Who We Help

We help people experiencing poverty, sickness, destitution, helplessness, suffering, misfortune, disability or distress in Australia. In particular, our beneficiaries are parents (including those who are expecting) and their families that experience the following conditions (Conditions of Disadvantage):

(a) poverty;

(b) homelessness;

(c) domestic violence;

(d) discrimination;

(e) sickness;

(f) disability;

(g) mental health issues;

(h) substance abuse; and

(i) inadequate role modelling of parenting.

Our beneficiaries also include infants and children who are at risk of entering out-of-home or foster care.

As of 30 June 2023, 45,300 children were in out-of-home care in Australia. In 2022 and 2023, 10,900 children were admitted to out-of-home care, with 1,908 of these children under 12 months of age.5 This amounts to 29 children being admitted to out-of-home care every day, with 5 out of every 29 child being an infant under 12 months.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Child protection Australia 2022-23: Child protection Australia 2022–23, Supporting children – Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (aihw.gov.au).

Despite increased services to these cohorts, Australia is failing to meet the needs of parents before disadvantage takes hold. These statistics demonstrate that to alleviate the kinds of disadvantage experienced by our beneficiaries in an effective and sustained manner requires “upstream” efforts. SEED Futures addresses the systemic drivers of disadvantage to both alleviate the needs of current beneficiaries and prevent more children from entering out-of-home care.

The challenges experienced by our beneficiaries are multi-faceted and complex, often including one or more of the following:

(a) difficulties accessing appropriate education, training or work experience options;

(b) difficulties accessing appropriate childcare to enable their engagement in education, training and work opportunities;

(c) homelessness;

(d) domestic and family violence;

(e) drug or alcohol dependency and abuse;

(f) long term welfare support;

(g) difficulties in overcoming mental health barriers including anxiety and isolation;

(h) digital illiteracy, and the corresponding difficulties in interfacing with government or other service providers (e.g. through difficulties in obtaining birth certificates or other forms of identification); and

(i) other barriers in accessing government services (e.g. attitudinal obstacles created by decision-makers, including unconscious or conscious biases, adopting a single-issue approach, or adopting a deficit- rather than a strengths-based approach.

SEED will focus on beneficiaries in areas with the highest of levels of entrenched disadvantage amongst families with young children.

By using measurement indexes, SEED will identify such areas of entrenched disadvantage. The measurement indexes that SEED will use are:

(a) Australian Bureau of Statistics data: identify Local Government Areas (LGAs) with relatively high numbers of births, young mothers, domestic and family violence, homelessness, single parent families, non-working families and First Nations people;

(b) Centrelink data: identify areas where families have a high reliance on income support payments such as Parenting Payment;

(c) Australian Early Development Census data: nationwide census of early childhood development captured as children transition into their first year of school;

(d) Dropping off the Edge report indicators: 37 indicators across seven domains used to identify areas of disadvantage in every Australian state and territory; and

(e) Child Social Exclusion Index: a measure that extends the concept of child poverty to reflect the extent to which children lack the opportunities or resources to participate and feel connected.

Within its first few years of operation, SEED Futures will use the above measurement indexes to identify Beneficiaries in LGAs of Tasmania, New South Wales, and Queensland