daughter who has Down Syndrome in a mainstream school.
Carol is herself a recipient of the old Foster Grandparent Scheme and the match between her daughter and a volunteer is in its 19th year! She is pleased to have come full circle and work for the very organisation that provided her with such a special relationship all those years ago. Carol is now trying to recruit as many volunteers as possible so that others may receive the support she did through Extended Families.
In her spare time, Carol runs an 18+ youth group from her local church every Friday night for young adults with intellectual disabilities and enjoys travelling and then scrapbooking her adventures! |
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Vietnamese Program
Nga Do
BA (Human Services), Cert in Child Developmental Psychiatry
Nga works part-time for Extended Families and also runs a Vietnamese parent support group for another community organisation one day per week, along with work in her church.
Nga migrated from Vietnam, with her family, ten years ago. She trained as a specialist teacher in Vietnam and worked for many years as both a teacher in special schools and then as a counsellor. Since moving to Melbourne Nga has worked for a number of different community organisations where she has provided counselling and support to Vietnamese families in the western region.
Nga has a strong interest in spiritual awareness and is currently training in this area. Her motivation for this is to help to empower the Vietnamese families she supports. She has a strong commitment to continuing to build her knowledge and understanding of different aspects of disability.
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Live Your Community - Sporting Mates
Mel Jeffery
BSW, BHMS
Mel is a recent graduate of a Social Work / Human Services degree. She has experience in working with children and young people through work as a youth worker in schools, and working and volunteering with children from refugee backgrounds. Mel has been an active member of community sporting clubs for over 10 years and is able to use her knowledge gained through this experience in the role of Sporting Mates Coordinator.
Mel is passionate about working alongside children, families, volunteers and community clubs to achieve authentic inclusion for children with disabilities in activities of their choice.
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Springvale My Time
Facilitator - Thuy Cai
Play Helper - Thao Huynh
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