Claire Meijnderts, a devoted ‘Mum’ to hundreds of children. (Photo: Julie Nance)
Story by Julie Nance
For two decades Claire Meijnderts of Blaxland has been a beacon of hope for children facing the challenges of having incarcerated parents. As a tireless volunteer leader of Camp for Kids, she has helped transform hundreds of lives and played a pivotal role in steering young people away from the justice system. While raising her family alongside husband Jeff, Claire has been a devoted foster Mum and has worn many other volunteer hats.
Key Points:
There are an estimated 60,000 children under 16 years of age in New South Wales who have experienced parental incarceration; at least one in five are Indigenous children. The children of incarcerated parents face family instability and risks of criminality similar to those of their parents before them. (Source: Children of incarcerated parents: Insights to addressing a growing public health concern in Australia.)
Claire helps break the generational cycle by giving children of prisoners aged 8 to 12 a safe space to have fun, connect with peers in similar situations, and gain positive role models to look up to.
With each passing day at camp, the children grow in confidence. There’s lots of laughter, friendship and newfound hope. As a leader of Camp for Kids, Claire witnesses children gaining a sense of belonging, while learning valuable interpersonal skills and problem-solving alternatives to “hitting out”. Through volunteers like Claire, they discover their stories matter and that healing is possible.
“The benefit of camp is that every child has a similar background; they’ve all got a parent or both parents in prison and that’s unique,” Claire says. “They can’t go to school and talk about it. They carry a lot of shame and guilt that is not theirs to carry. They are in fact victims of their parents’ decisions.”
Camp for Kids is one of the many Christian-based programs funded by Prison Fellowship Australia, a not-for-profit organisation that supports men and women in prison and their families. The camp offers children opportunities for growth and personal development, with lots of fun in the mix. Flying foxes, abseiling, billy cart making, art and craft, cooking and team challenges are just some of the activities on offer.
An abseiling challenge. (Photo supplied)
The journey from a gift to camp
Each year Prison Fellowship Australia invites inmates to take part in Angel Tree, a program that provides birthday and Christmas presents for their children. Last year, with support by churches and input from prisoners, 795 children across NSW received a gift at Christmas, with a note from their incarcerated parent. The children were then invited to take part in Camp for Kids.
Steve Farr, NSW/ACT State Manager for Prison Fellowship Australia, says Claire has been a key player in Camp for Kids’ success. He is currently fundraising to allow the expansion of the program through Regional NSW.
“We want to build on the foundation Claire has laid and amplify her work so more children can attend camp and be mentored,” Steve says. “Claire has the stability and maturity that makes her an amazing ‘camp Mum’.”
Steve says many of the children who attend camp are not used to walking into an environment where they are valued, encouraged and championed. “We aim to connect these kids with mentors who become buddies and have the chance to go on a journey with them,” he says.
Each year the camp is run at a different location, including in the Blue Mountains and on the Central Coast.
Building go-karts is a great team-building activity. (Photo supplied)
Claire says the majority of camp attendees are cared for by grandparents, another relative or are in foster care. They often have a history of broken relationships, being moved from home to home from a young age.
“There’s uncertainty for them around where they’re going to go next or how long they’re going to be there, which then impacts their schooling and their learning ability,” Claire says. “They become more anxious or can’t concentrate because they’re always focusing on those other elements that are more important to them; their stability and security in life.”
Many children have behavioural issues, mirroring violence they have witnessed or experienced themselves. At camp the ratio is two adults per child. Learning how to peacefully deal with issues is an important part of the program. Children listen intently to guest speakers who have travelled down similar, challenging roads in the past.
Claire says she is moved by the stories children share with her and their peers. There are tales of traumatic home lives and matter-of-fact mentions of crimes committed by their parents. Murder, robbery and drug-related offences are part of their vocabulary.
“It’s very humbling that you’re trusted with such a story when you think we only see them four days a year,” Claire says.
You’ve got to be strong for the kids, but I go to bed at night sometimes and I’m bawling. You wonder ‘how can this happen to these kids and their families?’ – Claire Meijnderts
With the camp’s cut-off age of 12, Claire says there is a lot of emotion involved when children are no longer able to attend. To address this, she introduced a Junior Leader program where selected young people are mentored by adults and help run games and other activities.
