Life Without Barriers – Mockingbird Family

Life Without Barriers is an approved provider of Home Care Packages funded by the Australian government. Home Care Packages offer coordinated packages of services designed to enable individuals to remain living independently within their homes.

Rebecca (pseudonym) was pulled across the floor at a group disability home run by Life Without Barriers after suffering severe bruising at one of their group disability homes, according to testimony presented at the disability royal commission hearings.

What is a Constellation?

Orion the Hunter, Leo the Lion and Taurus the Bull are easily recognisable constellations in the night sky that aid us on our travels. There are officially 88 constellations.

Family, Systemic & Organisational Constellation was devised by Bert Hellinger to address intergenerational trauma both mystically and empirically. By uncovering unspoken dynamics or layers that often lie at the source of trouble or conflict in families or organizations, this process helps uncover solutions.

At each session, a facilitator will ask those experiencing problems or issues what they want to understand and change, then select members from within the group as representatives for specific aspects of their situation. These representatives remain impartial; none know who they represent until it comes time for the constellation to begin moving and change; their arrangement, responses to inquiries by facilitator, movement of elements during constellation reveal what remains hidden allowing insight to occur and allow shifts to take place.

MOCKINGBIRD FAMILY(tm) Constellation

MOCKINGBIRD FAMILY(tm) is an evidence-based program first implemented in Washington State in 2004 that creates a micro-community of support for foster children and carers. This has proven its worth in increasing connections and stabilizing placements.

Wigan Foster Care constellations are local communities composed of six to ten traditional and/or kinship homes connected through Wigan Foster Care that are led by experienced foster homes known as Hub Homes, responsible for planned and emergency Constellation Care respite, monthly constellation meetings, social activities and providing other necessary supports.

Foster carers using our constellation can meet with other families in their local area that can provide peer support, problem solving and sleepover opportunities for foster carers and foster care children in foster care. This close network can empower families to face challenges more swiftly while offering children with more chances to grow and flourish – as demonstrated by our Mockingbird KUMU visualization of three children from one of our constellations.

The MOCKINGBIRD FAMILY(tm) Art Program

Life Without Barriers holds the replicating agency license for MOCKINGBIRD FAMILYTM in South Australia. Mockingbird Family is an innovative model which brings together six to ten Foster and Kinship Carer homes within a Constellation, supported by one experienced foster carer serving as Hub Home Provider – providing connection, information, training and emotional support for other carers in their network. Each child from within a Constellation can visit this hub home for sleepovers, social events or if difficulties at home exist where children or Carers could benefit from taking a break if needed – Mockingbird FAMILY also promotes ongoing meaningful relationships among parents, siblings and family members.

At the launch event, guests were invited to create their own artwork and add messages onto a community canvas. This provided children and youth an opportunity to engage in activities they normally wouldn’t have access to; Mockingbird logo was at the heart of it all as foster children performed musical performances for guests present.

The MOCKINGBIRD FAMILY(tm) Art Exhibition

The MOCKINGBIRD FAMILY(tm) model integrates six to 10 foster and kinship carer homes into a local community known as a Constellation, led by an experienced carer serving as its Hub Home Provider.

Life Without Barriers is the first agency in South Australia to implement this international, evidence-based model of care provision. The program improves placement stability for children and young people in care by strengthening relationships between caregivers and care recipients while supporting wider family units.

Currently being implemented as a 12 month pilot across South Australian communities, with support from both Life Without Barriers as a replicating agency licensee of Mockingbird Society Australia and South Australian Government funding, and Mockingbird FAMILY(tm), an initiative of The Mockingbird Foundation with an aim of bettering children and youth care lives, all carers and children involved received age-appropriate information regarding research studies before consent was gained prior to becoming participants in any study.