Our People

The work of Sutherland Early Support Service (SESS) is accomplished by two paid co-ordinators and a team of volunteers.

Co-Ordinators

Sutherland Early Support Service (SESS) has two paid staff members, Anne Van Vuuren and Lina Willmott, who are employed as the co-ordinators of the service. Their role is to manage the service which involves recruiting, training and linking volunteers with families. The coordinators supervise and support the volunteers as well as assist clients with access to appropriate services. Some short-term casework may also be provided to the families where necessary.

Anne and Lina job share the position of co-ordinator each working three days a week with an overlap day on Wednesday. This day enables meetings, planning, client casework and volunteer training to be attended by both workers of the service.

The co-ordinators provide learning opportunities for students from high schools, TAFE, and Universities. They also provide community education talks at local rotary clubs, service clubs and parenting groups.

Both co-ordinators are committed to ongoing professional development and supervision. They regularly attend professional development training sessions and courses to enhance their knowledge and skills such as the National Family Wellbeing Symposium; Relaxation for Children, Managing Challenging Behaviours, Nutrition for Children, Cultural Diversity - Sutherland Shire Training Organisation; Building Parents' Emotional Availability, Safe Home Visiting - Centre for Community Welfare Training; Case Notes - DOCS/SAAP Training; Attachment and the Circle of Security - Families First/Benevolent Society; Partnership Days - Sutherland Council/Suicide Safety Network; South Eastern Sydney Early Literacy Forum; Providing Non-clinical Services to People with Mental Health Issues, Interventions in Mental Health Alcohol and other Drugs - TAFE Loftus Campus; Working with High Risk Families - Tresillian Symposium; Karitane courses, UNSW workshops and lectures, UNSW Centre for Social Impact; Sutherland Shire Cultural Awareness Days; monthly Perinatal Peer Supervision sessions with colleagues at Caringbah Community Health Centre, and Work Health and Safety workshops.

Anne Van Vuuren - NZRN & SCM

Anne is a Registered General & Maternity Nurse and a State Certified Midwife with a Post Certificate in Special & Intensive Care of the Newborn. She has worked as a registered nurse and midwife in Australia, New Zealand, and England.

Prior to being involved with the Sutherland Early Support Service Anne was trained and employed as a telephone counsellor at the Ashfield office of the Child Abuse Prevention Service (CAPS). She was also a case worker for the same organisation in the Liverpool Child and Parent Stress Centre working with families struggling to cope. Anne worked with CAPS for six years and the position involved the training of volunteer workers.

Anne joined the Sutherland Family Network in 1999 and worked with families within the Sutherland Shire for six years. She now assists in running the Sutherland Early Support Service.  Anne has been presented with an Excellence in Workmanship Award and The Rotary Foundation named Anne as a Paul Harris Fellow.

Anne is a local resident of the Sutherland Shire; she is married and has three sons and is active in her local church.

Lina Willmott - BSW Hons. (UNSW), Cert III IT

Lina is a social worker with a Bachelor of Social Work degree from the University of New South Wales, and eligible for membership of the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW). She has also completed a Certificate III in Information Technology (Southern Sydney Institute TAFE).

Lina has worked in both government and non-government agencies. She worked for the Australia Red Cross Welfare Service providing a casework service to clients from diverse cultural backgrounds in the Fairfield area of western Sydney. She then worked in the Sydney office of the Red Cross as Deputy-Director of Welfare Services assisting in the administration of programmes such as Neighbourhood Centre Based Social Workers, Family Day Care, School Volunteer Project, and recruitment and supervision of social workers and students.

Lina also worked for Southern Sydney Institute TAFE at the St George campus as a Teacher of Welfare. Subjects that she taught included Field Practice and Professional Development. She was also a fieldwork co-ordinator. Lina was also a Home and Community Care (HACC) Co-ordinator in St George/Sutherland Shire which involved planning and service development for the frail aged and people with disabilities.

In 2000 Lina joined Sutherland Family Network as coordinator and worked there for five years. She now assists in managing Sutherland Early Support Service and also uses her IT skills to edit and update the website. Lina has been presented with a Rotary International Excellence in Workmanship Award.

Volunteers

Volunteers are the heart of the Sutherland Early Support Service and are valued members of the service. The trained home visiting volunteers are pivotal to the success of the support we give our clients. There is a large team of volunteer home visitors. Some other volunteers also assist in the office, some with fundraising and others on the SESS advisory committee. For details on the advisory committee members go to the Our Supporters page and scroll down to the Acknowledgements section.

In June 2006, the Deputy Mayor and Chair of the Community Services Committee, Melanie Gibbons, wrote in a support letter for the NAB Volunteer Awards - "I am aware of the supervision, support and quality training given to the volunteers and I have had the opportunity to see the benefit this organisation brings to our Shire...it is well known that improved family function benefits the family as well as the community. Sutherland Council encourages resident participation and I am pleased to see it working so well in this service. The volunteers themselves benefit through improved activity and health and so a more caring inclusive community is built. Early intervention has the highest success rate and therefore the best return for society".

Building resilience is an important part of the work of our volunteers. They help mothers by being an external support and resource, model new parenting skills and encourage mothers to work on internal, social and interpersonal strengths. Building resilience allows a person, group or community to prevent, minimize or overcome the damaging effects of adversity. Building resilience is effective, can have life long benefits, can be inexpensive or nil cost. Resilience is linked with success in life and prevention of substance use problems, mental disorder and violence. (Hillin, A., & McAlpine, R. 2006)

Pictured below is one of  our volunteers, Lyn, who started with us as a home visitor in 2000.  She received the Cook Community award from Scott Morrison MP in December 2009.

For more information on our volunteers please see the Volunteer Information section of our site.

More Information

If you would like more information about any of the content found on this page please contact us.