Kinship Family Support

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Kinship Family Support

As part of the range of services that can be accessed through Child FIRST, OzChild provides a specialist Kinship Family Support worker. This worker will work with Child FIRST and a range of Family Services to provide more specialist support to kinship carers, who are eligible for Child FIRST services living in the local government areas (see below).

Who will be able to use Family Support?

Kinship families who have:

met the eligibility criteria for Child FIRST
a private/informal kinship arrangement in place
a permanent care arrangement
a kinship arrangement that has been made with the support of Child Protection Services but is not currently receiving support from OzChild's Placement and Support Service.

What does Family Support offer?

The Kinship Family Support worker provides a consultative role to Child FIRST. In addition, the worker is available for joint visits and can assist with some short term support, depending on the needs of the kinship family.

How to access Family Support?

The Kinship Family Support worker can be accessed through Child FIRST.

If you think you can use the services of Child FIRST you can contact your local Child FIRST directly. Please remember to tell the Child FIRST intake worker that you are a kinship carer.

Child FIRST area	Local government area
Frankston / Mornington Peninsula	Frankston, Mornington Peninsula	1300 721 383
Inner Middle	Bayside, Glen Eira, Kingston, Port Phillip, Stonnington	1300 367 441
Outer South	Greater Dandenong, Casey, Cardinia	(03) 9705 3939

About Child FIRST

Child FIRST also has extensive information about the services that families can access in their local areas. The primary purpose of Child FIRST is to ensure that vulnerable children, young people and their families are linked effectively into relevant services.

In 2011 OzChild celebrates 160 years of caring for children! OzChild is Australia's oldest independent, not-for-profit, children's charity, with a history of caring for children which dates back to 1851. We continue to care for children, support families and strengthen the potential and life opportunities of children and young people.

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