Parents Helping Parents group nominated for a Pride of Australia Award
IF anyone deserves the “supermum” tag, it’s Donna Crowden. She’s a mother of 10, whose youngest son, Caleb, 14, has cerebral palsy. And she’s just one of a group of parents helping others.
IF anyone deserves the “supermum” tag, it’s Donna Crowden.
The mother of 10, whose youngest son Caleb, 14, has cerebral palsy, has more than enough on her plate looking after her family.
Yet the O’Halloran Hill resident has travelled across the state helping thousands of parents of children with disabilities through volunteer organisation Parents Helping Parents.
The five parents who founded the organisation in 2009 have reached more 2000 families by giving talks to 200 groups of parents, mostly in schools and kindergartens, providing them with information on disability services, concessions, community, sporting and support groups.
Mrs Crowden said many parents were unaware of the government and community services available. A mum she met at a basketball game last weekend had no idea she was eligible for a $700 electricity concession to run her son’s home medical machinery.
“This is a service we do just because we love to help families with kids with disabilities,” she said.
Mrs Crowden and co-founders Sam Paior, of Clapham, Plympton resident Narelle Highland, Angela Basedow of Mitcham and Garry Connor from Marion have been nominated for a Pride of Australia Community Spirit award.
Ms Paior, a single mum whose son Ben, 14, has Down syndrome, said parents of children with disabilities needed to build support networks within the disability community as well as maintaining links to their family and friends.
“You need a foot in both worlds,” she said.
“We’ve all been there when we didn’t know anything and had no-one to help us and we don’t want other people to go through that.
“It is an incredibly isolating experience having a kid with a disability. They have no idea what opportunities are out there.
“(Information) can change so much for families. We get incredible recognition from the families we serve.”
The group can be contacted at parentshelpingparents.org.au