Changing the future
Peter Ebsworth lives by the maxim that you may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.
During his 11 years with the Department of Child Safety and its predecessors, Redlands Child Safety Support Officer, Peter Ebsworth, has made a significant difference in the lives of many children, young people and families, particularly in Indigenous communities.
Read on to hear about Peter's career in child protection, his work with Indigenous communities and his passion for keeping families together.
"In my relatively early working years, I held various jobs, mainly working in abattoirs. I travelled with my brother Hopie throughout New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. We took on any jobs that came up - from working in abattoirs, as council workers (and yes, we did lean on the shovel a little), sewerage workers and fruit pickers to name a few.
These were very exciting times for me, as I was doing a lot of travelling seeing the country. By doing this I gained experience through meeting new people and entering different communities. This made me think of a career path involving working with people.
I moved to Brisbane from Toowoomba in 1990, and worked for the Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action as a Research Officer, before being employed by the Department of Families, Youth and Community Care as a Youth Worker at Sir Lesley Wilson Youth Detention Centre.
I worked in the detention centre for five years, first as a Youth Worker, then progressing to Acting Senior Unit Officer, Indigenous Program Development Officer and Indigenous Case Worker.
I facilitated a whole range of activities within the centre, including activities like NAIDOC Week, sporting activities, cultural programs, encouraging community involvement, facilitating family contacts, and keeping remote young people in touch with their own communities and families.
In 2000, I decided to move out into the community, and secured a part-time position at the Woodridge and Redlands Area Offices as a Family and Community Worker. After a short while, I soon realised that this was the work that I really enjoyed doing.
What was most rewarding for me was the recognition from the community. Having people come up to me and thanking me for the work that I was doing, and also having the people in the community relate to me as a friend rather than a departmental worker.
Keeping families together is my passion. And recognition for this work is the best reward that I get out of working for the department.
Since I have been put on full-time at the Redlands Child Safety Service Centre, I have worked on a wide range of projects, in three different positions - Family and Community Worker, Family and Community (Prevention and Early Intervention) Worker, and Child Safety Support Officer.
While at the Redlands, I began to work with the Indigenous families on North Stradbroke Island and the whole of the Redlands region.
It took quite some time to establish a rapport with the Stradbroke Island people, as there were a lot of issues that needed to be addressed, particularly around child abuse, domestic violence and drug and alcohol abuse.
When I first started working at the Redlands office, we were working with approximately 25 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children on child protection orders.
Because of the new prevention and early intervention initiative implemented by the department in 2002, we were able to decrease the number of Indigenous young people in care in the region to just seven in 2006. This is an outcome that I am personally proud of, and so are the staff of the Redlands Child Safety Service Centre.
My community development work with the Stradbroke and Redlands Indigenous community, community organisations, the police and the Department of Education and the Arts, to name a few of the organisations that I am engaged with, helps to reduce the number of young people coming into the statutory system.
As part of my community work, I also run a men's group on North Stradbroke Island. The group is for men who are experiencing problems with family issues, drug and alcohol, domestic violence and child abuse. The group has been running for over 12 months now, and has been very successful in getting the participants to address some of these issues.
Another very important role that I play in the department is the role of Peer Supporter. This role is very important to me and I am passionate about supporting my fellow workers.
We all know that the work we do is at times very stressful. As a Peer Supporter I am able to support my colleagues, and this is why I love the role so much.
In the future, I hope to keep as many Indigenous children as possible out of the child protection system and for the Redlands office and its amazing staff to keep up the wonderful work that they are currently doing within the community.
Eleven years in the department has been a very big and wonderful adventure for me. I have enjoyed all of it, and hope to keep enjoying it for years to come."
- Last updated
- 26 October 2006