We are thrilled to announce the opening of our newly renovated home at 17 Laverstock Rd, Elizabeth North. Thanks to the incredible efforts of the Journey Centacare Disability Supports team, the facility looks brand new and is ready to serve the community.
The new facilities at Journey Centacare Disability Supports – Elizabeth North, offer a range of services including independent living skills, short and medium-term accommodation and community-based programs. Our supports, developed by an Education Consultant and Developmental Educator, are designed to help you connect with the community, become more independent and have new experiences.
Open Monday to Friday from 8am to 4pm, we’re here to support you in achieving your goals.
Click here for further information on the services offered.
We are thrilled to announce an exciting new chapter for Centacare. Today, we unveil our fresh and inspiring brand identity. This transformation represents more than just a new look; it embodies our commitment to inclusivity, warmth and professionalism that our clients have come to know and trust.
A calm and welcoming brand identity
The new Centacare brand identity is a true reflection of who we are. Every aspect of our design has been carefully crafted to convey the values that define us - inclusivity, empathy, respect, confidence and unwavering support. We are dedicated to creating a welcoming environment for all, ensuring that every interaction with Centacare is characterised by sincerity, compassion and trust.
Introducing our logo: symbolism and significance
At the heart of our new identity is our thoughtfully designed logo. We have chosen to highlight the wordmark “Centacare” and frame it with a symbol that holds profound meaning. The ripple effect in our logo represents the impact of our support and interventions, radiating outwards to touch the lives of our clients and the broader community. This visual metaphor captures the essence of our work – creating positive, lasting change, one ripple at a time.
Additionally, the icon can be interpreted as steps, symbolising the journey we walk alongside clients through different challenges one step at a time. The arc, or ark, in the logo signifies safety and stability, which is a crucial purpose in the supports we provide.
Our evolution: Centacare Catholic Community Services
Have you noticed the change in our name? Centacare has a rich history, beginning in 1942 as the Catholic Welfare Bureau, evolving to Centacare Catholic Family Services, and will now be proudly known as Centacare Catholic Community Services. This evolution aligns our identity with the true nature of our work – a community services organisation dedicated to serving and uplifting South Australians.
Embracing the future together
As we embrace this new identity, we continue to pledge our unwavering heartfelt commitment to our clients and community. This new look reflects our growth and evolution, but our mission remains the same: together, we will create ripples of positive change.
Welcome to the new Centacare Catholic Community Services. We look forward to continuing this journey with you, making a difference in the lives of many.
Our new website will be launching soon, stay tuned!
Staff and stakeholders recently gathered to reflect on the journey of Centacare’s reunification services. From humble beginnings in 2004 at The Corner Store, Plympton, to becoming the largest provider in the state under Unify.
Unify Reunification Services aim for children and young people to live safely in the care of their parents or families, whenever possible. Unify support workers therapeutically work with families who have been separated by the child protection system due to safety concerns, to process their trauma, increase agency and increase their relationship capacity. While the service is based at Seaton, most work occurs within the family home.
Leanne Haddad, Executive Director at Centacare, started formalities by outlining her own past experiences as a junior social worker. She worked in frontline child protection and had to refer families for reunification services, describing the services as a beacon of hope. She detailed how memories of removing children from family homes have affected and stayed with her for over three decades.
Sam Carpenter, Senior Manager at Unify added: “Our service provides the islands and stepping stones of connection and repair. Whilst celebrating this key milestone, I want to honour the brave and difficult work our families and parents do when they come to our service”.
As Sam reflected on the past two decades, he acknowledged the strength it takes to keep vital services running uninterrupted for such a long period of time. He also noted innovation has driven a model of practice that provides safe exit points for children in care, out of the child protection system.
At the core of Unify is the work of Dr Jackie Amos, whose thesis became the basis of Centacare’s therapeutic framework and the Unify model, which focuses on responding to and addressing intergenerational trauma.
