"This is the young people's home and their lives, which they should have a strong voice in shaping," said Nicole. The Life Without Barriers Tahara Team receive honourable mention for the Residential Care Team Award at ResiROCKS 2025.
The 2025 Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare's (CECFW) Residential Care Awards, presented at ResiROCKS, recognise, celebrate and encourage work of the highest standard in the provision of therapeutic residential care in Victoria.
A record number of organisations, teams and individuals from across Victoria were nominated across the seven categories, all committed to ensuring positive outcomes for children and young people living in residential care.
The Life Without Barriers Tahara Team was proud to receive an honourable mention for the Residential Care Team Award. This award acknowledges teams within a residential house who have worked collaboratively to achieve significant, positive outcomes for children and young people living in residential care.
"It was such a fun day out at ResiROCKS and was an honour to receive the award recognising all of the work we have done at Tahara with our young people," said Wendy Hazeldene, Regional Director, Victoria, Child, Youth and Family.
Image: Seven staff members gathered in a group, smiling at the camera and holding up the Residential Care Team Honourable Mention Award at the 2025 ResiROCKS.
Opened in November 2024, the Tahara house is a brand-new residential home led by House Manager, Nicole Asker, a proud Dharug woman. Nicole held a strong vision from the start that this would not be a typical residential house. Alongside a strong team of staff committed to improving the lives of children in out of home care, Nicole has created a home like environment for the young people, which is felt as soon as you enter the space.
A core element of the way the team operate is to incorporate youth voice in all decisions. They take the time to get to know each and every young person that enters their care, along with their families, and strive to create relationships that support their involvement in their care and decision making.
"This is the young people's home and their lives, which they should have a strong voice in shaping," said Nicole.
"We have consistently listened to our young people at Tahara in order to create a place of safety and stability for them."
Each young person has a personalised room and is supported to bring than make them feel safe and connected to their family and culture. To facilitate this, staff have a conversation about what they want their environment to look like prior to each young person entering the home, empowering them to shape and create the look and feel of the home from the get-go.
Monthly meetings including both staff and young people are held in the home, providing an opportunity for each young person to have a chance to voice their opinions, concerns and things they want to happen in the house. The young people enjoy being part of the meetings with their carers and, over time, have developed the confidence to express their views and wishes.
At one meeting, a young people voiced that having their own pet within the home was extremely important to them. Now, each young person has their own pet, which they personally selected, and have taken on the responsibility of caring for them.
The young people all agree that having their own pets has helped them feel like the house is their home.
"I like having animals around the house because they are fluffy and I can cuddle with them. I have a pet rat, and I clean his cage every Saturday for his wellbeing and his health," shared Libby*.
"We also have two cats but only one cat comes out into the lounge and cuddles with us, her name is Pixy. Pixy likes to jump into my bed in the morning. We have also just got a rabbit. The rabbit is teaching me patience because we saved it, so it's scared of people, but it lets me hold it."
"The pets make it feel like a home."
Image: Eleven staff members gathered in a group, smiling at the camera and holding up the Residential Care Team Honourable Mention Award at the 2025 ResiROCKS.
The Tahara Team have also worked hard to ensure the home is a culturally safe space for all of the young people. The house includes a dedicated wall with numerous flags displayed representing the teams’ diverse cultural backgrounds. The staff also cook special meals, with the young people, from their cultures and share stories and cultural rituals.
The young people enjoy asking carers about where they are from and sharing and learning about everyone’s cultures and communities.
"We are a culturally diverse team where everyone belongs and is accepted. We have no room for racism within the house, and it is hugely important to our team that all of the young people and staff feel safe," said Nicole.
The team have also taken strong steps to ensure the Aboriginal children in their care feel connected to their culture, community and families.
When one young person, who had been disconnected from his mob for some time joined the house, the team worked quickly and proactively to reconnect him with his local community and culture.
They set up weekly cultural mentoring sessions with Uncle Cussons at the home for the young person, who has since shared that he has enjoyed painting his own didgeridoo and learning stories about his culture.
The team were also been able to connect him with Wautherong, a local Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation (ACCO) where he now regularly attends youth groups, and other activities for local mob. This has strengthened the young person's connection to his culture, and he is very proud to speak about this openly to his care team and his mother.
Image: The Tahara Team standing on stage and accepting the Residential Care Team Honourable Mention Award at the 2025 ResiROCKS.
"This young person has come so far since being at Tahara. It makes us so proud to see him achieving normal milestones at school and learning more about his culture, engaging positively with other young people, and reconnecting with this family," said Nicole.
The Tahara team have made a profound impact on the lives of children and young people supported by Life Without Barriers. Their commitment and approach that centres youth voice, has created safe, nurturing, and supportive environment for the youth, fostering their growth and development.
"The Tahara team have created something truly special and I am incredibly proud of the team for going above and beyond to create such a unique home for young people in care," said Wendy.
"I look forward to seeing the many more positive outcomes for the young people in this home."
Residential care
Residential care is for young people who are temporarily unable to live with family or foster carers. Children and young people in residential care are generally aged between 12-17 and come from all cultures and corners of our country. While each child has a unique set of needs, almost all come from complex family and social situations where they may have suffered neglect, trauma or abuse.
To support the best possible outcomes for children and young people in residential care, Life Without Barriers has implemented an evidence informed, therapeutic model of care that is grounded by the six principles of CARE.
Learn more about our approach here.
