About William Campbell and his College

Bill was born one of three children. He and his two sisters spent the majority of their childhood in children's homes, institutions and foster care. For the majority of that time Bill was separated from his sisters and, although they came back together in their teenage years, the shame, deep scarring, and hurt resulting from their childhood experiences in the welfare system and the emotional damage caused by the rejection of them by their parents has remained with them all their adult years.

Bill is the Chairman of Directors of the College and is a local businessman who spent thirty-five years in the motor and caravan industry. He is married with one daughter and two grandchildren. Bill was a counsellor at Illawarra Lifeline and later a member of the Board of Management. Bill also had a term of management with the Kemblawarra Child and Family Centre and has an in-depth understanding of homeless and abused children.

William Campbell College - a charitable organisation - is a public company limited by guarantee, and accepted by The Office of the State Revenue and The Australian Taxation Office in their granting of duty and taxation exemptions. The company consists of ten members and Directors who all act in a voluntary capacity and are entrusted with the management and control of the College.

The Board of Directors are responsible for ensuring that the Policy and the Constitution of the organisation is strictly adhered to, with its principles enunciated and performed in the spirit of our Aims and Objectives. Any debt that may be incurred by the College falls under the duty of care of the Board of Directors who ensure that the College is adequately funded by the necessary authorities, and our fundraising and sponsorships enable the College to continue in a solvent manner.

The College has a fully-computerised administrative office, not only for its accounting system, but also its reporting systems to government bodies that may need ongoing monitoring of the College. The office provides a place where fundraisers, committees and Directors can meet to update and refine the planning and development of the College. An authorized Auditor audits the accounts and prepares the balance sheets each year. These are readily available to any authority that may have a direct interest in the College.

The College is located within 10 kilometers of the Nowra central business district, a major hospital, schools, TAFE, University Campus. It is also within 30 kilometers of the township of Huskisson, the picturesque environs of Jervis Bay, the surf beach of Shoalhaven Heads and the magnificent mountain range of Cambewarra. The location creates an excellent opportunity to provide children and young people with a variety of entertainment and interests.

The site of the College was also chosen because a rural environment with an agricultural bias is considered essential in providing therapy for wounded children and young people. The close proximity of the Naval Base offers highly visible aerial activities plus a Museum which can be regarded as a therapeutic tool. Overall, the location further supports the principles of nurturing each child or young person across their full range of developmental needs i.e. physical, emotional, cognitive, social and spiritual.

The main principles of the College are: to provide community and rural family out-of-home care solutions that can adapt to the specific needs of individuals and sibling groups; to provide long-term family care and accommodation for large sibling groups of children or young people, in a rural setting, from birth to ten years of age, while accepting that older siblings can also be included; to acknowledge the importance of keeping siblings bonded wherever possible; to acknowledge each child's right to a loving and caring mother and father, brothers and sisters, uncles, aunts and grandparents, together with a stable, secure home in an environment that best meets their needs.

The College aspires to achieve a family-type living environment that emulates society's expectation of a loving, stable family. To achieve this permanent live-in foster carers are chosen to fulfill these roles. They are selected according to guidelines supplied by government agencies and, after extensive investigation by the relevant authorities and the College Board, including stringent Police and background checks, to ensure that potential foster carers are free of any abusive and/or pedophilic behavior. Foster carers are then required to undergo an extensive foster family training program.

While it is an expectation that children will eventually look upon the foster carers as their psychological parents, access to the birth family is maintained, unless this is thought to be contrary to the child's best interests or as directed by an Order of the Court or the Department of Community Services.

Accommodation at the College is in the form of farm-style cottages consisting of six bedrooms and capable of housing up to six children together with live-in foster carers and guest or respite carers. Priority is given to siblings and also siblings who are currently in a number of separate foster care placements. Where a potential arises for children from another family to be accommodated with the resident siblings, this will occur if it appears likely that an harmonious family environment can still be maintained.

Each cottage has support carers whose role evolves into Aunts and Uncles to emulate the extended family unit. If a situation arose necessitating the Aunts and Uncles becoming the live-in foster carers they would ideally fill that role as they are already known to the children. The Aunts and Uncles undergo the same selection process and training program as full-time carers. Stringent Police and background checks are also required. The Aunt and Uncle stay in the guest room and give respite to the live in foster carers on a regular basis.

As a result of the fact that they are accepted and known to each child in the role of an Aunt and Uncle, the real problem of children in permanent care having a multitude of carers - including shift workers - is eliminated. This removes a destabilising factor from the children's care environment but, more importantly, reinforces the stability of a loving family.

Grandparents play an extremely important supportive role and have a similar function to the Aunts and Uncles in the role of the extended family. It is imperative for children to feel that they have older people to relate to whose life experiences and knowledge is essential to every child's inquisitiveness and wonderment about life. This, again, reinforces their security in a loving environment and in a very safe and stable relationship within the family unit. Stringent Police and background checks are required, together with relevant training.

The College has highly qualified Child Development Caseworkers who work in conjunction with the foster carers to provide programmes of growth and achievement for every child and young person, with particular emphasis on their psychological, emotional, spiritual and educational needs. The Child Development Caseworkers also work in a co-operative way with the Department of Community Services and other agencies.

The priority of the College is to provide long-term care, however, medium, short term and emergency care are also provided. Throughout any placement, restoration with the birth family is supported if it is seen to be in the child or you person's best interests. Communication with a Supervisor from the Department Of Community Services is maintained throughout any restoration process. In the unfortunate event that restoration of a child with their birth family breaks down, the College takes all possible steps to ensure that the child or young person can return to the care of their previous foster carers.

The greatest gift you can afford children is love and care and, most importantly, the stability achieved in the knowledge they have a home. This is their best safeguard and our most constructive means in providing a solid foundation to the child's future stability, growth and achievement.

Unfortunately foster care does not always provide the permanency a child needs in the stabilisation of their childhood. This may occur for many reasons: the foster carer's demise, illness or circumstances beyond their control necessitating the children leaving their care. Additionally sibling groups are separated because the foster carers do not have the resources, accommodation or support mechanisms to take siblings into care.

Although the College can be defined as being a type of group home care, the difference between the College and group home care is that typically, in the group home care there are two or more carers in each residence, normally on eight hour shifts, necessitating a roster system of six or more carers per day.

Unfortunately in group homes carers often change careers and jobs and move on, creating a situation where you have up to six children who are living in an environment of constant change. Whereas, in the College family environment, the children experience the normalcy of having permanent foster carers with support staff who fulfill the role of Uncles, Aunts, and Grandparents, thereby creating an extended family-type household.

Our objective is to provide all children and young people in our care stability and permanency, allowing independence in their growth and development, and a feeling of strength and soundness in their character. This reinforces all dimensions of their lives, i.e. emotional, physical, spiritual, intellectual and social, enabling them to become healthy, confident citizens of the future.