The success of Unify speaks for itself. It is estimated the chance of a child returning to their family of origin after removal is as low as 16-20%. Families who have worked within Unify have achieved a return rate of 60-75% each year.
The event concluded with a touching lived experience video that shared a parent’s reunification story with her children.
Unify is effectively placed to provide trauma-responsive support to families, in partnership with the Department for Child Protection (DCP), well into the future.
We thank Gabby Ramsay (DCP) and Melissa Gibson (CAFFSA) for joining us on the day.
Click here for further information about Unify Family Reunification Services.
Centacare Catholic Family Services and KWY Aboriginal Corporation are excited to formally announce our partnership to deliver Your LINC Mental Health Services across Adelaide and select regional areas.
Your LINC, named for its focus on Lived, Identity, Navigate, and Connect, represents a significant step forward in mental health support, blending evidence-based practices with a person-centred approach. Funded by the Department of Health and Wellbeing, the KWY and Centacare partnership will be one of the largest providers of community-based individual psychosocial support in the state.
Pictured: Craig Rigney (KWY) and Leanne Haddad (Centacare).
Through this collaboration, KWY will introduce a dedicated and community-controlled Aboriginal service, centring on cultural ways of healing, engagement, and recovery. This initiative will provide a unique avenue for improving outcomes and wellbeing, reducing risk, and promoting recovery among Aboriginal people, families, and communities.
Craig Rigney, CEO of KWY Aboriginal Corporation, expressed his enthusiasm, stating, “We are proud to partner with Centacare in offering culturally responsive mental health services that honour and respect the diverse needs of our communities.”
Building upon Centacare’s extensive experience delivering individual psychosocial support services, Your LINC will expand its reach in multiple Local Health Networks, with services across greater metropolitan Adelaide, the Barossa, Hills, Fleurieu Peninsula, Kangaroo Island, and the Limestone Coast.
Leanne Haddad, Executive Director of Centacare, highlighted the services’ commitment to providing comprehensive and tailored support, stating, “Your LINC is dedicated to walking alongside individuals on their mental health recovery journey, prioritising their lived experiences and building agency to achieve their own identified goals.”
Your LINC embodies a strength-based approach to mental health support, where our workers walk alongside individuals to reclaim their sense of self and community.
Through collaboration, compassion, and a commitment to cultural responsiveness, Centacare and KWY Aboriginal Corporation aim to contribute to meaningful and sustained outcomes in the lives of those navigating mental health challenges and recovery.
Elder lunches usually held every Wednesday and Thursday will be cancelled from Fri 15 Dec and re-commence on Wed 17 Jan. The last Mass for 2023 will be on Sat 16 Dec. Sunday Mass will re-commence on 04 Feb.
Centacare Foster Care – An on-call system will operate through the break.
Commonwealth Home Support Programme, domestic violence, homelessness, disability, and residential services – operating as usual.
For emergency support, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Triple Zero.
The report takes you through a journey of commitment, service, growth, and outcomes for the South Australian community and the social services sector.
Walking alongside every person who reached or connected to our 63 services, we supported 20,000 clients in this period, including 5,434 children and young people from 33 locations in metropolitan and regional SA.
The annual report highlights the heart of Centacare Catholic Family Services and shows our commitment to providing much needed supports in community.
The South Australian Women’s Honour Roll Awards took place last night at Government House.
Held every two years, the Honour Roll acknowledges and celebrates the diversity of women in our community and their commitment to ensuring that we live in a safer and more inclusive society.
Her Excellency, Honourable Frances Adamson, welcomed everyone to the event, recognising the contributions and impact of all the outstanding nominees in the South Australian community. Minister Katrine Hildyard (for Women and the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Child Protection) also shared kind words, further praising and celebrating the twenty successful nominees.
Dr Jackie’s impressive career has seen her working as a consultant psychiatrist for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) for over 17 years, as an Adjunct Research Fellow in the Health Economics and Social Policy Group at the University of South Australia, and as an external collaborator with Emerging Minds.
