Ms Hochkins, 47, a domestic violence survivor, joined Albury's Big Brown House in February after completing a Diploma of Community Services at Albury TAFE.

She said working with children living with trauma after being removed from their families was "challenging at times" but that was "part of the reason she wanted to do it".

"I always wanted to help kids that were having problems or were in trouble, guide them in the right direction" she said.

"There's the challenges, the behaviours that you need to try and work through with the kids.

"Going through the trauma and the DV my own children experienced, it helps too."

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After studying nursing in the 90s, Ms Hochkins said she had always been interested in mental health.

She ended up studying community services, which involved role playing case management scenarios.

"It's such a broad range of places you can work," Ms Hochkins said.

The practical nature of the study at TAFE, which involved doing presentations, meant she had to confront her fear of public speaking.

"It built my confidence, because I was never really good at standing in front of people," she said.

Juggling eight children had been "busy (and) hard", but "could be fun", according to Ms Hochkins, who had her first child before the age of 20. Three more children followed soon after, then two, and another two.

The Hochkins brood, with Jordan, 27, Jemma, 23, Devon, 22, Tristan, 20, Jack, 17, Brody, 16, Makenzie-Lee, 10, Memphis, 8, moved to Albury with their mum from Rowville in Melbourne at the beginning of 2019.

"It's so chaotic in Melbourne with traffic, and getting kids to and from places," Ms Hochkins said.

"There's everything I need here, but I can also focus on doing something for me."

With three of her children on the autism spectrum, determining what works for each of them and in a group setting was a challenge.

"I always found I pretty easily got on with the younger ones, because I was very open and honest with them," Ms Hochkins said.

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