Even though there were no positive results from the Government regarding the application lodged by our Society for funding for the establishment of a Child Care Centre, the Board of Directors of our Society resolved that the founding aim of our Society, i.e. to provide child care service to the community, should still be realized even without Government’s funding assistance. In July 1982, it was resolved to provide a referral service through the telephone manned by volunteers to match parents in need of child care and caregivers wanting to provide child care service. The service was run in cooperation with Sydney Family Day Care (SFDC).
Ms. Maureen Hastings of SFDC strongly supported our service and admitted Chinese women who were interested in becoming caregivers. Our Society provided referrals when calls were received from parents looking for caregivers. During the few months’ operation, the service provided working opportunities for Chinese women with limited English to become caregivers. Chinese parents were also able to find culturally relevant child care service.
After a few months of operation, the self-organized ‘family day care’ service achieved positive results. Relevant government departments came to know about our endeavor and appreciated our initiative very much. They were impressed. Officers from the Office of Child Care met with our Society’s representatives and encouraged us to apply for special funding to employ a worker.
In November 1982, Henry wrote a submission to the Office of Child Care, detailing the work our Society was doing and explaining that with limited resources, our work was not perfect. There was a need to employ a worker to develop the referral service and requested funding.
After 2 months of waiting, in mid-January 1983, the good news came: The Federal Government approved our funding application! It would provide a 3-year funding to our Society to enable the employment of a paid worker to develop the referral service, titled “Family Day Care Development Service” (FDCDS). The Chinese Youth League agreed kindly to continue providing office space for the implementation of the project.
Considering that employing one full-time staff member might not be the best arrangement, having to take phone calls, conduct home visits, handle administrative work and do promotion all alone, the Board decided to employ 2 part-time workers. The recruitment news disseminated in the community quickly attracted applications. After interviews, 2 workers were selected: one was a Hong Kong student who had just graduated from UNSW Social Work study; the other was a teacher migrating from Malaysia. They were our Society’s first formal employees.
In March 1983, the Society started to have two employed part-time staff members to provide service. Having human resources to take up the work, the project proceeded with good results.
At the time, the economic environment of Australia was not good. Many people were unemployed. To lower the unemployment rate, the Government provided funding for organizations to provide jobs for the unemployed. The Board thus grasped the opportunity applying for funding. In the second half of 1983, our Society was successful in getting funding for the employment of an Office Assistant for six months, and an unemployed migrant, a teacher from Hong Kong, was employed.
The pilot project was limited to the cooperation with SFDC service and was limited to City of Sydney area. There were many enquiries from all over Sydney. The Board realized there was a need to extend our service provision to other areas in Sydney.
🤔There were geographical boundaries for each FDC service. How could the Board resolve the issue? Stay tuned for the next article!
