Stepping Stones For Life

Office: 02 6248 0282           Email: st_marg_uc_act@bigpond.com

Office hours: Tues, Weds, and Fridays, 9.30am to 12.30     

St Margaret’s Uniting Church

Hackett ACT

from family to family and a number of accommodation models are likely to be adopted. However, all are following a 'Family Governance' approach designed to empower the individuals and their families, giving them much greater independence, dignity and control over their lives than is normally the case in more institutionalised models.

 

A number of activities are run, not only for focus family members, but also for a much larger and wider group of people who are ageing or living with a disability. These include an exercise class, run in conjunction with the YMCA on Friday mornings; a music therapy group at 12.30 p.m. on Fridays, which performed a very special musical ‘The Crow and the Pitcher’ in December 2007; an art and craft group which meets at 1.30 on Fridays and which designed and created a colourful mosaic which now hangs in the parish centre; and a very popular Story Circle which meets on a monthly basis and which has published two small books of its members' work. Informal dinners, picnics, BBQs etc are held from time to time and an annual, ecumenical 'Service of Thanksgiving' is held mid year.

 

Stepping Stones For Life is an activity of St Margaret's Uniting Church, Hackett, and is administered by its Aged & Disability Committee (ADC). It is also part of UnitingCare NSW.ACT network of activities which attempt to improve the quality of living of the vulnerable in the wider community. It started in 2003 with seed funding provided by UnitingCare Bequests Committee. Since 2005, grants from the ACT Government have funded the co-ordinator's position. In that same time period we have received considerable help and encouragement from Disability ACT and Carers ACT. The generosity of St Margaret's Church Council, and the congregation, both financially and in kind, have given us a "HOME" where we can meet and interact and support each other. Support from the wider community has been appreciated and is always welcome. People wishing to further advance the work of Stepping Stones can do so in two ways; by joining the team of volunteer helpers or by making a tax deductible donation to help fund our ever expanding activities. There is another way too, of course; remember Stepping Stones in your prayers.

 

For more information please contact;

 

Ms Annette Matheson,

Co-ordinator,

Stepping Stones For Life,

St Margaret's Uniting Church

PO Box 7036 WATSON ACT

Ph 6248 0282 (office) or Mobile 0409 656 095

Stepping Stones For Life is a support network for people who are ageing, people living with a disability and especially families in which ageing parents are caring for an adult family member with a disability. These are known as our 'focus families'. It employs a co-ordinator, Ms Annette Matheson, whose primary role is to work with the nine focus families to help them plan and implement long term arrangements for the time when the parents are unable or unavailable to continue providing the care which they have been giving for 30, 40 or 50 years. The co-ordinator is assisted by a Steering Committee which includes family, government and Stepping Stones representatives.

 

Flexibility to meet the varying needs and wishes of individuals and their families is paramount. Arrangements vary, therefore,