Children talk about families all the time - at school, with their friends. But sometimes their families don't fit the mould. Mum or Dad is in prison, and their children might feel ashamed or embarrassed about being different.
It's these vulnerable kids Tjillari Justice Aboriginal Corporation wants to help in an attempt to prevent childhood trauma and intergenerational offending.
But the mostly self-funded organisation may fold once Self Help Organisations United Together shuts at the end of May.
SHOUT, an umbrella organisation that provides infrastructure and administrative support to about 47 Canberran community organisations, was funded by Disability ACT for decades then NDIS transitional funding when the scheme was introduced about three years ago.
With no guarantee it will qualify for long-term NDIS support and no funds from the ACT government, SHOUT announced it would have to shut unless it receives a pledge for $110,000 in the next fortnight.
Tjillari director Deborah Evans said her small organisation would be affected "definitely and devastatingly" as the organisation will have to pay more rent for rooms to run fundraising educational workshops - its primary source of income.
Its monthly support meetings and family peer support group will likely be cut, and its plans to provide children with counselling and their teachers with professional development are also in danger of being shelved. The focus will turn to fundraising rather than providing services.
Already Tjillari has been forced to turn families away.
"If we were going to break the cycle of intergenerational offending, then we had to address the issues of children because statistics that were coming out were showing, I think it's 80 per cent of children who have got a parent inside prison become juvenile offenders, and I think it's another 85 per cent of those juvenile offenders become adult offenders," Ms Evans said.
"Tjillari was set up to address the issues of children and of offenders and their families.
"We've got to limit our involvement and our services because we can't get that funding and because SHOUT's closing that's going to wipe us out completely."
The ACT government has argued the NDIS should cover SHOUT.
SHOUT does support disability organisations, but other groups like Tjillari, Bosom Buddies and the Prostate Cancer Support Group ACT Region are highly unlikely to fit within the scheme.
An ACT government spokesman said: "The ACT government remains committed to working with SHOUT and other community organisations to ensure that SHOUT members are supported and that the transition to any new arrangement is as smooth as possible, this includes Tjillari."
