Families Together
Walking alongside families across Macarthur and the Southern Highlands so children can stay safe at home.
What is Families Together?
Families Together is an early-intervention family preservation program that supports families to keep children safely at home and prevent children from entering out of home care.
It’s part of the NSW Government’s Family Preservation reforms, designed to provide consistent, practical support earlier and for longer than traditional crisis responses.
CatholicCare Diocese of Wollongong delivers Families Together across the Macarthur and Southern Highlands regions, working alongside families in their own homes and communities to build the stability, skills and confidence that help children thrive.
Who Families Together supports
Families Together works with families with children aged 0-17 years who are facing challenges that may put a child’s safety or wellbeing at risk. This can include families navigating:
- Mental health concerns
- Domestic and family violence
- Alcohol and other drug use
- Parenting challenges
- Financial or housing stress
We understand these challenges can feel overwhelming. Our role is to walk alongside families with respect, care and without judgement.
How we support families
Every family’s situation is different. We tailor our support to what matters most to families. Our team works directly with families in their homes and communities, with extended hours that reflect the times families most often need support, including early mornings, evenings and after-hours. Families can be supported for up to 12 months, giving time to build trust and create lasting change.
We understand it’s not always easy to ask for help. Our team works alongside families with respect, compassion and without judgement:
- We take time to build trust and understand each families situation
- We work alongside families to set clear goals and create a clear plan
- We provide practical, everyday support to strengthen routines and parenting
- We help families access the right support when it’s needed
- We keep each child’s safety, wellbeing and voice at the centre
Our practice approach
Families Together is delivered using a strengths-based, trauma-informed and culturally responsive approach, in line with the NSW Family Preservation framework.
In practice, this means we focus on what families can do, their resilience, relationships and goals, rather than only what’s gone wrong.
Our practitioners work in partnership with each family to set goals, build capability and support real, sustainable change, while keeping child safety and wellbeing at the centre of every decision.
Where we work
CatholicCare operates Families Together across the Macarthur and Southern Highlands regions, with local teams who understand the communities we serve and work in partnership with the NSW Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) and other community services.
Connection to broader support at CatholicCare
Families don’t experience challenges in isolation, and support shouldn’t be provided in isolation either.
Where it helps, we connect families with other CatholicCare services so they can access the right support at the right time without having to retell their story or navigate multiple systems alone. These can include:
Parenting education and early childhood services
Family and relationship counselling
Specialist support for domestic and family violence
Mental health and wellbeing support
How to access Families Together
The NSW Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ), as part of the Family Preservation Program, provides CatholicCare with referrals of families who can access Families Together.
A small number of community referrals may be considered where this aligns with program criteria. Service providers or agencies supporting a family who may benefit are welcome to contact our team.
