Officially opened on 17th December, 2021 by the Hon. David Harris and the Hon. Emma McBride, Hope Family Cottage is a newly established not–for–profit community based organisation which provides Supervised Child Contact and Mediation services to families experiencing breakdown. Mr David Harris described Hope Family Cottage as “a much needed service in the local community” and described it as a “brilliant new organisation”.
Founder and CEO, Lisa Joye, became aware of the need to provide a ‘home like’ environment where children could have supervised contact with their mum and/or dad when they no longer live together after working at the Department of Communities and Justice as a Child Protection Case Worker. She often provided supervised contact for children in sterile office settings, all too often on hard floors with no toys or activities to play with and nowhere to warm up a bottle or for babies to have ‘tummy time’. Change–overs of care between parents often took place at fast food outlets, in carparks or at local police stations. Lisa felt that none of this was fair for children or their parents and decided more needed to done.
Lisa has established Hope Family Cottage in Wyong, which is a beautiful old cottage close to public transport and various other community services. Fully equipped with games, toys, crafts, activities and plenty of other resources, families can now enjoy quality time together in a home–like environment when they no longer live together. Ms Emma McBride thanked Lisa for bringing this “wonderful service” to the community.
Hope Family Cottage also provides affordable and accessible Family Dispute Resolution which helps parents reach agreement regarding the future care and living arrangements for their children whilst also avoiding the unnecessary stress and cost of going to Court.
Hope Family Cottage is a non–government organization which is affiliated with the Australian Children’s Contact Service Association and adheres to the National Child Safe Standards. Hope Family Cottage is proudly Auspiced by the Iris Foundation – building resilience through connection.
