Unify Family Reunification Services works intensively with families who have been separated by the child protection system due to safety concerns, and supports parents to make life changes to meet their child/ren’s needs and keep them safe so that they come home and stay at home.

Unify approaches parents with a strengths perspective; acknowledging that no parent intentionally harms their child, and that all parenting decisions are made with good intent in the context of past experiences and resources available at the time.

The Unify model recognises intergenerational trauma as a fundamental cause of most child abuse and neglect and addresses this with flexible, therapeutic interventions to achieve sustainable change and minimise the impact of trauma on future generations.

Brochure HERE.

Unify will

  • Work collaboratively with the family and the Department for Child Protection
  • Work with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal families with a commitment to culturally safe practice
  • Visit and work in the family’s home
  • Communicate honestly with families
  • Support parents to understand the child protection concerns and make their own plan for addressing these (moving beyond compliance to build agency)
  • Provide practical and educational supports to build parenting knowledge, skills and capacity
  • Provide evidence-based therapeutic interventions based on the individual needs of the family
  • Believe in parents’ ability to make changes to keep their children safe.

Unify will not

  • Make any decisions about living arrangements for a child or young person
  • Tell parents what to do or ask them to accept blame for their child’s circumstances
  • Share information about a family without their knowledge and involvement (except where a child is at imminent risk of harm and consultation with the family is not possible)
  • Lose sight of the importance of family for children
  • Minimise the importance of safety for children at all times.

Program details

Who: Families of children and young people in care.

Referral process: Referrals received from the Department for Child Protection only. Parents need to consent to working with the UNIFY Service and to become actively involved in the reunification process.

Where: Support is provided across metropolitan Adelaide.

Contact: 413 Grange Rd, Seaton. Phone (08) 8159 1400.

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