News & Events
Donate this Christmas
Dear Supporters
Our Parent’s and Children’s Program urgently needs funds to help kids get their parents back—please donate today.
“It was really bad. Mum went out the night before Christmas. I woke up early to see what Santa had brought me. Nanna and I waited and waited for Mum to come home, but she didn’t. I was scared that Mum wasn’t coming home.” 8-year-old Grace*.
In Australia, more than 450,000 children are raised by adults who misuse alcohol or drugs[1] and more than 60,000 have a parent attending drug treatment[2]. Odyssey House needs your help more than ever this Christmas to help reduce the impact of addiction.
“I was brushing my teeth for bed when the policemen came. They said Mum was not hurt, but that she was not coming home for a while. Nanna cried. I was so scared. Where was she and why couldn’t she come home to Nanna and me?”
For 20 years, our residential Parent’s and Children’s Program has provided education and rehabilitation to parents while caring for their children. We give kids their parents back.
The Program helps families develop healthy routines and relationships and reduces the need for out-of-home care in the future. Parents can receive guidance to improve their parenting skills. Children attend childhood centres or primary school and can receive psychological, pediatric and specialist support to break the cycle of generational drug and alcohol misuse. Children get a safe home environment.
In the last financial year, 16 parents completed our Parent’s and Children’s Program and are now better connected to their families and communities. Parents get their lives back.
“Nanna said Mum had hurt someone with the car and she was in trouble. By the end of Christmas holidays Mum had decided we should come here to Odyssey to get better. We are still here. I like it. Mum and I live in a house with our own room. We share the house with another lady and her son. I go to school nearby. Mum walks me there and picks me up each day. We have dinner together and now she reads to me every night before bed.”
Please donate today. It’s the best way to help break the generational cycle of drug and alcohol misuse and provide treatment and counselling for clients like Grace’s Mum.
Julie Babineau
Chief Executive Officer
