Our Clients
The Children
To date our organisation has linked 4500 children with volunteer families. We currently have 153
children matched with volunteer carer families across SA. We have 80 children on our waiting list,
and the need for support grows daily. Over the past year, 163 children have been matched and
placed with volunteer families for regular monthly visits. Each child has a support team consisting of
a social worker and family support worker assigned to them, who also works with the child’s primary
and respite care families. We provide day activities, overnight camps and mentoring to children.
The Carers
Each year in excess of 40,000 hours of care are provided by our volunteer carers. We provide a
library of play and safety equipment for carers and we cover the costs for children’s travel,
particularly for travel to and from regional South Australia in the school holiday program. It is a great
credit to everyone involved with Time for Kids that the organisation has been able to engage and
support an additional 80 children and 70 new carer families over the past year.
Time for Kids offers support, mandated and optional training to volunteer carer households to
ensure they have the skills and resources to provide excellent quality care for the children placed
with them. We offer a carer peer support network and social functions. We are developing online
resources and a site for carers to attend for training, resources and support.
The Families
We recognise the importance of strengthening a child’s family and work closely with them to help
prevent family breakdown and children entering the State Care system. We do this through
providing access to a support team consisting of a social worker and family support worker,
referrals, advocacy and counselling. We have a financial counsellor on staff to work with families on
the underlying financial issues affecting their households, and we offer access to material and
financial resources through this financial management program.
Our Parenting Program assists households to develop parenting and household management skills.
In 2008 we held our inaugural overnight camp for grandparents who are primary carers of their
grandchildren. This was attended by 21 children and 13 grandparents and proved to be so popular
that we now have a waiting list and hope to hold four camps this year.