Kellie Hammerstein, left, and Amanda Stapledon, right, thank Louise Brooks, centre, at Casey Kidz Klub’s new space in Cranbourne.
By Sarah Schwager
VICTORIA’S only after-school program for intellectually disabled children has received a significant boost after a generous donation by a Tooradin farmer.
Casey Kidz Klub, which runs at Wresacare in Cranbourne, has struggled to secure permanent funding from the state or federal governments since it began in March this year.
On 27 October, a segment ran on the ABC current affairs program Stateline featuring the plight of the program and its founder, Cranbourne North mother Amanda Stapledon.
Tooradin cattle farmer Louise Brooks was passing by the lounge room when she saw the program on television and was moved enough to search for Ms Stapledon’s phone number.
Within an hour she was on the phone to Ms Stapledon and had pledged $4000 to keep the Casey Kidz Klub running until the end of the year.
Without more money the Casey Kidz Klub would have closed in a week.
“I saw Amanda and thought ‘how does she do it – working and running the program’?” Ms Brooks said.
Ms Stapledon, a part-time worker and single mother of Peter, 14, who suffers from multiple disabilities including autism, was over the moon when she found out about the donation.
“If only you could see the faces of the parents,” she said. “This is the first time we feel we are actually getting somewhere.
“It was an absolute lifesaver for us.”
Ms Stapledon was overwhelmed by calls after the segment aired, most of them by people who could not help financially but wanted to help in another way, whether by joining a committee or simply writing a letter to the government.
“They are absolutely outraged that the issue is not being addressed,” she said.
The Casey Kidz Klub was originally funded with a one off grant from a State Government agency.
But that agency has been told the service falls outside its guidelines and both State and Federal Governments say it is not their responsibility, with Federal arguing that respite care lies in the hands of the State, and State saying that after school care lies with Federal.
The program needed $4000 to keep running until the end of the year and about $30,000 a year to continue.
Ms Brooks said every year she donated to a charity and when she saw that it was for a local cause she jumped at the chance.
“I want to be able to help out as well and see where the money is going,” she said.
“This way I feel I am helping individual people. I just really wanted those mothers to benefit so they can have a break. To think you’re helping out someone else gets you on a real high.”
The program was put together by the Disability Inclusion Network in partnership with Bunurong Community Care and Wresacare and is run by qualified respite workers, with one worker per child.
Bunurong Community Centre service development coordinator Kellie Hammerstein, who has been instrumental in helping keep the program running, said while the response from the bureaucracy had been disappointing, the outstanding community response had far outweighed that.
