Macarthur’s Big Yellow Umbrella celebrates Australia Day community award

What started as Camden Community Connections more than 35 years ago has blossomed into a support organisation for the entire Macarthur community. Meet the tireless staff who keep it running.

With its bright logo, the faces behind Big Yellow Umbrella have helped to keep it running for decades to support the families of Macarthur.

The community organisation that quietly operates on the front lines of the region was recognised earlier this year with Camden’s Australia Day Community Group award.

So to celebrate the work they do, The Macarthur Chronicle sat down with three women behind the daily runnings of the community organisation.

Leanne Haggart

Campbelltown local Leanne Haggart started out with the Big Yellow Umbrella nearly four years ago to help out new families moving into the Stocklands estate Willowdale.

“I was a community worker facilitating programs, activities and it was like old style community,” she said.

“Like when we were young, your family built a home in a new estate and it was having somebody there to organise the events and activities for you.

“It was all about bringing the community together. We did some wonderful things over there.”

Leanne Haggart at the Big Yellow Umbrella. Picture: Annie Lewis

After a couple of years, Ms Haggart switched over to running the playgrounds and assisting families from the hub at Narellan, a role that has provided plenty of challenges when the pandemic forced everyone into lockdowns.

Programs moved online because while they couldn’t be done in person, Ms Haggart said it was still essential that families were provided with support.

“I think just my main thing here too is just bringing those new parents together because as a new mum or a new dad, it can be really daunting and during Covid that was even harder,” she said.

“Prior to Covid I’d started a Mums and Bubs group and they’re still now meeting for lunch and this is 12 months on.

“They really form those friendships and now they’ve come back and they’re having their second babies. That’s the community coming together right there. That was beautiful.”

The organisation soon came up with an innovative way to check in on their families and bring about a sense of community.

“We did have a wonderful project, called the Book Bus,” Ms Haggart said.

“We started that up because we had our Big Yellow Umbrella van and we thought, ‘we have all these books that are donated to us too’.

“We went through Covid and safely washed all the books or wiped them down. The knitting ladies in the area donated all the knitting, the teddy bears and we had other people donate little things so we could make up little show bags.

“Then parents could ring up or families could ring up and say they wanted to register and we would drive around all the areas and it was a great way to check in with the family as well and just have that social engagement there for them when they were feeling so isolated.”

For Ms Haggart the best, and most challenging, part of her role is one and the same, and that is being on the frontline.

“You’re seeing the people and you are hearing what’s going on in the community. You have your heart on your sleeve for these people and we are either giving them support through us or referring them to another organisation,” she said.

“Then sometimes you may just get feedback from them to say six months down the track I’ve got a job, I found housing and that’s the story there, that’s what we hear. We’re here to fill those gaps until they get back on their feet.

“But it can also be really sad to hear what these people are going through whether it was the bush fires, floods, or Covid, it’s been really tough to see and you want to fix everything. I know we can’t do that, but you do.”

Stephanie Roberts

Becoming involved in the Big Yellow Umbrella was a “calling” for young mum Stephanie Roberts who had benefited from the programs the organisation run herself.

“I‘m a case manager and I had been in the sector for a very long time and I’m really passionate about what I do, but I had just had a baby and I was new to the Willowdale area,” she said.

“Then I saw Big Yellow Umbrella and I thought, ‘I’m going to be part of this’, so I came to sessions and I was just a community member living in Willowdale using the services.

“I found out that there was a role going about six months or so into me being in the Mums and Bubs and I was like, ‘Oh my God. Yes, I have to!’

“It was a calling. I know how this industry works and how workplaces work and never have I been so satisfied and so proud of working somewhere.”

Stephanie Roberts. Picture: Annie Lewis

Ms Roberts has a focus on working with young people and supporting them no matter what they are going through, with an emphasis on early intervention.

“Most of what I do is one-on-one work with young people asking them about their goals and where they see themselves in the future, what their barriers are,” she said.

“A lot of that was Covid and their parents having a hard time with the bushfires and the floods and it just was a really difficult economic time right now as well.”

One of the major projects Ms Roberts is involved with is at the Julie Reserve at Oran Park at the community centre where young people can drop in.

“They don’t have to commit anything. They can just come in, chill out and be safe in the evenings when it’s starting to get dark,” she said.

“It might be raining. They might have homework to do, and they don’t have access to a computer. Or they might just want some socialisation with their friends indoors where there’s supervision.

“I also do case work over there. If they want to come in and it’s such a fun little area. We can go in and we can be playing the PlayStation at the same time as having a really intense, deep conversation. And that’s really beneficial to them.”

Ms Roberts is also a mandatory reporter meaning if there is a child protection issue, she has to notify the relevant authorities.

“It’s not my role just to say, well, come in and let’s just keep talking about it. It is my role to talk to the schools and other services and then also ultimately the department to make sure that these kids are safe and that the parents are safe,” she said.

“We don’t just work with the young person who’s in an unsafe situation, or if they’ve experienced trauma.

“We would work with the entire family and the support network and say, ‘Well, what do you need to provide a safer home?’ or, ‘how do you support your young person who’s got either a disability or a trauma or mental health issues?’

“They’re the ones at home with them. We want to make sure we’re supporting that whole structure.”

Kim Landouw

Kim Landouw, is the chief operations manager for the Big Yellow Umbrella. For each of their staff and volunteers, Ms Landouw said the focus is always the person.

“It’s whatever crisis or whatever’s happening in their life at the moment even if they walk in here dripping in gold and appear to be financially so stable as we see in Camden,” she said.

“Well, they might walk into playgroup and melt because their baby didn’t sleep that night. That is a severe issue and a need that needs to be addressed and support needs to be offered.

“Without any bias or judgment, we work with the client for the client I think across everything what we do.”

Ms Landouw said the main aim is to support new and emerging members of the community, a task that continues to grow as the region’s population booms.

Kim Landouw. Picture: Annie Lewis

“We’re here as a connector organisation. That’s why our umbrella and our logo encompasses what it is that we do. We do a little bit of everything,” she said.

“Our expert field would be child and family and early intervention. We try and work with families to prevent any ongoing issues that may arise down the track. We try to get in nice and early, make all those connections for families, work and support them.

“Whether it be in-house where we can support them through our programs or we make referrals and connect them out to other services in the area.”

The organisation was founded by local community members about 35 years ago and it was known as Camden Community Connections.

Five years ago, the name changed to Big Yellow Umbrella.

“I think meeting the demands is about just, you need to have your ear on the ground. I think we’re known as an innovative service and that’s what we pride ourselves in,” Ms Landouw said.

“Having new innovative programs and projects constantly popping up to support the needs of the community as they change.

Leanne Haggart, Stephanie Roberts and Kim Landouw at the Big Yellow Umbrella. Picture: Annie Lewis

“We’re underpinned by I guess a strong model of care and support but we definitely have a lot of flexibility in what we can deliver and making sure that all our programs are culturally sensitive and that we’re really working with the community, who we see on the ground.”

Ms Landouw said it was fantastic to see the organisation recognised for the hard work they do.

“We were just so ecstatic to win this award during Covid,” she said.

“We felt like we were definitely double pumped through the whole of Covid because a lot of organisations either shut down or work from home which meant our phones were ringing off the hook and we really provided full face-to-face service throughout the whole of the Covid time for the whole two years.

“I think we only had, out of that whole time, about three weeks where we were working from home. You can imagine the impact that it had, not only on the workload but also on our own personal safety.”

Ms Landouw encouraged any businesses looking to engage in corporate research to reach out. For more information about the organisation, click here.