The Tweddle Board, management, staff, and guests gathered on the 8th of December for the 101st Annual General Meeting of Tweddle, held on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nation.
Tweddle Chair Doris Whitmore and CEO Jacquie O’ Brien reflected on another year of growth, challenges and resilience, a common theme, not only for Tweddle as an organisation, but for the families we care for.
Together they shared some of Tweddle’s many highlights for the year. They included the delivery of over 30 Sleep and Settling Workshops covering 62 LGAs, 3 universities, two Early Parenting Centres and 8 Aboriginal Organisations.
Many of Tweddle’s programs continued in 2020/21 with a hybrid of online and face-to-face delivery. These programs included Playsteps, MyTime, HoPES and Childbirth Education.
Tweddle has been working in partnership with Barwon Health and Bendigo Health to establish their new Early Parenting Centres (EPC) as part of the Victorian Government’s $123 million Early Parenting Centres Expansion and Upgrade project.
In addition, Tweddle has been busy working on plans to operate Wyndham’s new EPC. Concurrently, Tweddle has worked closely with the Victorian Health Building Authority on the Footscray site redevelopment
During the year, the team commenced the second phase of Tweddle’s Reconciliation Action Plan and Aboriginal artist Dixon Patten was commissioned to create several illustrations demonstrating Tweddle’s reconciliation journey.
The year included preparation for rainbow tick inclusive practice and accreditation. We were delighted to launch a new Hindmarsh Day Stay partnership with West Wimmera Health was launched and publish research studies of our Working Out Dads, HoPES and PASDS programs. We saw the commencement of the Working Out Dads randomised controlled trial in partnership with Associate Professor Rebecca Giallo from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and a team of research leaders.
Tweddle’s AGM guest speaker was Skye Stewart who delivered a virtual presentation. Skye is a proud Wergaia and Wemba-Wemba woman. She runs her own Consultancy, Djarima Consultancy. She is also a Midwife, a Project Officer with Red Nose Australia, and a Research Coordinator at Stillbirth Centre for Research Excellence.
Skye shared her insights into caring for the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, cultural safety, health gaps and healing.
The Tweddle Chair and Treasurer acknowledged donors and funding bodies. We were grateful to The Collier Charitable Fund who supported our Resources for Resilience project and Tweddle’s residential onsite Dads group, Working Out Parenting.
Also thanked were the William Angliss Charitable Fund, Rotary Club of Footscray, Brimbank Communities for Children, Ms Romy Katz, Ms Jo Norton, Ms Lesley Yates, the Horsfall family, Ms Cheryl Morrissey and Mr David Parham
Other valuable donors included GAIA Skincare, Knit One Give One, Fay Stankovich, Brenda Cottee and Rhonda Doyle who dedicate many hours of in-kind work to provide knitted items and quilts for families, loved by Tweddle families and staff.
Appreciation was expressed to parents Laura, Chris and Caroline who shared their Tweddle story with Channel 7’s House of Wellness and ABC TV. These insights allowed parents and professionals to broaden their understanding of what we do at Tweddle.
We were all grateful that 1939 Tweddle baby Jim Hevey was able to join the 101st AGM. Jim donated a self-published colour historical book to Tweddle staff which is available on the Tweddle Centenary website.
The Board expressed their appreciation to the Department of Health and the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing. They extended their gratitude to the previous Minister for Health, Jenny Mikakos, and the current Minister for Health Martin Foley. They acknowledged the previous Minister for Child Protection Luke Donnellan and the Minister for Mental Health James Merlino for their tireless commitment to vulnerable families. The ongoing support of our local Member for Footscray, Ms Katie Hall MP was also highlighted.
Years of service awards were presented to staff serving for 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 years. The Tweddle Values Award developed from wanting to reinforce the importance of demonstrating Tweddle Values in the work that we do across all program areas. Tweddle’s values are Collaboration, Accountability, Respect and Engagement.
This award was given to Tweddle Nurse Unit Manager Catherine Fisher.
The Board is cognisant of the importance of its role in the stewardship of this organisation and pledge to continue to work diligently to innovate, grow and enhance Tweddle’s partnerships as we enter our second centenary.
The 2020/2021 Annual Report and Financial Reports can be found on the publications section of the Tweddle website.
