Act for Kids

Act for Kids helps families keep their children safe through:

• family therapy for kids, parents and carers via our Act for Kids centres
• education services to the community
• research into child abuse issues
• advocacy on behalf of children everywhere.

Family therapy

Some of the most important work we do is with at-risk families who have come to the attention of child safety authorities. Parents and their children are referred to us from different sources like the Department of Child Safety, GPs, paediatricians, psychologists, schools, hospitals,

Every one of our Act for Kids centres has a team of specialists from a number of different child-related professions. These include occupational therapists, special needs teachers, psychologists, social workers, speech pathologists, cultural advisers, nurses and counsellors. Act for Kids centres can also access consulting paediatric and psychiatric specialists.

All of these people have input into each family's action plan, supporting them and giving them new skills to improve their coping and parenting skills.

Education services

We deliver child protection education programs to professionals, laypeople and students. These include:

• Certificate III and IV courses in Community Services (Protective Care)
• Conferences and symposiums for child safety workers
• Workshops in schools to teach children about staying safe
• Professional development courses for people working with kids

Research

We conduct research into important child safety issues which inform our programs and the general public. We conduct three basic kinds of research:

• We commission university researchers to conduct in-depth research projects into important issues relating to child protection.
• We undertake quality assurance and improvement research based on information we collect from people in our programs.
• We run regular surveys of everyday parents and children so we can accurately represent the needs of families.

Advocacy

We speak up for kids and families in the child protection system, to government decision-makers, through the media, and through social change campaigns.