Cottage by the Sea is non government and non-profit charity organization that works for the deprived and underprivileged children and provides them encouragement, stimulation and fun opportunities in a healthy sea side atmosphere. It believes that every child has a right to lead a happy and healthy life.
Vision, Mission and Goals:
Vision:
The vision that the Cottage by the Sea upholds is that every child deserves to lead a happy and healthy life.
Mission:
The mission of the foundation is to empower the disadvantaged young people and to provide them with inspiration, fun and opportunity to lead a happy life.
Goals:
The strategic goals that the Cottage by the Sea aims to acquire are to inspire and motivate the young people to live their dreams and achieve their ambitions. It encourages children to be more active to improve school attendance and advocate in them respect for self and others. It inculcate in them healthy eating habits. It aims to give children a fun time full of life long memories supports them to increase their self respect and confidence. It also aims to reduce depression prevalent in teenagers and youth.
Impact:
The impact of fulfilling these goals and targets has been that children who spent their time with Cottage by the Sea turned out to be more confident and independent. They learned to participate in group activities and improved their language skills and thus increased their sense of self worth and competency to fit in well with their community.
History:
Cottage by the Sea Inc was raised in 1890 to provide care and accommodation to children who are recuperating from illness. The Ministering Children’s League was founded in England by the late Countess of Meath, who had a strong passion for Australian children’s charities, in 1884.
Countess of Meath was fully involved in establishing of Ministering Children’s League in Victoria in the year 1890. Financial support was fully extended and land was bought at Queencliff where the wooden cottage was built. There was a center formed at Melbourne and branches started to operate throughout the state. Mrs Robert Harper of “Myoora”, Toorak was the first state president in Melbourne.
In 2015, Cottage by the sea will be completing 125 years of excellence which they will be celebrating throughout the year by events like; morning tea at Government House in March and an open house week at Cottage by the Sea in October etc. Today the focal point is to develop self esteem, health and well being and empowerment of children. Cottage is one of the most important charities providing assistance to 1000 children annually. The charity now plans to expand the programs and services in its recent years which in turn have an increase in program options, personnel, resources and most importantly increase in number of children which will be joining us at the camp. Geographical expansion has also been done to offer our resources along with programs interstate in order to provide Australian charities to the children who are at a disadvantage.
Services Offered:
The Cottage by the Sea has an aim to support the disadvantaged children to develop their health, well being and self esteem. It offers services and programs that focus on increasing cooperation and respect among the children so that they start to lead an active, healthy and secure life. Our programs are designed to give a young people a positive, healthy and friendly atmosphere to grow in.
The children that we provide our services to either belong to a broken family or have been subject to domestic violence. The children who have experienced any emotional or physical trauma and are at a socially and economically disadvantaged position are supported by the foundation. Moreover, children living in poverty, having a refugee status, being at a culturally disadvantaged position with a lack of educational opportunities are cared for at our Cottage by the Sea.
The children are referred to the foundation by welfare agencies, community health services or schools. They are kept busy during the day by a visit to the local tourist attractions and a number of other outdoor and indoor activities including swimming, camping, surfing, bike riding, cooking, arts, craft, music and drama. The plan is to instill in the children cooperation based on teamwork and respect for themselves as well as for others around them. Apart from this other educational and leisure activities are designed for the children with a lot of nutritious food.
Programs:
Take a Break Program:
It is weekly program offered to children particularly belonging to refugee families hit by disasters or misfortunes such as bushfires and floods. It ensures that children experience homely comforts and feel acknowledged and secure. The objective is to make the children enrolled in the program develop a positive outlook towards life and view their environment with a healthy and active mind. It focuses to enhance their social skills and encourage them in group activities.
REEF:
It is a Recreation, Education, Environment, Friendship program that is designed to give young people a head start in life. It begins from grade six and continues till secondary school. The aim is to equip the young people with experiences that help to increase their learning abilities and communication skills to create in them a sense of responsibility to maintain positivity in relationships and overcome the hardships in life. It provides them an opportunity to have a firm control over their futures. The program teaches them diversified skills and reconnects them with family and friends.
Mentor Programs:
The students who manage to graduate from the RREF program are held eligible to become Cottage by the Sea’s Mentors. It polishes their skills learned previously by conveying them to the next young group of people. It includes public speaking opportunities, volunteer work, trainings, hospitality programs, outdoor adventure activities and mentoring young children. It develops in them leadership abilities along with social skills through formal and informal credentials.
National Program:
It is an adventure camp that offers people to learn important life skills and increase their experiences. They make lifelong friendships while participating in challenging activities. It increases their self confidence, interpersonal and social skills.
