Community helping community in Robina

Right here in Robina, a humble and relatively unknown little team is helping families reach great heights in our community. Trinity Family Support Network is Robina’s early intervention agency, located within the Robina Anglican Church.

Working with families with children from 0-8 years old, Trinity Family Support Network assists with early developmental issues like speech, motor skills, mental health, interpersonal relations, emotional wellbeing and much more. Providing services which include directly working with children and support, casework and education for parents, Trinity delivers these services in a range of ways, from a parent-focussed playgroup to computer donations to families in need and a biannual fathers group.

Family Support Practitioner and Counsellor, Bowen Miller, says whilst Trinity offers specific services, it is also here to support families within the community as holistically as possible.

“Some of our direct services include the 8-week fathers group, held twice yearly, that focuses on Dad’s and giving them support and fostering their self-development as a father. We also give computers to families who need them, as we recognise that kids developing early skills with technology is crucial. With parent education, we deliver a playgroup during which we focus on parents, supporting them to care for their children” he said.

“Our aim is to provide services that educate and help parents to have access to the right help for their kids. We also partner heavily with other organisations to provide a holistic service for people so that they are able to meet the majority of their needs in one place. Part of that includes us caseworking with clients and helping them track whatever help they are getting” he said.

Working closely with other family and community support agencies and departments, Trinity helps parents with referrals to professionals, financial assistance and a casework support model.

“Ultimately, we’re here to help provide advice for any parents looking to help their kids, no matter their age or stage and we aim to connect them to the right service” Mr Miller said.

In addition to some government funding through Queensland’s Department of Education, Trinity Family Support Network was a recent recipient of a Robina Group donation. Robina Group’s philanthropy program aims to support and assist Robina and other local non-profits and community groups.

According to Mr Miller, despite some government funding and generous community stakeholder support, the Trinity team finds that the needs in the community are much bigger than the agency has capacity for.  We asked how the community can assist Trinity, and he advised there is a number of ways to do this:

“If people want to be involved with helping Trinity deliver services to Robina families and beyond, they can assist in a range of ways. We are always looking for volunteers for playgroup to help with kitchen and food prep and to chat and play with kids (Blue Card required),” he said.

“For our computer access program, we kindly accept donations of computers (no more than 7 years old) as well as volunteers with technical skills to help fix the computers and volunteers to visit and seek donations from the local and wider business community. As we have no funding in place for this program and we run from a very tight budget, we would love donations towards getting computers to our community kids,” he said.

“Our fathers group has no regular funding and as such, sponsorship of this extremely rewarding program would be gratefully appreciated.

“What’s more, in our general day to day business, we would love more volunteers to help with administrative tasks and to assist in our kids op shop, which we are connected with.

“Program sponsorship, such as that provided by Robina Group is another way businesses and individuals can help,” he said.

The programs delivered by the Trinity Family Support Network are impacting our community in a positive way. Fathers are coming together to share the rewards and benefits they experienced when engaged in the Fathers Group program.

One Dad says he “felt a great sense of a community of fathers,” and another saying it helped him be “a better, more understanding father”, it’s clear that the Trinity Father’s Group is one successful way that Trinity Family Support Network is building up our community and increasing the strength of our families.

Find out More

To get connected with Trinity Family Support Network, either to seek services or to offer your support, contact the team on 07 5618 8235, drop in to visit them at 186 Robina Town Centre Drive, Robina or visit their website.