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Community Integration and Accommodation Options

Community Integration and Accommodation Options (CIAO) was set up in 1991 by Melbourne City Mission. CIAO provides accommodation and support services to young people on statutory orders who are exiting residential services in the North and Western suburbs. The young people are aged between 15 and 18 years old and are often dealing with complex…

Centacare Catholic Family Services

Centacare Catholic Family Services was formerly known as the Catholic Social Service Bureau. The name change, to reflect the organisation’s ‘commitment to families’ was announced by Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne George Pell in December 1998. The Department of Human Services funded Centacare’s Adoption and Permanent Care Service, which incorporated an information service about previous adoptions.

Sisters of Sion

The Sisters of Sion first provided educational services in Victoria in 1890, in Gippsland. (In 1887, the first Catholic Bishop of Sale, Bishop Corbett, had travelled to Europe and returned with seven Sisters of Notre Dame and five priests.) The Sisters ran parish schools and boarding schools in towns including Sale, Bairnsdale and Warragul. The…

Windsor Youth Welfare Service

The Windsor Youth Welfare Service was established in 1973. It included a residential unit, and provided support and supervision for approximately 100 young women per year aged 13 to 18 years. Young women were referred to the Windsor Youth Welfare Service from regional Centres; Winlaton, Allambie and the Children’s Court. The Service also operated a…

Aboriginal Youth Support Service

The Aboriginal Youth Support Service was a state-run youth welfare service, established in around 1973-74 in Brunswick.

Nunawading Youth Residential Centre

The Nunawading Youth Residential Centre was established in 1991, on the former site of Winlaton. It accommodated young people from ten and fourteen years who had been sentenced to detention. It also provided youth training centre programs. According to the Finding Records website, Nunawading Youth Residential Centre was a large complex with different sections, including:…

Windermere Child and Family Services

Windermere Child and Family Services takes its name from the location of the Melbourne Orphan Asylum from 1878, in Windermere Crescent, Brighton. Windermere came into being in the wake of changes at the Melbourne Orphanage. With the transition from institutional, congregate care to family group homes during the 1960s, the Orphanage became known as the…

Church of England Boys’ Society

The first branch of the Church of England Boys’ Society (CEBS) in Australia was established in around 1914 in Kew, Victoria. It was initially under the guidance of the Church of England Men’s Society. CEBS played a role in a number of children’s institutions in Victoria, sometimes delivering services in conjunction with St John’s Homes…

Franciscan Friars

The Franciscan Friars arrived in Victoria in 1839 and built two of the colony’s first churches. This Catholic Order, which dates back to Italy in 1209, has been working in Australia almost since the time of first European contact. In Victoria, the Franciscans ran the Morning Star Boys’ Home and Padua Hall.

Committee of Management of the Ballarat District Orphan Asylum

The Ballarat District Orphan Asylum was run by a non-denominational Committee of Management, comprising a President, two Vice-Presidents, five Trustees, a Treasurer and a Committee of Management of sixteen members. Each year it would meet to present the annual report and balance sheet, and to hold elections for officers. A House Committee of five people…