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Forgotten Australians Support Service
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Forgotten Australians Support Service

A free service for people 26 or over, who were in out-of-home care in NSW. Funded by the NSW Department of Communities and Justice, and delivered by Relationships Australia NSW’s Wattle Place centre.

Enquire Online Via Wattle Place

Overview

Who It's For?

This service is for those placed in NSW out-of-home care and are now aged 26 or over. This includes those placed by the government into children’s homes, orphanages or similar institutions or foster homes before 1990 (Forgotten Australians, Stolen Generations and Former Child Migrants) as well as those in care after 1990 (broadly referred to as Care-Leavers).

How We Help

Wattle Place has staff who specialise in supporting people with childhood experiences of institutional and foster care. We understand the ongoing impacts that those experiences can continue to have throughout life. Our service is Australia-wide, if you now live interstate, we can still support you via phone and online services.

What to Expect

As well as offering a range of specialist support services, we provide acknowledgement, respect, understanding, hope and the opportunity for social connection, friendship and the feeling that you are part of a community.

Many Forgotten Australians and Care-Leavers struggle with day-to-day impacts and challenges as a result of childhood experiences. 

 

While not all institutional or out of-home care experiences were negative, sadly a large proportion of them were incredibly traumatic, leaving many with lifelong impacts. But we’re here to help.

PTSD or flashbacks to traumatic experiences in childhood
Struggles with identity
Difficulty connecting with others
Difficulty trusting others
Fear of an unknown future
Ongoing mental health issues

We commonly help Forgotten Australians and other Care-Leavers with:

01
Face-to-face and telephone counselling
02
Limited financial support towards the costs of wellbeing services, such as medical, dental, and optical
03
Assistance and support to access institutional and personal records
04
Support with family tracing
05
One-off assistance with first time family reunion
06
Casework and advocacy
07
Information and referrals to other services
08
Social activities, special events and group workshops
09
Drop-in facilities
Forgotten Australians Support Service

“Wattle Place provides a community of people who share the experience of being placed in institutions or foster homes as children. We know how isolating and challenging life can be when you feel like no one understands what you’ve been through or what you are going through now. Wattle Place staff do understand, they listen and work to earn our trust slowly, through compassion, honesty and reliability.”

- Wattle Place client

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