“Our Junior Leader program started getting a roll on and we had up to 30 junior leaders,” says Claire, who fundraises in her spare time to buy gifts for the kids. “We still get many of those junior leaders back as adult volunteers now.”
Claire says it’s a real joy to hear the choices young people make as they navigate their way into adulthood.
“It’s great to hear they are working now, they’ve got their own place or they’ve got their own children,” she says. “It’s just nice to hear they’re on the straight and narrow because the whole purpose of the camp is to try and break the cycle so that these kids don’t end up following in their parents’ footsteps into that system. We hear very few kids that have been through camp that have actually ended up in the system which is awesome.”
Claire’s daughter Sarah preparing gifts for camp (photo supplied).
As part of the mentorship aspect of the camp, many of the children have kept in touch with Claire over the years. Amongst the former camp attendees is a chef, a hairdresser, a McDonalds manager and a gym fitness worker.
Called to be a foster Mum
Bringing up four children with Jeff in the Blue Mountains, Claire always felt drawn to ads calling for foster carers. Once their own brood was older, with only two left at home, the couple started providing respite care to children with disabilities, for Anglicare. After a year of training, they became qualified foster carers.
“When you get to the teenage years, it’s very hard to find long term foster homes,” Claire says. “Amy joined our family at the age of 12 and she is now 25. One weekend became school holidays, became one school term and then it was permanent.”
Claire admits fostering requires a great deal of patience and comes with a lot of challenges. However, she stresses it is also very rewarding: “I get beautiful Mother’s Day cards from Amy saying ‘you’re the best mum in the world’.”
Dynamic duo Claire and Jeff. (Picture supplied).
Reflecting on a life of volunteering
Claire is a modest person and unless prompted, she wouldn’t have mentioned her other volunteer gigs on top of her Camp for Kids’ commitment.
“My whole life has been volunteering because I haven’t had a career,” she says. “Whether it was running a playgroup, being on the committee at preschool, running the school canteen, I’ve always done that sort of thing. At the moment I visit elderly people in nursing homes with Belong Blue Mountains. There’s always needy people out there that need something. I just feel that’s where I can give.”
Take Action:
Prison Fellowship Australia needs to raise $60,000 to fund a part-time worker to run ‘Extraordinary Lives’ that includes the Camp for Kids program. If you want to help more children of prisoners have a brighter future, donate here, phone Steve Farr on 0418 167 557 or email steve.farr@prisonfellowship.org.au
This story has been produced as part of a Bioregional Collaboration for Planetary Health and is supported by the Disaster Risk Reduction Fund (DRRF). The DRRF is jointly funded by the Australian and New South Wales governments.
If you haven`t yet tried the deliciousness of Good Fat Pastry you`ll be in for a treat at the Food Security Fair on Sat 18 October! Join Michael, the creative baker producing these mouthwatering plant based (and mostly gluten free) treats for breakfast, where he will inspire you to rethink everything you know about baking:
"Baking is both borne and constrained by convention—as are our expectations. Since Ancient Egypt and Rome, eggs, dairy, and cereals have been used in baked goods for flavour and functionality. The enormity of cakes, pastries, biscuits, and desserts we know and love—and the countless we have no awareness of—have been discovered and created through spontaneity and experimentation. Almost always resting on the magical transformations of these key ingredients under heat and energy.
Yet as the realm of food is one of creativity and sensory inquisitiveness there are inherent possibilities for alternatives—in replicating the familiar as well as creating novelty. This path can follow the complexities of molecular gastronomy or the simple pragmatism of substituting with what`s on hand. Find whatever works for you."
