Paul and Melissa first received support from Hobart City Mission’s Family Support Services 12 months ago.

Two of their children were displaying challenging behaviours at school and the school suggested they get in touch with Hobart City Mission.

Carol, one of HCM’s Family Support staff, worked with Paul and his family, equipping them with techniques to manage the children’s behavior.

“Carol was amazing”, says Paul. “She helped us by teaching us strategies to use with our kids”.

“She taught us how to talk to our kids to really find out why they were acting up, and check in with how they’re feeling. Now we work with them to find out what is setting them off and helping them to identify these triggering emotions”.

Paul and Melissa have 6 children between the ages of 9 and 16. Carol met with Paul and Melissa at least once a fortnight and regularly caught up with all of the children together.

Carol also helped when one of Paul’s daughters, Sophie, was being bullied at high school. Carol talked to Sophie one-on-one, and supported Paul in a meeting with the school to address the bullying.

Paul says that since working with Carol, the whole family has been getting along well, and the issues at school have reduced.

“It’s ten times better now”, says Paul. “I’ve only received one phone call from the school this year, which would have been ten times as many before.

“These parenting strategies aren’t things that I knew about growing up, and there was nothing like this when I was a kid. Before, we were sending the kids to their room, or banning them from watching TV when they were playing up. Now we’ve completely changed our way of thinking and we have lots of strategies to help our kids deal with their emotions.

“Hopefully this is something that our kids take into their lives and use with their kids, so it’s a positive cycle. We’re very grateful for the help Carol gave to our family.”

* Models used for privacy reasons

This story was first published in our 2020 Annual Report. To view the full Annual Report, click here.