We've had a few busy months behind the scenes at B2C Furniture, as we have been working closely with Odyssey House NSW on the opening of their new Family Recovery Centre.
Odyssey House NSW is a not-for-profit Australian organisation that helps families in need of rehabilitation assistance as a result of substance use.
Over the last year or so, they have been working towards creating a new Family Recovery Centre, featuring state of the art facilities and rooms for families to be together whilst going through the processes at the centre.
It's a facility for families to be able to live together in rehabilitation, rather than have to separate parents from children while parents begin their path to recovery.
We love to work with local charities and give back to organisations that are working towards a greater good, and so we donated various items of furniture to help them get their footing in the new space.
We spoke with Chris Lonsdale, Manager at the Family Recovery Centre, to see how our donation will help impact the lives of countless families.
How long has conception of the new Family Recovery Centre been in the works for?
We have been providing Parents and Children residential services for more than 20 years. We opened our Parents’ and Children’s cottages in 1999. They provided a family environment for parents and their children living at Odyssey House.
Community needs are increasing; however, we can't meet them with our old cottages. From 2016 to 2021, 16 per cent to 50 per cent of the families [we were helping] were single fathers and 12 per cent of the families were couples.
Our old cottages were designed for only eight single mothers with one child. Variations in family setup mean capacity is often reduced by 25 per cent. The cottages' infrastructure was obsolete and unreliable, which limited our ability to help more clients in need.
Our Paris Ocassional Chair & Myer Coffee Table
Modification of the old cottages was economically and structurally unfeasible.
At the beginning of 2020, a private donor sponsored a Feasibility Study into the accommodation in our Parents and Children’s residential program. The outcome was a plan to knock down the existing cottages and build new accommodation with up to 16 rooms and a flexible layout that addresses the needs of single mothers, fathers and couples as well as flexibility to accommodate both larger and smaller families. The new Odyssey Family Recovery Centre will accommodate TWICE as many families as the old building, housing up to 16 families.
How do you decide who to collaborate with for the project?
We collaborate with partners to ensure funding generates exceptional value and the program delivers a high level of care and professional services for parents seeking residential rehabilitation services and to reconnect families.
We appointed APP Corporation Pty Limited, one of Australia’s most respected property and infrastructure consultancies, with over 30 years of experience. APP aspires to have a positive and social impact for the communities in which they connect with.
Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects (TZG) contributed to the project since Day 1. Their carefully considered and environmentally sensitive design doubles the capacity of the facility while maintaining a sense of domesticity and intimacy.
We partnered with TCQ Construction to build the new Family Recovery Centre. TCQ is a family-owned and operated company known for their high-quality, innovative solutions. Commonwealth and State Governments have provided financial support for the Project; we have also received generous donations and in-kind support from individual donors, T&Fs and corporate partners.
Our Finn Dining Chairs will hopefully be used for years to come
What’s it been like for you to see the centre come to life?
Proud that once open and fully operational, [we are] providing a state-of-the-art facility that at its centre is a space open and welcoming for vulnerable families needing help and support.
It’s a labour of care and love, that the Odyssey community has gotten behind us to really pull together a project and a place focused on trauma-informed recovery, with empathetic staff attuned into supporting the needs of both parents and children as they take the difficult but worthwhile journey to free themselves from the harm caused through substance use.
How does having brands like B2C Furniture on board to help with projects like furnishing help the centre?
B2C’s support greatly helps us to lift the look of the centre and make it a modern, comfortable, and safe home for the families. Children and families will find themselves at home in a modern space, designed specifically for their needs. For instance, equipped with B2C’s dining tables, dining chairs, coffee tables etc., the common dining/lounge area provides a space for socialisation and activities that help children and families develop confidence and apply what they’ve learnt.
B2C has generously donated 18 bedside tables that cater to the design of the rooms as well as families’ needs. The environment is a crucial aspect to the recovery for families. B2C Furniture’s support helps us to provide a safe nurturing space with comfortable furnishings, which assists in building safety for recovery.
What are you most excited about with the opening of the new Family Recovery Centre?
The new space will accommodate TWICE as many families as the old buildings, housing up to 16 families – which means, we are able to open our doors to many families on the long waiting list.
The opening of the centre enables us to meet the large unmet demand for treatment places for parents, including pregnant women, across the spectrum of family compositions.
The centre is the only residential AOD [Alcohol and Other Drugs] rehabilitation service in NSW, and just one of a handful in Australia for single mothers and fathers, couples, and their children. In Australia, more than 450,000 children (13 per cent) are raised by adults who misuse alcohol or drugs (Dawe et al.2007, p.vii), with more than 60,000 having a parent attending drug treatment (Gruenert, Ratnam & Tsantefski 2004, p.5).
There are very few residential rehabilitation programs nationwide that cater for and support parents with their accompanying children. Even more rare are programs that provide both rehabilitation and parenting skills support to clients of all genders and couples with accompanying children. The upgrade and expansion of this accommodation increases access to such program for parents and children in both the Sydney area, and greater Australia, and will improve health equity across populations.
Our new facility underpins our commitment to building safe and healthy communities for parents and children. The centre provides rehabilitation, education and therapy for parents, families, and dependent children to break the cycle of generational drug and alcohol use, and mitigate risks bought about by poor health and homelessness. It works to provide a safe home life for children now and into the future.
What’s next for Odyssey House?
We will adopt a staggered approach to building numbers in the program this year. It is in our plan to recruit additional staff and upskill the team to support the centre as numbers of families grow in program. We aim to establish the new centre as “Centre of Excellence” by enhancing Model of Care, evaluation and reporting and Governance and Child Safety. Odyssey is working towards becoming organisationally child safe.
The centre will also continue running the Parents in Contact program for parents who are not living with their children during treatment.
Parents in Contact provides a range of supports as parents may still have full custody of their children and see them on family and visit days, before completing treatment and returning home to their children. Others may have lost custody or not seen their children for a long time or perhaps only through supervised visits. These parents have access to general parenting education as well as assistance with Department of Communities and Justice, Family Court and other family related matters provided by our team.
What’s the best place to go for anyone who wants to help, and how do people contact you if they feel like Odyssey House is an organisation they might need?
For further information about our services, please visit the “Get Help” page on our website at https://www.odysseyhouse.com.au/getting-help/. You can contact our Intake Centre on 1800 397 739. There is a downloadable referral form on our website for GPs, Clinicians and Service Providers, which can be completed and returned to referral@odysseyhouse.com.au.
