Glenhaven Children's Home, run by the Christian Brethren Assemblies of Tasmania, opened near Ulverstone in about 1967. It was a small approved cottage Home for older children and teenagers. Glenhaven Children's Home became Glenhaven Family Services in the late 1980s.
Glenhaven was on a 64 acre farm, two miles from Ulverstone on the Bass Highway, overlooking the sea. It was adjacent to Camp Clayton, also run by the Christian Brethren. Glenhaven was run by a married couple with children of their own. The aim was to recreate family life. The couple had the support of the Christian Brethren which donated advice, gifts, and professional skills. This is how the newsletter of the Christian Brethren, Assembly Challenge, described the role of the Brethren:
We are all in this together. To use an analogy from modern warfare: the house parents are the front line troops. The Board provides the ancillary services and the assemblies of the Lord's people are the home base, providing the sinews of war for the prosecution of battle.
From the early 1970s, Glenhaven established a few cottage homes in different parts of the north-west coast. They had accommodation for about six children. Young married couples, usually with children of their own, ran them. The husband had a day time job and the wife ran the Home. The first of these, known as Havenview Children's Home, was in Devonport. Another of these offshoots was Glendel Children's Home in Deloraine. It became an approved children's home in its own right in 1979. After that it operated independently. Glenhaven also ran a cottage home in Ulverstone.
In 1974, Glenhaven became Glenhaven Children's Homes because it operated more than one small home.
In 1978, a new brick home for the Superintendent and Matron was built on the western end of Camp Clayton. The original Home was too close to the camp's activities which created some problems for the house parents. The new building was intended to suit the children's needs and numbers better.
In the early 1980s, Glenhaven extended its services into Family Host Care to provide emergency care for children in evangelical Christian homes on the north-west coast. They hoped that this would avoid long term separation from families and prevent children from going into institutions.
The scheme, known as Temcare, opened in 1984. The managers had a list of people who could lend items to people so that they could take an extra child. It included blankets, cots, beds, chairs, and eating utensils. The organisation also gave financial help to host families.
Temcare eventually became Glenhaven Family Care which, in 2013, provides emergency, respite, and long term foster homes for children and young people on the north-west coast.
1967? - 1988? Glenhaven Children's Home
1988? - Glenhaven Family Care
Sources used to compile this entry: 'Women's Conference Hobart, 1968', Assembly Challenge, December 1968 to January 1969, p. 9; 'Glenhaven', Assembly Challenge, December 1971 to January 1972, p. 12; 'Glenhaven Homes', Assembly Challenge, October to November 1972, p. 12; 'New Glenhaven Home needed', Assembly Challenge, October to November 1976, p. 3; 'Stuat and Myra Priest now full time workers at Glendel Children's Homes', Assembly Challenge, February to March 1979, p. 9; 'Glenhaven Children's Home: 'Temcare' now operating', Assembly Challenge, April to May 1984, p. 13; 'Glenhaven-Temcare', Assembly Challenge, October to November 1984, p. 16; 'Glenhaven challenges', Assembly Challenge, October to November 1986, p. 2.
Prepared by: Caroline Evans
Created: 12 January 2011, Last modified: 7 March 2014
Last updated: 4 August 2023
Cite this: https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/tas/biogs/TE00030b.htm
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
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