Who can join the KEYS Network?

Families

The KEYS Network provides support for families with children 0-5 years old living in Western Sydney, who are not engaged with appropriate services to meet their holistic needs or require a multiagency response.

For a family to be eligible to join KEYS, the family must:

Live in the Blacktown, Cumberland, Hills Shire, Parramatta or Lithgow Local Government Areas
Have a child aged 0-5 years old or be currently pregnant; and
Have one or more of the following vulnerabilities:
- Young parent under the age of 25
- Homelessness/Housing instability
- Substance use
- Smoking in pregnancy
- Involvement in Out of Home Care (OOHC)
- Domestic and Family Violence
- Past or current experience of trauma
- Poor physical or mental health
- Disability
- Not enrolled in school (compulsory school age)
- Multiple changes of school – outside normal transition phases
- Involvement with the criminal justice system
- Limited appropriate social/cultural networks and/or limited family supports
- Socioeconomic disadvantage impacting on access to appropriate services
- Refugee/asylum seeker/visa restrictions
- Concern regarding child safety and wellbeing

Advocates

An advocate is a frontline agency staff member who has direct contact with families and supports them to join KEYS. This could be a social worker, educator, health practitioner or other similar roles.

Lead Service Providers

The Lead Service Provider has overall responsibility for managing the Family Plan which includes maintaining regular contact with families and following up with other service providers.

Other Services

A family will generally have a group of Service Providers who are in the best place to support a family throughout their involvement in the KEYS Network. The KEYS Network seeks to develop strong and meaningful partnerships with local community organisations in Western Sydney.