Spaces are limited so bookings essential here (link in profile): https://events.humanitix.com/food-security-fair-or-planetary-health-initiative
One of the highlights of our Food Security Fair on Sat 18th October is our Weaving with Weeds workshop at the Planetary Health Centre in Katoomba. In this relaxing and enjoyable workshop Erin Hall will help you identify common invasive weeds that are ideal for basket making, and teach you the basic skills to weave a range of different objects. At the same time you`ll be removing and repurposing weeds that are destroying habitat for our wildlife! Places are limited so bookings essential here (link in profile): https://events.humanitix.com/food-security-fair-or-planetary-health-initiative
We’re thrilled to announce that tickets are now available for Ferment the Season with Holly Davis at the Blue Mountains Food Security Fair on Saturday 18th October at the Planetary Health Centre in Katoomba. Holly will demonstrate how to ferment the season to create more nutrient rich and digestible food. She is the co-founder of Sydney’s Iku Wholefoods and author of ‘Ferment - A Guide to the Ancient Art of Culturing Food’ and ’Nourish: Sustenance for Body and Soul”. Learn the foundational principles and several techniques for fermenting seasonally abundant produce. Fermentation increases nutrition and eating a little ferment with every meal has unlimited benefits for our overall wellbeing and the planet! Places are limited so book early here (Food Security Fair link in profile for tickets): https://events.humanitix.com/food-security-fair-or-planetary-health-initiative
Thank you to everyone who so generously contributed to our celebration of the centenary of World Animal Day, and our tribute to the life of artist, poet, author, Animal Liberation founder, and animal rights activist, Christine Townend, at the Planetary Health Centre yesterday. At a packed event we feasted on delicious plant-based food, inspiring art and poetry, and memorable conversations, as we shared our love and respect for the extraordinary world of animals of which we are a part. Join us for further celebrations at our Food Security Fair on Saturday 18 October. Register here (link in profile): https://events.humanitix.com/food-security-fair-or-planetary-health-initiative
We`re thrilled to announce that tickets are now on sale for our inaugural Blue Mountains Food Security Fair at the Planetary Health Centre in Katoomba on Saturday 18 October! Register here (link in profile): https://events.humanitix.com/food-security-fair-or-planetary-health-initiative
The day will include stalls, talks and demos about growing, sourcing, cooking, preserving and enjoying plant based food and protecting habitat for wildlife.
Our fabulous line up of speakers and workshop tutors includes Dr Milena Bojovic on the Future of Food; Holly Davis, co-founder of Iku and author of `Ferment`; Michael from Good Fat Pastry; Nev Sweeney from Under the Choko Tree on how to build a Solar Powered Food Dehydrator; Lloyd Sharp from Mid Blue Mountains Seed Savers; Marnee Fox from Forage to Feast; Teya Brooks Pribac from Plant Inspired; and Erin Hall on Weaving with Weeds. Stalls will include EarthRising Mushroom Farm, edible native plants, the Planetary Health Cafe and more. Each session needs to be booked individually as numbers are strictly limited.
This event is being supported by a sEEd grant from the Australian Association for Environmental Education.
This Saturday 4 Oct, on the centenary of World Animal Day, you can meet other people passionate about protecting our wild neighbours, and contribute to restoring habitat for wildlife with them, by coming along and joining our dedicated team of Planetary Health Bushcarers as we regenerate the bushland at the Planetary Health Precinct. Learn more and register to attend (1.30pm) here: (link in profile): https://events.humanitix.com/planetary-health-bushcare-spring-summer-2025
Woohoo! We are so thrilled. Katoomba poet David Brooks has just won the Prime Minister`s Literary Award for Poetry with his book "The Other Side of Daylight: New and Selected Poems". Come and celebrate with us this coming Saturday night when he`ll read from his work for a World Animal Day celebration at the Planetary Health Centre. Bookings here (link in profile): https://events.humanitix.com/world-animal-day-raising-the-bar-for-nature
(apologies for dodgy screenshots ... we`ve been watching the awards streaming on YouTube tonight)
Join us next Sat 4th Oct to celebrate the exciting news that Katoomba writer David Brooks has been shortlisted for the Australian Prime Minister`s Literary Awards for his book of poetry: "The Other Side of Daylight: New and Selected Poems". It will be a night of art, poetry and delicious food as we also celebrate the centenary of World Animal Day, with David reading from his work alongside local poet Louise Wakeling, a tribute to artist, poet and founder of Animal Liberation, Christine Townend, and an Open Mic for poetry about the extraordinary species we share our world with. Bookings essential here (link in profile): https://events.humanitix.com/world-animal-day-raising-the-bar-for-nature
With each extreme weather event more hazardous materials enter our environment and impact human and planetary health, which is why, for 2025, we’re bringing together the Australian Bushfire Building Conference and the Asbestos & Hazardous Materials Management Conference in Katoomba on 20-22 Nov, to address how we can all work together, from design to disposal, to both reduce disaster risk and the risk of hazardous materials. We urgently need to design, build and live differently, as well as better manage those hazardous materials that are already impacting our health and the health of our frontline emergency staff and volunteers.
