Jannawi Family Centre is a specialist child and family safety service, working with children experiencing family violence, abuse or neglect. Jannawi is a Dharug word meaning ‘with me, with you’ and describes our philosophy of walking alongside families to support meaningful change. We are located in Summer Hill and work on the unceded lands of the Wangal, Gadigal and Dharug across the Sydney district and Georges River LGA.
Jannawi began as the Wiley Park Centre in 1978 when local residents wanted to provide support to children experiencing abuse and neglect and a therapeutic pre-school was opened. Developed from the ground up and centred on the safety of children, the model began to include support to mothers who themselves had experienced violence, abuse (including sexual abuse) and neglect as children. We noticed that families required practical support and we began to provide specialist counselling, case management and home visiting alongside the children’s work to address the underlying trauma.
In 1991, the Centre was closed and re-opened as Jannawi Family Centre. Today, we offer specialist family and sexual violence support which includes direct support to children who attend. The majority of the families we support are from culturally, linguistically and religiously diverse backgrounds and we employ bilingual and bi-cultural counsellors and family workers to provide holistic services to families. Our work also includes working with fathers who have hurt family members, offering specialist counselling and case management to address any risks and encourage behaviour change.
In exciting news, Jannawi is currently developing a Community of Practice (funded by DCJ) for bi-cultural workers offering frontline domestic, family and sexual violence services. Please call us on 9750 0500 if you are interested in participating.
