Taldumande Youth Services is a not-for-profit organisation that supports, encourages and empowers vulnerable children, young people and their families through crisis response, residential care and specialised case work.
The Balnaves Foundation is supporting Taldumande Youth Services to expand its Family Restoration and Preservation Program (FRAPP) into Western Sydney. Designed for young people aged 12–16 years, FRAPP offers intervention to those experiencing crisis, at this crucial point, reaching out into the community to effectively engage with young people where other services have failed.
Taldumande’s FRAPP model has a unique tailored case-by-case approach which centres the young person’s individual needs in determining case strategy and outcomes. Each young person is allocated a specialist social worker who then works holistically with the family to strengthen key relationships, build resilience, develop healthier communication and provide specific family strategies to promote positive change. It is through therapeutic relationships, built with each family, that FRAPP works systemically to take each young person from crisis and family breakdown to re-engagement with their family, education, and the community.
The Foundation’s new medical strategy focuses on the prevention and early intervention of chronic health conditions in young Australians. Vitally, FRAPP supports young people in obtaining comprehensive cognitive and psychological assessments which are lifechanging for the young person and their family often leading to access to funding, services and supported living. Unsubsidised/private assessments are cost prohibitive, leaving young people to face extremely lengthy waiting times in the public system. Obtaining a diagnosis often leads to access to funding, services and supported living as well as school-based supports to help encourage the young person to stay in education. Many of the young people presenting to FRAPP are facing significant comorbid health issues, which the FRAPP team support them to work through.
Taldumande’s evidence based FRAPP approach has been operating successfully in their established locations on the lower North Shore and Northern Beaches. This service will now extend into the Granville and Paramatta regions and will work alongside the already established accommodation service in the Granville area.