Tamworth Family Support Services

About

The Family Support Model is built on a history that grew out of the women's movement. The women's movement brought about not just the change in women's status and expectations but identified the oppression of women and children in both society and families. Alongside and central to the women's movement grew the realisation that domestic violence, child physical and sexual abuse were prevalent and needed to be addressed. We believed that women and children were important and contested the prevailing views of the time that if the head of the family was willing to earn and share his wages, the family's basic needs could be met the mood of an adult (usually the man) should determine the emotional well being and safety of his wife and children, and it was nobody else's business what went on behind closed doors and Government should not interfere except in the most extreme circumstances. The principles that drove the development of the Family Support Model were originally the first six and the following three were added in 2003 to recognise changing community values. The principles are supported by a Statement of Premises. It is worth examining how these principles influence practice.