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C-BERSS EX-PRESS
June 2003
Issue 2, Vol 6
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All Newsletters : June 2003 : Care Leavers Australian Network (CLAN)
Care Leavers Australian Network (CLAN)
In this special edition on “the Aussie Kids” who grew up in institutional care, we are delighted to feature information on the Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN). CLAN has played a significant part in influencing government and in enlisting support from interested parties to finally bring about the current Senate Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care in Australia. WA Democrat Senator Andrew Murray took up the CLAN cause and successfully proposed the Inquiry to Parliament.
Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN) is a national self-help support and lobby group for older people who grew up in "care" away from their families in orphanages and other institutions - as home children, state wards, or as foster children. Although there are hundreds of thousands of people across Australia who shared this traumatic experience, there are no publicly funded support services for them, as there are for the Aboriginal “stolen generation” and for former child migrants, and as there are for adoptees.
CLAN was founded in July 2000 by Leonie Sheedy (who grew up as a state ward in a Catholic Home in Victoria) and Joanna Penglase (who lived in a Home in Sydney) to try to fill this gap.
Now with close to 400 members in all states of Australia, CLAN provides an opportunity for people from similar backgrounds to communicate with each other and share their experiences.
CLAN services include
¨ helping members to obtain their state ward files or institutional records
¨ lobbying for greater public awareness and government recognition of Care Leaver issues (which resulted in the current Senate Inquiry)
¨ a specialist library to help members understand and deal with issues affecting them
¨ A bi-monthly newsletter in which members can tell their personal story and advertise to locate lost family members or former '"care" residents.
Contact CLAN at
P.O. Box 164 Georges Hall NSW 2198
Tel: 02 9724 1826
email:careleavers@hotmail.com
web: www.angelfire.com/folk/clan-aust/
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