Works underway for Kalkaringi Community and Family Centre

Capital works are underway to give new life to urban and remote child and family facilities.

IMPORTANT capital works will deliver support to families through three child and family centres.

One of these was a dilapidated health clinic from the 1970s that has been a given a new lease on life at a remote community recognised as the birthplace of Land Rights.

Local workers at Kalkaringi have transformed the building into a modern facility that will house a child and family centre to support families in the region.

The NT government has contributed $150,000 towards the fit-out of the Ngaliwany Purrp’ku Kalkaringi Community and Family Centre in addition to establishment and operational funding worth $2.4m over five years.

The centre was set to be formally opened this week at the Freedom Day Festival. However, the event has been cancelled following Covid-19 lockdown measures.

A further $815,000 in capital works grant funding has been committed to the CAAPS Aboriginal Corporation for its Darrandirra Child and Family Centre in Darwin’s northern suburbs.

Local workers at Kalkaringi work on the upgrade and fit-out of the Ngaliwany Purrp’ku Kalkaringi Community and Family Centre. Picture: SUPPLIED

The grant, additional to a five-year $2.7m establishment and operation investment, will fund the internal fit-out of a child and family centre at Malak Shopping Centre.

Meanwhile, the NT government has partnered with the Da Ngimalmin group to establish a new Child and Family Centre in Wadeye.

Thamarrurr Development Corporation, which supports Da Ngimalmin, has received $2.4m in funding to establish and operate the ­centre for five years. An additional $300,000 capital allocation will assist to refurbish an old church in Wadeye and restore the old mission kitchen across the road for staff accommodation.

Children’s Minister Lauren Moss said the Da Ngimalmin Child and Family Centre would be the first of its kind ­to be established directly by community leaders, supp­orted by a local Aboriginal ­organisation.

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“Our child and family centres ensure children, young people and their families get the support and access to networks they need,” she said. “We have ensured local communities are empowered to create location solutions and the Da Ngimalmin Child and Family Centre is being designed by Wadeye locals to strengthen the community’s capacity to raise happy, healthy children.”

Including Da Ngimalmin, there are now six child and family centres operated by Aboriginal organisations in the NT – in Katherine, Tennant Creek, the Alice Springs Town Camps, Kalkaringi and Darwin’s northern suburbs.

The NT Education Department also operates six centres in Palmerston, Ngukurr, Gunbalanya, Maningrida, Yuendumu and Larapinta in Alice Springs.