What we do at Hunter Aboriginal Children's Services?

Hunter Aboriginal Children's Services is an important Aboriginal community service organisation and has the challenging task of serving the Aboriginal community in a whole range of areas.

The Hunter Aboriginal Children's Services, known locally as HACS, started from humble beginnings in 1984 as a sub project to the Aboriginal Legal Service. A need was identified for an Aboriginal Service to accept responsibility for the fostering of Aboriginal children in the Hunter area with Aboriginal families.

The service became an independently incorporated body governed by its own Management Committee and branched out to include Family Support to enhance the already successful but overloaded Substitute Care service.Over the years the Hunter Aboriginal Children's Services has had many highs and also some lows.

The partnerships with other Aboriginal services and Government agencies were, at times, stretched to breaking point. However the service continued.Today the service still operates a Out of Home Care Program and a Family Support Program.

Our community ties are strong and the positive future directions for the service are based on funding possibilities to further enhance our target group and wider service coverage.Hunter Aboriginal Children's Services is funded by the NSW State Government and operates within the controls and limitations laid down in state child protection legislation.

A Management Committee consisting of eight community representatives are elected each year at our Annual General Meeting. The principal duty of the Management Committee is to ensure that the business of Hunter Aboriginal Children's Services is carried out in a manner that is in the best interests of the community.The Management Committee generally meet once a month.

Our Vision and Values

Our Vision

Hunter Aboriginal Children's Services aims to provide high quality, culturally appropriate care and support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, young people and their families in need.

Our Values

We are committed to providing quality out-of-home care for Aboriginal children; protecting them from emotional, physical and sexual abuse and neglect; and to implementing the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child and Young Person Placement Principles.

We believe children have the right to their birth name, the right to retain their Aboriginal identity and the right to know their parents and be cared for by them.

During the assimilation period Aboriginal children were denied these fundamental human rights. The separation of parent and child, the destruction of the family unit, the dislocation from home and community and the removal of children to unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people, had devastating effects for Aboriginal people.

We are accountable to our community and make every effort to ensure our work is transparent. We recognise these past injustices and that the assimilation policies and practices of child welfare authorities were aimed exclusively at our people under the guise of 'protection'. The effects continue to be felt in the lives of Aboriginal children, families and communities today.

Child neglect in Indigenous families often arises when they are unable, but not necessarily unwilling, to provide for their children for reasons that include poverty, unemployment, poor housing, family stress, grief and trauma as a result of the transgenerational effects of the assimilation era.

We recognise the need for a sensitive awareness and sophisticated understanding of the effects of the forcible separation of Aboriginal children and child loss through state intervention when working with families and communities. We understand that the grief and anguish of being removed as a child is perhaps only matched by the grief and anguish of then having your own children removed.

We seek to ensure that our out-of-home-care work is broadly defined so that the services and support offered to Aboriginal communities, families and children are delivered in a holistic way and as part of an integrated care network.

We lament the loss of our culture, family and identity. We grieve with and for our grandmothers, grandfathers, aunties, uncles, cousins, mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers.

We value the contribution of our many Aboriginal campaigners, who have worked, and continue to work, to ensure that Aboriginal children retain and develop their distinct and unique cultural identity.

We understand that our main focus is for a child or young person not to enter the care system unnecessarily.

We prefer the use of the foster care model over residential care. Especially for children under 12 years of age except where sibling groups are placed together or where it is considered in the best interest of the child.

We strive to make all decisions in a timely and appropriate manner. Where particularly young children are concerned, we recognise the importance of making as early a decision as possible with regard to the permanency of placement.

Fostering Aboriginal Children with Aboriginal Families
Supporting Aboriginal Families
Nurturing Aboriginal Culture

Help us improve ourselves

If you have any comments on either our service, our staff or this web site please help us to continually improve by giving us feedback. You can do this by calling our office or email it to admin@hunteracs.org.au