First Floor Program’s Marilyn Dunn, Stephen Dunn and Lisa Clancy, Photo: Keeli Dyson.
A Port Kembla support program which has been empowering families for more than two decades has created a community of understanding and connection through lived experience, which will soon be captured through works of art.
The Salvation Army’s First Floor Program is discreetly nestled within a cafe in Port Kembla’s Wentworth Street, creating a comfortable and casual atmosphere while offering vital services for the community.
“First Floor is a family empowerment program we’ve been working in the Illawarra for about 25 years in the drug and alcohol, mental health space,” program coordinator Marilyn Dunn said.
“It started with just a family support program. We then added a support program for kinship carers and people caring for children in out of home care. Now we’ve developed a range of art programs, we’ve got the suicide bereavement program and we’ve gone to other sites and trained people up in other areas.
“We wait for the next identified need that we can respond to.”
Participants find comfort through the sense of community, with people who have experienced some of the challenges staying to support and show others there’s light at the end of the tunnel, such as the program’s family support officer Lisa Clancy.
“It’s something that I’m really passionate about because for me, about 18 years ago, I actually accessed the program as I had a son who struggled with addiction issues since he was 11 and mental health issues,” Lisa said.
“He is now 36 and it’s still a challenging process however I know what that meant for me and what it meant for my family to have that support and to understand what we could do better, how we could be more effective with our relationship with him.”
She said while there were options for the individuals struggling with addiction, there weren’t many available supports for families, just a lot of unhelpful advice.
“Lots of well-meaning people were saying to me, ‘You just need to try harder’, ‘You need to discipline him more’ and there was a lot of stigma around the fact that I was a single parent so I wasn’t doing enough.
“Nobody had any real helpful answers; nothing worked.
“The first few times that I came I just cried the whole time; I couldn’t even talk.”
Despite individual circumstances, her lived experiences and understanding of the complexities are of great value to families in a time of great need.
“Even though I don’t know exactly what it’s like for them, I do understand the difficulties,” Lisa said.
“Some of the challenges that you face, some of the decisions that you need to make are really not easy because you love and care about this person and you also need to look after yourself and other members of the family, and you’re trying to balance all of that and none of that is very simple.”
As well as practical supports and emotional supports, the program also offers spiritual guidance for those who want it or think it may be beneficial.
“My role is more pastoral and like an officer or minister,” mission leader Stephen Dunn said.
“For those people that are seeking that, it’s always a good thing.
“Depending on what they’re coming for; sometimes they don’t know what they’re looking for.”
The program also refers and partners with other programs such as Healthy Cities and The Fathering Project.
“This is a community space for us; we feel like we have rooms that community are able to use for programs,” Marilyn said.
“It helps people to know who we are and what we’re doing here which is really important as well.”
A key collaboration is with the cafe in which they are adjoined, which helps create its comforting atmosphere.
“It doesn’t feel clinical and people are not feeling stigmatised by the fact that they’re working into a service or a place that is only identified as a place you go for financial assistance or drug and alcohol counselling,” Marilyn said.
“Often people who are seeking help as well are anxious about seeking that help so it presents as a really normal front,” Lisa said.
They are now calling on creatives from across the region to help encapsulate their work through art, with the annual Cross Connection exhibition back again.
“Each year we select a theme out of a box of words that people have used to describe the First Floor Program, and next year’s is Friendship,” Marilyn said.
“It’s just open to the community – all ages and stages, and is just a nice thing to be able to do for people to both be able to exhibit and just attend.”
“We’ll take anything that represents that theme to that person,” Lisa said.
“It’s really about giving people a voice that has often been taken away from them.”
Submissions are due January 16 and 17, with entry forms and guidelines available by contacting [email protected]