In 2017, Dr Jackie’s PhD ‘When wounds from infancy collide -The mother-child relationship as trauma, trigger, and treatment’ was passed with no changes. The examiners were extremely positive about the work and suggested that it has international significance.
With more than 25 years of experience as a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and Gestalt Psychotherapist, she is currently based at our Strategy, Research and Innovation unit, where she is leading the implementation of her research at Centacare.
The Children’s Services Unit has been utilising her social casework model in supporting vulnerable families to interrupt distressing family patterns and improve child and family safety and wellbeing.
To add to Dr Jackie’s long list of achievements, in June 2023 she was invited to New Zealand to begin discussions between Centacare (South Australia) with teams that have been practising with the models described in her PhD.
We congratulate Dr Jackie on this outstanding achievement, and we are privileged to be part of her journey.
This year’s theme enables us to focus our efforts to ensure that everybody should receive quality mental health care and that the human rights and well-being of people with mental illness are respected.
At Centacare we offer a range of services to support mental health and wellbeing from headspace Port Adelaide, EAP ACCESS Programs, Counselling Services, Supporting Children and Youth (SCY) Program, Individual Psychosocial Rehabilitation Support Service (IPRSS), Drug and Alcohol Services, ASCEND Youth Life Promotion Services, Eating Disorder Support Services (EDSS), Reconnect, Community Connections Program and Animal Wellbeing.
If you would like to know more about any of the above services, check out the programs portal pages.
Our services aim to ensure that people with mental health difficulties have:
The right to be protected from known harms to mental health.
The right to access quality and affordable care when a person is struggling with their mental health.
The right to freedom and dignity, including the right of choice.
We encourage you today to re-kindle our efforts to make the world a better place!
headspace Day 2023: headspace Port Adelaide urges young people to leave unrealistic expectations behind and reach out for support.
As new data reveals two in five young Australians prefer to deal with their emotional problems alone, headspace Port Adelaide is using headspace Day 2023 to remind young people that support is always available.
This headspace Day – headspace Port Adelaide wants to continue to dismantle the stigma surrounding mental health and encourage young people to reach out for support.
The current debate surrounding the Voice to Parliament carries significant emotional weight. This is particularly true for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities. There is a profound burden borne by First Nations peoples, and as an organisation deeply rooted in the tradition of social justice, we recognise and see this burden.
Centacare Catholic Family Services supports the Voice to Parliament as an authentic step in working towards meaningful reconciliation. It offers a lasting and stable platform for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to offer counsel and, more importantly, to be heard by the government on matters that deeply impact First Nations communities. This process is intricately woven into the trinity of Truth, Treaty, and Reconciliation.
Centacare wholeheartedly embraces the Uluru Statement of the Heart as a generous invitation to walk alongside in the relentless pursuit of recognition, reconciliation, and justice. As an organisation, we are steadfastly committed to advocating for a fairer and more inclusive Australian society that not only reflects but actively supports the dignity, equality, and participation of all its citizens. We firmly believe that embedding a Voice in the Commonwealth Government’s Constitution is an important milestone in realising this vision.
Our position is grounded in the principles of Catholic Social Teaching, with a particular emphasis on the tenet of Subsidiarity: that decisions should be made by those who are closest to and most affected by the issues and concerns within a community. We believe that a permanent and resourced representative body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, to deliberate and provide advice on critical matters that affect First Nations peoples, will pave the way for both tangible improvements and, in time, transformational opportunity.
We also acknowledge the complexities of the proposed Voice to Parliament within Aboriginal communities and that there are many paths to reconciliation. Furthermore, the work to unpick the ongoing impact of colonisation belongs to us all; work that will continue with or without formal constitutional recognition.
Our support for the Voice to Parliament is tied to our foundational commitment to justice, equality, and inclusivity. It is a call for a more harmonious Australia, one that not only hears but truly listens to the voices of its First Nations peoples, ensuring that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are empowered to actively shape their lives and their communities.
