Clarence City Salvos reunite families over Christmas
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Clarence City Salvos reunite families over Christmas
21 December 2022
Clarence City Salvos work with Hobart Airport to prepare a delicious Christmas lunch for families in the child protection system as part of the Doorways to Parenting program. Pictured here in 2021, Major Joel Clifford and Lieutenant Kate Clifford with volunteers who helped prepare the lunch.
Most people think of an airport as a place where families are reunited. But for many families in the child protection system, flying in to spend time together is rare.
So it seems fitting that a partnership between the Clarence City Salvos, The Salvation Army’s Doorways to Parenting program, and Hobart Airport is helping estranged families create their own Christmas tradition. Earlier this month, they held the third annual Christmas Party for families connected to the Doorways to Parenting program.
Every family member and carer receives a gift at the annual Doorways to Parenting Christmas lunch at Clarence City Salvos.
Hosted at the church hall, the airport provided a hearty meal as children, parents and caregivers reunited over gifts and Christmas cheer. A generous donation from Hobart Airport largely funds the event, and the corps uses additional funds raised through the Red Shield Appeal and financed through the year by the corps mission funding, the Hobart Airport’s support enables them to go all out with festivities.
“The Doorways to Parenting program works with families in the Department of Human Services Child Protection system, and over the past 10 years, we have seen 40 reunifications, with the majority of them being successful,” shares Major Joel Clifford, Corps Officer at Clarence City Salvos alongside Lieutenant Kate Clifford.
“For a lot of our families, this is one of the few chances they have to spend together as a full family in the year because some of the kids are spread across kinship care and fostering.”
Every family member or guardian receives a gift from Santa at the Doorways to Parenting lunch!
Approximately 260 households across Tasmania are foster care households, representing many estranged families. The annual Christmas lunch held by the Doorways to Parenting program, Clarence City Corps and Hobart Airport gives some of these families a safe space for reconciliation and healing. And when appropriate, it is a step forward in the reunification process.
While the Doorways to Parenting Christmas lunch is the topper on the local Salvo’s festive season, Salvationists also stay busy serving in other ways over December. There is gift wrapping at the shopping centre, and Joel MC’ed the local Bellerive Beach Carols by Candlelight. Then on Christmas Day, they partner with the Clarence City Council to provide brunch to locals seeking community and a safe space to celebrate. Last year, they served 120 meals, with 50 volunteers giving up their time for the event and donations from local MPs, businesses, and community groups.
And in a year where everyone has been affected by the rising cost of living, the Salvos know that while the need has always been great, this year it is greater still. And that drives them forward as they serve before many celebrate a personal Christmas Day on 26 December.
“This is the work of the Kingdom of God, to live, love and fight alongside others in the name of Jesus. We see this acutely at Christmas that the light shines in the darkest places,” says Joel. “It’s about us being in the dark places and being a beacon of light for some. Maybe they are not completely out of the dark, but maybe it’s not as dark as it was.”
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