About Us / History

Southern Community Welfare began as Tea Gardens Cottage in Feb 1995 in a small room at Gymea Baptist Church. Tea Gardens Cottage began with a vision from a fresh out of college counsellor called Anthony Sell. Anthony had finished Tabor College and was approached by Karl Faase to start counselling at the church. Anthony had a heart for people, particularly people who didn’t fit in, with a vision to make church relevant to all Australians and reach out to people within our community. He started working 2 days a week and within 6 months he was working a full time job.

At the beginning of 1996 Anthony recognised that there was need for another counsellor and approached Jeanene Ecob to come and work along side him. Anthony felt Jeanene and himself had the same vision and passion for people. Jeanene had a similar vision for her own church where she was working at Padstow Community Care. She decided to work at Tea Gardens Cottage part time. Together Anthony and Jeanene worked to make Tea Gardens Cottage a unique and innovative service designed to show people the love of Christ.

In 1999 Tea Gardens Cottage became Southern Community Welfare. The service now incorporated counselling with education around issues that they saw a proportion of their clients struggling with. They had noticed a lack of understanding and resources within the community on certain issues. These were issues that were seen as taboo, were misunderstood and marginalised, but very relevant to those that were struggling with them.

Over the years Southern has changed and evolved but the core mission statement, values and principles continue to remain the same.

Today even though Anthony has left the organisation, his vision continues on.