A place to belong

Liverpool Neighbourhood Connections (LNC) is creating a place for its community to belong. Through their Targeted Earlier Intervention programs, LNC is equipping its community with the skills, resources and self-belief to flourish. Their compassionate and practical approach to self-development is helping community members like Nicole and Sadia to gain real-world qualifications to support themselves and their families.

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Going deeper into the practice

Are you a TEI practitioner or someone with an interest in TEI practice? Take a closer look at the practice behind the story and learn how these TEI practitioners were able to connect with their clients and communities to achieve strengths-based and person-centred outcomes.

Digging deeper with Pall Hall OAM from Liverpool Neighbourhood Connections

Pat Hall OAM, is the Chief Executive Officer at Liverpool Neighbourhood Connections. Pat has worked in the community sector for 30 years and is using her experience, expertise and compassion to support the Liverpool community.

What is the key driver of success in your work with the community in Liverpool?

The key driver of success in our work is that we strive to offer our community acceptance and equality, and encourage them to believe in themselves.

What do you do differently in your work?

We work closely with our participants to find out what support they need to access and progress through our programs.

We provide an accessible pathway for parents to enter our programs via soft entry points like playgroup. From here participants often progress to programs like our women’s group and nutritional classes. Once they are feeling confident with social connection, we then encourage them to take the next step into an in-house TAFE course where we provide free childminding. Knowing their children are safe allows participants to concentrate on completing their course.

Sometimes this course may be hospitality focused but participants may equally benefit from the opportunity to improve their communication skills which might give them the confidence to seek out external TAFE courses and employment opportunities. The key to success in this program is definitely the childcare. I’d like to be able to run more programs that provide free childcare. This has been identified by our clients as a key issue in their learning.

We also run 7 social enterprises that give participants the opportunity to volunteer, and where possible gain paid work in one of these enterprises. This experience contributes to work readiness and can assist participants to find ongoing work.

What additional supports do you access or refer to, either within your organisation or externally?

We access as many free TAFE courses as we can and as many funding opportunities as possible. This enables us to offer programs which we would not be able to fund with our core funding.

How do you encourage clients to actively participate in decisions that affect them?

We try to be inclusive and very clear in our communications with participants. Our whole program is based on empowerment and self-confidence, so clients who have participated in our pathway program are able to advocate for themselves with support from us.

Why are Targeted Earlier Intervention (TEI) programs and supports so important for children, families and/or young people in your community?

TEI programs (specifically Neighbourhood Centres) are very important in a generalist service like ours. We are at the coal face and therefore have the capacity to be there for people and watch and act before a crisis occurs. We are very connected to our clients, we know if something is not quite right and so we can offer support if needed. We are often able to stop matters progressing to a critical level, by providing support and where needed referring to external services.

Are there any other thoughts you’d like to share with other TEI providers?

I think we need to think outside the square and try innovative projects that will really benefit our communities. Connecting with the community from the top down is also really important, the CEO should ensure they are visible and contactable. This is what I have done for the past 30 years and knowing your community enables you to ensure that you deliver the right programs.

Refer yourself or a friend

If you believe someone you know would benefit from some extra support or connecting with community services, search TEI on ServiceSeeker to find a service. If you need help finding a TEI service visit Family Connect and Support.

Practitioner referrals

If you’re working with a family or young person and would like to refer to one of these services, search TEI on ServiceSeeker.