History & Future
More than 45 years in the community
Althea Projects Inc formally Wee Care Family Inc celebrated 45 years of caring for children in the Townsville community in June 2019. The organisation was born out of a need to offer increasing numbers of children 24-hour accommodation when their parents or guardians were ill, involved in an emergency, or otherwise unable to care for them.
The need for care
In the early 70’s Joan Innes Reid sometimes referred to as the “mother” of Wee Care was a social worker at the TGH. When women were admitted to hospital and there was no-one to care for her children, the social workers would have the children admitted to the hospital. If there were a number of children or if it was to be an extended stay the children would be placed in the “temporary care” of the state and admitted to a state ran institution such as Carramar.
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1971
On the 24th December 1971 Cyclone Althea hit Townsville
This highlighted the need for emergency accommodation for children as many families lost their homes. Originally, families looked after other people’s children in their own homes when through illness, accident or other circumstances the parent or guardian was unable to care for them.
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1973
In 1973 twelve women formed the nucleus of the program
They then cared for children in their homes until the child’s own family crisis had passed or other arrangements had been made. It became increasing difficult to cope with the number of children needing assistance living in their homes.
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1974
In March 1974 Wee Care was formally registered as an association
Dec 1974 cyclone Tracey came to Darwin and the families were evacuated to Adelaide and Townsville. Wee Care provided emergency places to Children once again.
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1974
Moving Into A Central Location
After a year of operating they were unable to cope with the escalating demand and realised they needed a central location to offer emergency accommodation And after considerable discussion with the community the Sisters of Mercy offered Coolock Cottage to the organisation and the Residential centre was officially opened on June 23rd 1974.
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1979
Moved To A New Location
Wee Care remained at the cottage until 1979, when the Sisters once again required the property. Not wishing to see the organisation close, Mr Charles Arnold offered his house at 197 Kings Road, Pimlico for $1 a year rent.
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1984
Expanded To A New Home
There had been a considerable expansion of the services provided by Wee Care Residential and in April 1984 Townsville Apex Club began building the organisation a home of its own. The project was finished in October 1984 and Wee Care Residential moved into their present home in Railway Estate and continued its expansion. The Townsville Drop In Centre opened on 11th May to provide services to homeless and vulnerable people in the Townsville area.
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1995
Growing in Numbers
In February 1995 the organisation became involved in the Foster Care Program as it already had considerable expertise in this area. The Shared Family Care Fostering program started with one support worker at this time and was funded per Foster Carer Family. Shared Family Care was and still is funded by the Department of Communities – Child Safety Services. The program grew in the next year to include two Support Workers and a Part-time Administration Officer.
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2003
More Growth
With an increase in funding in 2003 the program still supported the same number of Foster Carer Families but due to new reporting benchmarks the program included another two (2) Support Workers.
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2007
Continuing To Grow
The Department of Communities – Child Safety Service increased the Shared Family Care funding in 2007 which allowed for a Manager and Full-time Administration Officer. Shared Family Care during this growth was still operating from the one office at the Residential Premises in Railway Estate.
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2009
Changing Locations
In 2009 the SFC program received additional funding and as the program had outgrown the current office space, alternate office space was sought. The program relocated to 2 Fleming Street, Aitkenvale in April 2009 and included another two (2) Support Workers, a Team Leader and a Part-time Administration Officer to the team. Shared Family Care was funded to support 165 placements with Children who have Moderate to High Behaviours, the program supported approx 90 Foster and Kinship Carers at this time.
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2012
Expanding Further
2012 brought additional funding and a change to our Service Agreement with the Department of Communities Child Safety Services. Shared Family Care now supports 190 placements with Children who have Moderate to Complex Behaviours, and approximately 120 Foster and Kinship Carers. The Shared Family Care team now consists of a Manager, Team Leader, 8 Support Workers and 2 Administration Officers. To accommodate the extra staff the offices at 2 Fleming Street have extended to include another 3 offices upstairs.
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2014
Althea Projects
To honour how we first started 2014 saw us changing our name to Althea Projects Incorporated. In 2015 Althea Projects Corporate Office and the Shared Family Care Program Office moved to 296 Ross River Road, Aitkenvale, Townsville. Wee Care Residential is still in the same Railway Estate Location.
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2017
Townsville Drop-In Centre
Further expansion to the organisation came in April 2017, when Althea Projects chose to pick up the service delivery of The Townsville Drop-In Centre (TDIC) and prevent the centre from closure. TDIC has been delivering services to people who are homeless since the 1980’s and Althea Projects will proudly continue these important services in to the future.
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2020
Social Enterprise Begins
In 2020, through seed funding from Department of Communities, Housing and Digital Economy, Dignity First Funding, TDIC established our long-awaited social enterprise called Morehead Meals. This resulted in our industrial kitchen being licensed and our ability to expand our capacity to provide meals to the most vulnerable people in our community.
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2021
Name Changes and a Move
As part of our strategic direction to more closely align service names and branding with Althea Projects, in 2021 saw the name change for SFC to Althea Projects Foster and Kinship Program (AFKP) and TDIC changed its name to Althea’s Community Hub (ACH). Also in 2021 due to continued growth for our services, AFKP and Corporate Services moved to larger premises at the new Brad Webb development, Italian on Fleming - Unit 1, 5-11 Fleming Street, Aitkenvale.
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2023
Althea House
Althea House was established in a stand alone property in Heatley in 2023, previously provided at Wee Care. Althea House is a care model of intervention that provides short term residential care supports to children 0-12.
- READ OUR STRATEGIC DIRECTION