At Full Cycle 2025 we’re bringing together leading experts to address how we can do this.
We`re thrilled to announce that Shane McArdle, Head of International Projects for the Asbestos and Dust Diseases Research Institute (ADDRI) in Sydney, will present on local and global actions for eliminating asbestos and dust-related diseases. Shane has spent almost 10 years at the Australian Government Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency (ASEA) overseeing awareness raising and international strategies to prevent exposure to asbestos and to eliminate asbestos-related diseases.
Early bird registrations for the conference close on 7 October. You can learn more and register here (link in profile): www.fullcycleconference.com.au
The last six years have seen catastrophic and unprecedented wildfires in Australia and California. At the Full Cycle Conference on 20-22 Nov, A/Prof Owen Price will share his research which compares the patterns of housing loss in the NSW and Californian wildfires. With every fire, more hazardous materials are dispersed through the environment.
Owen has spent the past 18 years analysing empirical evidence of the effectiveness of bushfire mitigation strategies. This has included examining the effectiveness of prescribed burning, the drivers of fire spread and severity, fire suppression and house loss. He has published ~140 research papers and he is the Director of The Centre for Environmental Risk Management of Bushfires (CERMB) at the University of Wollongong. Owen is one of many leading speakers who will be joining us at Full Cycle 2025 to explore how we can reduce disaster risk and hazardous materials in a changing climate. Early Bird Registrations close on 7 October. Visit the website to learn more and register here (link in profile):
Keynote speaker Julian Cribb AM announced as anticipation builds for the inaugural Full Cycle 2025 Conference which will address some of the most critical issues of our time, and what we can do about them. Julian Cribb will speak on how we can cleanse our polluted planet and tackle the existential megathreats of the 21st century as he sets the context for the two day conference and community expo that`s a collaboration between the Australian Bushfire Building Conference, the Asbestos & Hazardous Materials Management Conference and the Blue Mountains Planetary Health Initiative.
Co-founder of the Council for the Human Future, he has written over 9000 articles and 12 books, including How to Fix a Broken Planet, Earth Detox, Poisoned Planet, Surviving the 21st Century, The Coming Famine and Food or War. He will outline how climate change and the toxic tsunami of hazardous substances engulfing the world are two of ten megathreats that need to be addressed together and at the same time, urgently, and he’ll propose a plan for doing this.
Early Bird registrations close on Tuesday 7 October and there is still time to make a submission to be part of this seminal event. Read more about the conference and register here (link in profile): www.fullcycleconference.com.au
We had a fabulous dinner meeting last night to launch Rotarians 4 Planetary Health. It was exciting to bring together so much expertise and care for our community and the health of our planet! Initially we`ll be meeting fortnightly on the 2nd and 4th Monday of the month from 6pm. If you`d like to join us register for the next meeting on Monday 13 October here (link in profile): https://events.humanitix.com/copy-of-rotarians-4-planetary-health
Julie Nance is a community storyteller with the Blue Mountains Planetary Health Initiative. In her coverage of the Lower Mountains area, she brings 30 years’ experience in communications, publishing and journalism.
After specialising in health and social issues as a journalist, Julie led creative teams in the government and not-for-profit sectors including the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, YMCA NSW, Cancer Council NSW and The Children’s Hospital at Westmead.
Julie is passionate about empowering people with quality information to help them make informed choices.
Julie Nance invited her 82-year-old mum to join her on outings in Lower Mountains parks, after months of being confined to home due to sickness. With fond memories of family picnics growing up, their quality time together in nature gave them both a much-needed lift.
