Women Supporting Women Since 2014
ESTHERS Australia exists to support highly vulnerable and at-risk pregnant women to parent their children “good enough.”
Working alongside other family and community based organisations, our ultimate goal is to ensure that, during pregnancy and early parenting, women are empowered and supported to achieve the outcomes they desire for them and/or their family. This might include:
receiving professional support to make a decision regarding the pregnancy
avoiding a child being placed in the foster care system
learning the skills required to parent “good enough”
Being heard in settings where a professionals opinion can be scary to challenge
receiving help to navigate other services (NDIS, Centrelink, Child Safey, Health etc)
Support and education around family violence
receiving parenting education tailored to individual needs
Our organisations goal is to drive social change for vulnerable women during pregnancy and into early parenting. In effect, producing lasting transformational benefits to society and setting the field and our practitioners apart.
Our History
After years spent in community services, our founder recognized a significant gap: while many services focused on children, few catered specifically to women's needs. This gap was especially evident in the lack of support for pregnant women, those without children, or those facing difficult circumstances. Personal experiences of the organization's co-founders, including inadequate support during pregnancy and early parenting, feelings of isolation, grief from infant loss, and challenges like unplanned pregnancies, child safety issues, domestic violence, and caring for children with disabilities, motivated the establishment of our first hub in Hobart in 2014. Since then, we've refined our services to address what we perceive as the most underserved area: supporting pregnant women who have limited access to other assistance for their parenting journey. Our efforts have expanded to encompass operations in both Hobart and the Sunshine Coast in QLD.
Our Operations
We see ourselves as gap fillers and vital bridge builders, filling the voids where essential services are lacking, particularly in areas that exacerbate the challenges faced by women during pregnancy.
While other services grapple with funding cuts and sporadic provision, our resilience stems from our philanthropic funding structure. Operating within a framework grounded in strength and social justice, our core objective is to cultivate an environment where women and children feel valued, supported, and empowered, liberated from all forms of fear, thereby fostering happier and healthier families and individuals.
Each of our clients is paired with a Family Practitioner, holding a degree in Social Work or a related field, who serves as a dedicated advocate and expert in parent education. Furthermore, we offer professional counseling to aid in early decision-making and, when available, peer mentoring services within the community.
Our programs are meticulously crafted to empower women, equipping them with the tools necessary to surmount the hurdles that led them to seek our assistance
“We can come to you”
Our services can be delivered via outreach - we meet people in their own homes and/or within local community spaces/offices or in our local hubs.
Who Do We Help?
The women who come to us for support are often feeling isolated, disconnected and/or lonely and contact us for support for many reasons, some of these are:
Pregnant with no other children in their care and in need of support or advocacy around child safety issues.
Pregnant and living with a disability and in need of advocacy and proper support and care.
Pregnant and homeless or at risk of becoming homeless and in need of support and/or advocacy.
Pregnant and unsure whether to continue the pregnancy.
Pregnant and discovers during her pregnancy that her child may have a disability.
Pregnant and struggling with an intimate relationship family violence.
Pregnant and struggling with depression or other mental health conditions.
Pregnant and struggling due to physical illness (including chronic morning sickness.)
Pregnant and feeling overwhelmed with daily responsibilities.
Our client is - any pregnant woman who needs support.
We work with our new or extending mums until their baby is 1 year old (this time frame can be flexible in some cases.) If we are unable to support you we can help you find the people who can. No matter what the reason - we are here to help you.
How Do We Help?
ADVOCACY - We empower women by giving them a voice and assisting them in obtaining necessary resources. This can involve accompanying them to appointments, facilitating communication with relevant parties, offering practical assistance, navigating services such as NDIS and Child Safety, and providing court support.
EDUCATION - Our case workers are trained in various programs like Circle of Security, Parents as Teachers (PaT), and The Shark Cage, which are offered to all clients on an individual basis.
INFORMATION - We offer education and information on pregnancy, parenting, mental health, community and social support services, disability services, and reproductive choice.
COUNSELLING - Through our partnership with a Psychology Clinic, our clients who are pregnant and in a decision-making stage, receive up to 3 sessions of counseling with a Clinical Psychilogist via Tele-Health. Further arrangements for ongoing support can be made for bulk-billing.
MENTORING - Our mentors, who are women with relatable experiences, provide companionship and support throughout the journey of life, offering empathy, fun, and encouragement.
PARENT ASSESSMENT - Our social workers utilize specialized assessment frameworks to ensure that parents with learning disabilities and additional needs receive tailored support to meet their specific requirements.
Our services operate in:
TASMANIA- within a 35 kilometre radius of Hobart, Tasmania
QUEENSLAND - within a 35 kilometres radius of Caloundra, Sunshine Coast, Queensland