Catholic Care Western Sydney and Blue Mountains (WSBM) has successfully received the Australian Service Excellence Standards (ASES) accreditation for their Houses to Homes service after 12 months of preparation.
The Houses to Homes program is a specialist service working with young women aged 16-25 who are homeless, or at risk of homelessness and who are pregnant or have children in their care. Catholic Care WSMB has been running this program for more than 30 years in Quakers Hill.
“Some young mums come with a few garbage bags full of clothes and belongings – and not much more,” a spokesperson for Houses to Homes said. “Some mums may have some necessities for their baby, but often, they’ve got nothing themselves.”
“One example that comes to mind is of a girl who had a baby recently. I was on the phone to her, and I was helping to allay her anxiety. She was telling me about how she wasn’t coping, she hadn’t slept for five days whilst she was at hospital and she was exhausted, but then she paused for a minute and said, ‘Oh, you’re so beautiful’ and you could tell she was looking at the baby.
“She told me, ‘I want him to have a better life than I did.’”
The ASES Framework was introduced to implement a new quality framework for specialist homelessness services in NSW. The Houses to Homes program has received the Certificate level of accreditation, where 18 standards were assessed in a two-day audit.
Once successfully accredited, Catholic Care’s Houses to Homes service was able to secure a further two years of funding from Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) for the program commencing 1 July 2024.
Brooke McGilvray, Head of Services at Catholic Care WSBM says the accreditation will allow Catholic Care to continue to grow their services to accommodate for the increasing need for affordable housing, “Having recently received our ASES accreditation for the Houses to Homes program, we are able to confidently say as an organisation that we have addressed any critical areas for improvement within our processes and systems.
“Now it is just a matter of continuing to maintain these systems and processes whilst we look for further opportunities to grow our service to ensure we can serve the ongoing increase in number of referrals we receive on a weekly basis for women and children in need of safe and affordable housing across Western Sydney.”
Caitlin Rozairo, Risk and Assurance Officer at Catholic Care WSBM added, “Whilst the accreditation process has ensured that we review all of our processes, policies and procedures; the continuation of this service allows us to refine and strengthen the way that we are providing safety and support to young women and their children which is a detrimental need in the community.”
From completing the accreditation process and embedding the ASES quality Framework in the program, a thorough review of all its systems, processes, policy and procedures has been made to ensure they are of the highest standard and meeting the client’s needs.
Find out more about Catholic Care Western Sydney and Blue Mountains Houses to Homes service here.
