Act For Kids

Act for Kids is a for-purpose organisation that delivers evidence-led professional therapy and support services to children and families who have experienced or are at risk of harm.

Established in 1988, our dedicated team of psychologists, speech therapists, early education specialists, counsellors, occupational therapists, and family support workers has helped thousands of children and families for over 36 years.

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Our Specialist Therapy Service is a therapeutic service that adapts evidence-based interventions to respond to children and young people who have been impacted by unwanted sexual experiences or those who display harmful sexual behaviours.

Our services are tailored to meet the individual needs of children, young people and their families.

The program is funded by the Department of Child Safety, Youth and Women and takes referrals from families, young people, and services (government and non-government).

How we help

We help children and young people understand that what happened wasn’t their fault, and work with them on ways that they can reclaim their physical and emotional space and confidence. We also assist children, young people and their caregivers to act protectively.

Our service has family and individual counselling rooms, but we can also meet people at a school or at their home. We meet with children, young people and their families where they feel most comfortable.

We help develop responses to unwanted sexual experiences and help those who display harmful sexual behaviours by:

Providing a safe place to express and process difficult thoughts and feelings
Giving children and young people the opportunity to explore the impact of their experiences
Supporting children and young people to develop skills for managing unpleasant physical sensations
Empowering parents and caregivers to help them deal with the complexity of the situation and any challenging behaviours of the child or young person.

Goals may include:

Lessening the negative impacts of their sexual abuse experience
Encouraging open communication within the family
Equipping parents or carers to support the child involved
Improving the child, young person and parent’s ability to create a safe environment
Addressing sexually harmful behaviour

Referrals

If you have any questions or would like to access our free Integrated Therapy Service, please call us directly to discuss or make an appointment. Completed referral forms can be emailed to the relevant centres.

The Act for Kids Individual Support Services is a program model involving individual packages of support that aim to support a child who has a complex child protection history with the intensive and holistic support required to improve that child’s outcomes and broader ecological support.

Bespoke packages are delivered on a fee-for-service basis commissioned by Child Protection Agencies according to each child’s specific needs.

ISS adopts an agile model of co-design around each individual child aimed at making their home and environments safer. Home refers to wherever the child is living, whether that is with parents or kin, or in foster care or residential care.

ISS is delivered by a dedicated unit within Act for Kids with teams in Cairns, Townsville, Rockhampton, Gladstone and Brisbane. The program model is consistent across Queensland, with some local variation in implementation based on the nature of the collaborative relationship with the local Child Protection Service Centre, a key condition of the program.

ISS specifically aims to work with:

children and young people who have experienced, or are at risk of cumulative harm and multiple adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).
children and young people with complex behaviours that are prohibitive to accessing long-term care placements, schooling options, recreational activities, and community facilities.
high-risk families in contact with child protection services.
overrepresented groups (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, children with disabilities, parents and carers with disabilities).

What we deliver:

Stability – Increased stability and improved outcomes for children.
Individualised tailored approach – Dedicated specialist team implementing therapeutic interventions informed by assessments and evidence-based practice.
Experienced professionals – Highly experienced multi–disciplinary trained staff.
Diverse and inclusive – Culturally-responsive packages to increase home or placement stability and improve developmental outcomes for all children.
Return on investment – Achievement of outcomes offsets the ongoing and increased costs of child protection.
Flexible delivery – Intervention for any child known to Child Protection Agencies that needs extra support and therapeutic interventions through key developmental periods, at any point along the child protection continuum.
Comprehensive and professional reporting – Reports are produced monthly. Frequent tracking of changes are reported against an Outcomes Framework.
Stakeholder training with the aim of gaining service cohesion and quality outcomes for children – Our ISS program manages relationships and communications with all stakeholders. We provide training and capacity-building to caregivers, educators and all relevant stakeholders.

What we do:

Therapeutic In Home Support – working intensively with children and their families to address child protection worries, improve safety in the home, help children and parents heal from trauma and lead happy lives.

Therapeutic Family Restoration/Preservation – working intensively with parents to improve their parenting, address the child protection worries and work towards returning children to the care of their parents. Providing direct therapeutic intervention to parents and children.

Therapeutic Placement Support – working intensively with foster & kinship carers to stabilize placements, increase attachment between carers and child/children, help children heal from trauma and lead happily lives.

Therapeutic Outreach – work therapeutically with disengaged youth, increase safety and transition to a place of safety, improving emotional regulation and help young people to heal from trauma.