About us
The Kalparrin Centre was established in the year 1992 although it had already been introduced in the 1980 by a clinical psychologist called Margaret Cole. However, it was not until March 29th, 1993 that it was formally inaugurated. It is an association that has from the time it was established up to date been providing a number of support services to the families of those children who are identified as being special needs children. Margaret Cole is regarded as being one of the few people in those days that was able to deem it necessary for those parents who had no other kind of help in catering for the kids who had been identified as special needs children.
From the year 1992 to 1995, the association was mainly run by volunteers who had been given the necessary training in providing the various informative support services to all families of children with special needs.
Services provided by Kalparrin
Kalparrin provides various services and programs for the families of such disabled children and some of the services and programs include;
The Visitor Lounge
This is an area which has been created so that those who have come to visit someone at the Centre can wait there and have some quality time. At the Visitor Lounge, a lot of other services like brochures about Kalparrin, tea and coffee and the chance to get into contact with support officers who are experienced in caring for kids with special needs are also provided to whoever comes there.
The Parent Link
This is the creation of an avenue through which parents of kids with special needs get to come into contact with other parents who also have similar kids. With this program, these parents come together to share ideas and necessary information about how they have been coping with caring for their kids with special needs. This is a very beneficial program due to the fact that a lot of these parents get to of what they can also do about their kid’s problem and where they can seek for the appropriate support services.
The WA Special Families
This is a community which has been created on facebook and has the main aim of seeing to it that all parents of kids with special needs get to interact with each other. This site is mainly created for the parents and those individuals who have been caring for such children and it is to give them the chance to communicate with each other on various topics that are related to the conditions of their children. This community also organizes occasional events which are aimed at strengthening the bond between the various members of the community that has been created on Facebook. One of these events is the WA Special Families Coffee Mornings and Play Dates.
The Siblings Awareness Program
This is also a program that has been initiated by Kalparrin with support from the Disability Services Commission to see to it that some form of awareness is created among siblings who are 18 years or more to know how to relate with someone who has any form of disability in the family. This program has three distinct phases and each face has its own targets that are to be achieved. These three phases are;
1st stage
Consulting and forming of partnerships with those organizations which have been already providing such services to kids with special needs in order to be aware of all the various services that are available
2nd stage
To develop the various materials in order to get both the parents and those who have been caring for such children to become aware of the support services that are available for such a child. This will be in the form of print-media awareness creations like on the WA Special Families Facebook page among others.
3rd stage
This involves the provision of information to parents and carers of special needs children with regards to ways and means through which such children can be catered for in a more appropriate way. This information will be made available to these people without any charges attached.
Events that are undertaken by the association
The association can boast of a number of very exciting and fun-filled events that provide useful support services to people whilst also creating an environment that is filled with a lot of fun and merriment. Some of these events are the caring blokes, grandparent’s day, mother’s weekends and others which are all aimed at providing some form of avenue for those who have been caring for such kids with special needs to also have fun, share ideas and to take some time away from their various caring activities that they undertake. These activities provide the carers with so much fun that helps them to rejuvenate themselves in order to go back and perform their caring activities with more enthusiasm.
How to participate in what we do?
Kalparrin has made available some ways through which you can also participate in the various essential services that we provide and some of these ways are;
To become a member
This involves the creation of an avenue which allows both individuals and institutions to become members of the association and pay some dues on a monthly basis.
To make a donation
This involves both individuals and corporate entities contributing towards the association’s ability to achieve its objectives. Such donations allow us to keep on with the provision of support and information to those who have been caring for children with special needs. The donations can take a lot of forms like workplace giving and others.
To volunteer for us
This has to do with an individual willingly deciding to execute various activities for the association free of charge. Such people provide a variety of services like massaging, provision of lessons in dancing and other very demanding activities.
Raffle
This is where raffle tickets are sold to the public and they are given the opportunity to win something in return.
Corporate sponsorship
This involves going into partnerships with organizations that provide us with some of our funds.
