Community Need
We currently have around 80 children waiting for a placement. Every week, we receive at least two more referrals of children in need.
We know that many South Australian families are struggling to cope with financial, housing and emotional stress. This can be in combination with mental illness, substance abuse, physical or intellectual disabilities, poverty and intergenerational unemployment. The current economic situation has led to a substantial increase in the number of families needing help.
The stark reality is that:
- 1 in 5 households lives on less than $400 a week
- 30% of all households in SA rely on government benefits as their sole income
- 1 child in every 5 lives in a jobless household
- 273,000 people are living in poverty
- 1 in 3 users of homeless assistance services is a child.
We know that it is often the children in these households who bear the brunt of household stress and poverty.
Over the past 49 years we have seen that it is possible for children’s lives to be changed, for their options and choices to be broadened through the provision of respect, care and positive role models in their lives, as provided through Time for Kids.
We have the ideas, we know the people and we know the need in our community. With individual, private and government partners, anything is possible.
We believe that every South Australian child deserves to have access to every opportunity. That every child deserves respect, care and acceptance. That every child deserves to be safe and free from abuse.
Investing in children’s development will actually save money across the community and will provide the stability that children need if they are to become productive and valued members of society.
In the South Australian community, what is lacking is belief. The belief that we in partnership can actually do this.
Start believing. Join with us and make a positive difference to the life of a child.
"When compared with alternatives (e.g. sense of hopelessness, ongoing frustration, cycles of abuse and neglect, drifting into delinquent milieus), broadening the 'original' family structure to include foster carers would seem to be one of the best and least disruptive/traumatic ways of preserving or restoring environments conducive to safe, happy and challenging (in the best sense of the word) childhoods. This, essentially, is what Time for Kids has been doing for over four decades."
Dr Mark Halsey
Criminal Justice Program
School of Law
Flinders University of South Australia
Interested? Contact Us.