Authors Ella Kuskoff, Rose Stambe, Nikita Sharma, Stefanie Plage, Cameron Parsell.
We acknowledge the generosity of the Douglas Family Foundation and Micah Projects in their financial contributions to enable this research.
We also acknowledge the contributions of Common Ground Queensland.
This research was partially supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course (Project ID CE200100025).
What is Keeping Families Together?
Having a secure and affordable place to live is a critical factor influencing the wellbeing of families and enabling their full participation in society. As well as negatively impacting on families’ social and wellbeing outcomes, being unable to access secure and affordable housing increases the risk of statutory child safety intervention due to its significant impact on parents’ ability to care for and protect their children. Statutory child safety intervention can result in children being removed from their families and placed into the care of the state; a practice which itself has been problematised for its negative long-term impacts on children’s and families’ outcomes.
Recognising these issues, the Keeping Families Together (KFT) program is a model of support that enables families to access and sustain secure and affordable housing, and to divert ‘at risk’ families from involvement with the child safety system. Funded by the Queensland Government and delivered by Micah Projects (service provider) and Common Ground Queensland (housing provider), KFT was established in July 2020 as a form of supportive housing. The program is funded to provide subsidised housing (head-leased through the private rental market) along with multidisciplinary support to 20 families in the Brisbane region.