Our Story
About us
About us

Our Purpose and Commitment

Established in 1969, the Caroline Chisholm Society is an accredited and registered community service, providing a broad range of supports with a focus in the specialised area of working with women and their families to promote and enhance early childhood and parenting outcomes.

The period from earliest pregnancy to preschool is critical in human life and this is the focus of our work. There is a growing body of research which shows that experiences during a child’s first 1000 days can have lifelong consequences for health and wellbeing. With this in mind, the organisation is clearly focused on supporting women with their pregnancy and early parenting to create safe and nurturing environments for infants and young children.

We work with the whole family to support secure attachment, optimise child outcomes through parenting interventions, prevent and alleviate the impacts of poverty, homelessness, family violence and mental health issues that have an impact on parent and child wellbeing. Our goal is to prevent the involvement of child protection services through early intervention.

Our Values

The Caroline Chisholm Society: respect for every pregnancy and every mother is at the heart of our care , is compassionate and caring, values social justice, believes in empowerment of women and families, recognises diversity, and operates accountably according to best practice.

Our History

Founded by Dr Philomena Joshua, our story began in the 1960s, offering material aid and pregnancy counselling services.

1960s

It was out of Dr Joshua’s house in Box Hill (Victoria) where a group of volunteers, determined to support vulnerable pregnant women and mothers with babies, set up the first pregnancy support phone service.

A few years later, Mrs Pat Coffey (OA) living in Shepparton at the time, established a volunteer service also responding to the needs of pregnant women and mothers and their families.

1970s

Within a decade, the two networks would come together and taking their inspiration from Caroline Chisholm becoming an incorporated, accredited and registered community service that it is today, carrying on in the spirit and intent of a group of women with a vision to make a difference in the lives of women and children.

Inspired by our namesake, Caroline Chisholm was a changemaker successfully advocating for immigrant women and family welfare during the 19th century in Australia.  Undoubtedly an Australian heroine, Chisholm was a social reformer dedicated to improving the living conditions of single women and women with children arriving in the new colony of New South Wales.  Providing practical assistance including housing, work and social protection – as well as agitating for change on behalf of women and their children.

Dr Philomena Joshua wears glasses, a blue dress and floral blazer as she stands cutting a cake and smiling for a photo

Inspired by our namesake, Caroline Chisholm was a changemaker successfully advocating for immigrant women and family welfare during the 19th century in Australia.  Undoubtedly an Australian heroine, Chisholm was a social reformer dedicated to improving the living conditions of single women and women with children arriving in the new colony of New South Wales.  Providing practical assistance including housing, work and social protection – as well as agitating for change on behalf of women and their children.

For over 50 years, we are and remain grounded in the heritage and tradition of our founders, and inspired by Chisholm, the Society continues to provide a range of programs and services for some of the most complex and vulnerable families in Victoria.

Today

Today, working from three sites, the Society is recognised as a specialisation in the field of family services working to prevent the need for child protection involvement for thousands of women and their children who might otherwise have entered or experienced the trauma of out of home care.

Portrait of Caroline Chisholm

Our Communities

From the days of working from the homes of volunteers, the Society has a strong history of social investment within the communities from which the work, effort and drive hundreds of members contributed to over the past 50 years in bringing to fruition the Society’s vision for place based services and programs.

Our strategy today, fortified in this rich heritage, is to grow into three sustainable locally embedded sites in Moonee Valley, Caroline Springs and Goulburn Valley communities from which the Society’s work was founded.

Caroline Chisholm Society works on the lands of the Wurundjeri, Bunurong and Yorta Yorta People.

Two-storey building with grey, green and blue facing.

Moonee Valley

Opening in 2017, our Essendon office provides a professional space including purpose built and designed work areas for our practitioners, students and other professional services. Our design also includes a purpose built set up for training and development, the sorting and processing of the Society’s renowned material aid program as well as improved health and safety space for receiving donations.

Moonee Valley has also become a hub for our famous knitters group as well as being a location for volunteers and members to meet for workshops and planning sessions in the delivery of outreach supports.

Caroline Springs

Having serviced the communities of Bacchus Marsh, Laverton, Caroline Springs and Sunbury since the 1980s, the Caroline Springs centre was opened in 2010, providing much needed space for the delivery of programs and outreach services beyond in the inner western suburbs of Melbourne, expanding into the growing communities of Melton and Brimbank.

In 2015, with the support of the City of Melton, the Society opened the former Wirrigirri Preschool as a centre for early parenting and childhood programs.

Goulburn Valley

In 1974 the Goulburn Valley Pregnancy and Family Support, founded by Mrs Pat Coffey (OAM), joined forces with Dr Philomene Joshua and the volunteers from Melbourne and the city of Greater Shepparton to form what was to become the Caroline Chisholm Society.

Based in the Greater City of Shepparton, the Society’s work continues in the tradition of providing much needed outreach supports and material aid to agencies, social workers and mothers with complex needs seeking assistance to mothers with outreach across the Goulburn Valley including the communities of Numurkah, Nathalia, Kyabram, Tatura, Kialla, Echuca, Seymour, Euroa and Murchison.

Our Commitment to Child Safety

The Caroline Chisholm Society is committed to child safety.

  • We want children to be safe, happy and empowered.
  • We support and respect all children, as well as our staff and volunteers.
  • We are committed to the safety participation and empowerment of all children.
  • We have zero tolerance of child abuse, and all allegations and safety concerns will be treated very seriously and consistently with our robust policies and procedures.
  • We have legal and moral obligations to contact authorities when we are worried about a child’s safety, which we follow rigorously.

The Caroline Chisholm Society is committed to preventing child abuse and identifying risks early, and removing and reducing these risks.

  • The Caroline Chisholm Society has robust human resources and recruitment practices to reduce the risk of child abuse by new and existing board members, staff and volunteers.
  • The Caroline Chisholm Society is committed to regularly training and educating our board members, staff and volunteers on child abuse risks.

We are committed to the cultural safety of Aboriginal children, the cultural safety of children from culturally and/or linguistically diverse backgrounds, and to providing a safe environment for children with a disability.

We have specific policies and procedures in place that support our board members, staff and volunteers to achieve these commitments.

If you believe a child is at immediate risk, phone 000.

Privacy – Child Safety

All personal information considered or recorded will respect the privacy of the individuals involved, whether they be staff, volunteers, families or children, unless there is a risk to someone’s safety. Everyone is entitled to know how this information is recorded, what will be done with it and who will have access to it. This is intended to protect reporters and to ensure that all members of the Caroline Chisholm Society are comfortable to disclose any allegations or concerns in relation to child safety without repercussions.

Privacy Statement

At Caroline Chisholm Society, we are committed to protecting your privacy and your personal information and we are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (‘Privacy Act’) and Privacy and Data Protection Act (PDP Act) 2014 and will protect your personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles. These principles govern how we can collect, use, hold and disclose your personal information, as well as ensuring the quality and security of your personal information. We are also bound by relevant state laws in Victoria.

More Information

If you would like more information, contact the Child Safety Officer on childsafety@caroline.org.au or call us at 03 9361 7000.