Our Team

The Village Care Services’ commitment to quality extends to a commitment to recruiting and training staff of the highest standard and who share our values. We are a small team who recognise both our staff and clients as individuals with individual strengths and preferences and match each client with the best support fit.

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The Village Care Services - Pippa

Pippa Morrison

Operations Manager
B.SocSc (Social Welfare)
Dip. Youth Work, Mental Health and Community Housing

Pippa has almost 20 years’ experience working with children, youth and families in licensed care and education services in Australia and overseas. In each of these roles, inclusion has been a key theme with Pippa implementing disability support programs within various licensed care services. Pippa has also worked alongside translators and speech pathologist to integrate deaf Chinese students in English language classrooms.

Pippa enjoys client-facing work but finds a real sense of accomplishment in leading and developing teams of skilled, empathetic and knowledgeable practitioners who together can make a greater difference.

The Village Care Services - Zahara

Zahara Coyne

Team Leader / Child and Family Practitioner

B. Human Services
B. Justice (Criminology and Policing)
Australian Community Worker’s Association (ACWA) registered

Zahara is a young go-getter who began her career as a Youth Worker while still at university. At just 25 Zahara now has six years’ experience providing specialised care to teens with complex trauma and disability as well as their caregivers. This includes two years in a Case Manager role where Zahara had success implementing a number of individualised and environmental changes resulting in significantly reduced frequency and severity of high- risk behaviours such as assaults and harmful sexualised behaviours. 

Zahara now shares her passion and skills with The Village Care Services providing leadership to support workers as well as working directly with clients and families to better understand their needs and environment. This allows her to develop practical and realistic strategies for and with staff and caregivers which they can implement together to succeed in their roles and improve client outcomes.

The Village Care Services - Cass

Cass Jackson

Service Delivery Coordinator / Senior Support Worker

B.A. Psychology
Australian Community Worker’s Association (ACWA) registered

Cass’ experience within the sector has encompassed Case Management and direct care roles where she has won the hearts of many clients, colleagues and stakeholders – in fact she has been described as the human version of a big warm hug! Under the warm and loving exterior is a knowledgeable, critical thinking and tenacious professional who will do whatever it takes to improve the outcomes of her clients.

Cass is particularly passionate about equipping young people with special needs with the tools they need for healthy sexual development and relationships. When unable to find an appropriate local program to provide this education to her client, Cass set about researching and developing her own skills and resources to collaboratively develop a tailored program she could deliver herself.

Cass’ role within the village allows her to continue providing practical and tangible supports to clients directly and through coordinating supports when a larger and diverse team is most appropriate to meeting the client needs. This ensures continuity and consistency of care, appropriate training and supervision of staff and that clients and families have a key worker they know and trust to reach out to as required.

The Village Care Services - Elie

Elie McMenamin

Senior Support Worker / Child and Family Practitioner
B. Social Science (Psychology)
Minor in Child Protective Practices
Australian Community Worker’s Association (ACWA) registered
Cert. 3 Fitness and previously Austswim accredited for over five years

Elie enjoys Cross-Fit, has taken multiple titles in elite swimming and is a qualified and experienced coach. Elie brings this determination and drive to succeed into everything she does and has merged this with her Psychology degree.  Elie has a particular interest in the Polyvagal theory and likes incorporating breathwork and movement in her work with clients to effectively aid emotional regulation. Elie’s ambition and fervour for life is contagious with client’s and colleagues spurred on in their quests for improved mental and physical health and wellbeing alongside her.

Elie is also highly invested and skilled in Youth Worker development having trained and mentored a number of staff. Elie is part of a Community of Practice aimed at building theoretical knowledge, skills and professionalism across the sector. Elie has dabbled in Case Manager roles but has found her passion to be working face to face with participants providing quality trauma and disability informed care to their everyday needs.

While Elie remains passionate about her staff’s professional development she has more recently become increasingly aware of the challenges parents and informal care givers face, often without the required training or robust support systems. As a Child and Family Practitioner Elie prioritises carer training and support both for the sake of carer well-being as well as with understanding for flow-on effects for the person with a disability. This may be focused on carer self-care and social connection or could include working collaboratively to develop and implement routine and structure to aid consistency and collaboration between paid and informal carers.

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Fees

Our fees are in-line with NDIS Pricing Arrangements and we accept various payment and funding options...

We accept NDIS funding for plan managed and self-managed participants as well as alternative funding options such as CRC-PAS and private payment. For a tailored quote please contact us to discuss your specific requirements.
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The Village Care Services - We respect the traditional owners of the land

The Village Care Services acknowledge the Gubbi Gubbi/Kabi Kabi people as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we live and work. We pay our respects to the elders, past and present, who hold the memories, traditions and culture. We further recognise the resilience of our First Nations people and that sovereignty was never ceded.

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Theory

  • Trauma and attachment – our policy and program is informed by our understanding of the roles of trauma and attachment in child development. Bruce Perry’s Neurosequential model of brain development, Mary Ainsworth’s attachment theory, The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study and Stephen Porges polyvagal theory are just a few of our favourites. We further recognise the ongoing impacts of inter-generational trauma on our Aboriginal people and are committed to culturally safe practices guided by our Aboriginal clients, their families and community representatives.

  • Positive Behaviour Support – We recognise behaviour is a result of the interaction between individual and environment and that there are no inherently “bad kids.” We combine a functional behaviour approach with understanding of child development, including any delay or disability, along with recognition of the impact of trauma on emotional regulation.

  • The Human Rights Model – We value diversity within our community, recognise people with disability as experts in their own lives and are committed to working with them and other stakeholders to remove barriers impacting community participation and quality of life

Values & Beliefs

The Village Care Services values are central to work we do and underpin all services and policy.

  • Social Justice / Equity – We believe that every child deserves the same opportunities in life to set them up for future health and happiness. We also recognise that children with disability, adverse childhood experiences or facing other barriers often need a great deal of additional support in order to achieve the same outcomes as the majority of their peers.

  • Family – Professionals, friends and other supports come and go but for most of us, regardless of how imperfect they are, it is our family that will be there in the end. This goes for our client’s as well, even for those living in out-of-home care.

  • Empathy – we work on the assumption that everyone is doing the best they can with what they know and the capacity they have in the moment. We need to understand first so we can support second and teach third.