Victoria has a rich and interesting history in relation to its services to children and families and the way in which these services have been developed.
It is a history which is closely linked to the discovery of gold in the 19th century and the mass migrations which saw a doubling of the population of Victoria in a period of just ten years.
This inbound migration brought with it a raft of social challenges and consequent difficulties for children who were often neglected and no doubt vulnerable to the fortunes and the misfortunes of their parents.
The challenges emerged to the time when Victoria’s colonial government had no answers to the needs of abused or abandoned children and it was left to churches and community minded individuals to recognise the plight of Victoria’s urchins.
It is a result of this history that the vast bulk of services provided to children and families in Victoria continued to be delivered by community organisations and succussive governments which recognise the benefits of community involvement in our state's child and welfare programs.
One of these organisations can actually claim to be the oldest in Victoria having commenced in 1851, the year in which Victoria was established as a new British colony.
The organisation began as the St James Orphan Asylum but its name was to change many times in the years to follow.
By the middle of the 20th century it had become the Melbourne Orphanage and subsequently in the 1970’s, the Melbourne Family Care Organisation.
The 1970’s were particularly significant years for child welfare in Victoria where the government recognised the need to stop the removal of children from their biological families and try and support vulnerable children in the communities in which they lived.
Those changes encouraged Melbourne Family Care to establish some regional programs with a result that in 1979, an agency entitled Mallee Family Care was established in North West Victoria.
In the course of the years to follow, Mallee Family Care was to grow and establish itself as a highly regarded provider of services to children and families throughout the Mallee in both Victoria and New South Wales.
Deinstitutionalisation was also to take place in relation to care of children with disabilities and those with mental illness and the work of Mallee Family Care was to grow and extend to embrace these services.
You will see from our website, that these developments were just the tip of the iceberg with the result that Mallee Family Care now operates in excess of twenty different services in the communities in which it was established.
The focus and the commitment which guided the early years of Mallee Family Care, and are reaffirmed in the agency’s vision, has not changed over time.
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