IFYS Services

Foster Care Program

This program, funded by the Department of Child Safety, provides out of home placements for children and young people in the child protection system across the Sunshine Coast region. Ongoing work is undertaken to recruit, assess, train and support families and households who want to care for children and young people who are not safe within their own families.

Shared Family Care Workers support households to meet the needs of the children and young people in their care and ensure safe, high quality living arrangements. Our paid and volunteer team members work closely with the Department of Child Safety and other service providers.

For more information on the Foster Care program please click here.

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Young Parents Support Program

The Young Parents Support Program works with young pregnant women and young parenting families up to 25 years of age.

We provide a range of services and supports to young families to meet their ongoing needs including pregnancy and parenting support, social and recreational activities, weekly playgroups, home and hospital visits. We work collaboratively with a range of health and welfare services relevant to meeting the needs of young families.

For more information on the Young Parents Support program please click here.

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Youth Engagement Program

The Youth Engagement Program is a collaborative initiative that provides outreach to young people engaging in high risk behaviours including survival sex, drug and alcohol use and offending. The team delivers services primarily within the Mooloolaba and Maroochydore areas of the Sunshine Coast where particular public space issues have impacted upon young people and communities. The program assists young people to make connections with support services and provides responsive interventions to young people who lack links to supportive networks and services.

For more information on the Youth Engagement program please click here.

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Reconnect Program

Reconnect is a Youth Homelessness Early Intervention Program, funded by the federal department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaCSIA), that offers a range of support services to meet the individual needs of young people and families where relationship difficulties and other pressures threaten family disintegration. The central focus of Reconnect is to assist young people and families to remain connected to each other and to the community, before issues such as early school leaving and homelessness occur.
Reconnect recognises that individual young people and families may have impacting multiple needs requiring early intervention strategies. The program is working actively with local services and people to develop a regional strategy in regards to issues surrounding youth homelessness.

For more information on the Reconnect Program please click here.

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Inclusive Living Program

The Inclusive Living Program provides respite and developmental services by working with a number of young people experiencing a disability and their families. ILP provides brokerage or direct delivery of a range of services that maximise the service users’ opportunities to be self-determining and enjoy an improved quality of life. Currently IFYS provides support to a number of service users within their own homes as well as to residents throughout the Sunshine Coast.

For more information on the Inclusive Living program please click here.

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Youth Support Program

Youth Support Program is a school-based initiative aimed at assisting young people who are homeless, or at risk of homelessness, to remain connected to school, family and support networks. Servicing the Sunshine Coast secondary school cluster of Mountain Creek and Maroochydore, the program aims to link schools and community services together to improve the early identification of homelessness risk within schools and to co-ordinate developmental processes and programs within each school community.

For more information on the Youth Support Program please click here.

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Crisis Shelters

The Accommodation Services area is funded largely through the federal government’s Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) and Crisis Assistance Program (CAP). The core objectives of this service area are to provide crisis and transitional support to young people who are homeless, or at risk of homelessness, and to move them towards independence. This is a regional response to the needs of homeless young people and working with other accommodation service providers, young people have access to a range of supported pathways. Specific initiatives within the accommodation service area are as follows:

• The organisation currently operates two crisis accommodation services for young people throughout the state, one in Caboolture and one on the Sunshine Coast. 
• Our youth crisis accommodation services perform a significant role in meeting the protective needs of young people with histories of relationship stress and family violence, abuse and neglect, substance misuse, mental health and/or behavioural difficulties and associated problems.

For more information on the Crisis Shelters program please click here.

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Transitional Housing Program

The Accommodation Services area is funded largely through the federal governments Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) and Crisis Assistance Program (CAP). The core objectives of this service area are to provide crisis and transitional support to young people who are homeless, or at risk of homelessness, and to move them towards independence. This is a regional response to the needs of homeless young people and working with other accommodation service providers, young people have access to a range of supported pathways. Specific initiatives within the accommodation service area are as follows:

• The Transitional Housing service provides affordable, supported accommodation to single young people and young parents, usually aged 16 to 21 years, in privately leased properties, or units provided by the Community Housing (CAP) program. Youth workers assist these young people to reach their goals and move from crisis to independence in a supported manner. We currently have the capacity to support a maximum of 16 young tenants, plus accompanying children. 
• In partnership with Queensland Housing, IFYS Transitional Housing manages three public housing units that are sub-let to young people with the view to transferring them to tenancy with the Department of Housing after a transitional supported tenancy. Young people need to meet QH eligibility criteria for public housing to access the Same House Different Landlord (SHDL) program.

For more information on the Transitional Housing Program please click here.

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Emergency Relief Program

Integrated Family and Youth Service provides emergency relief to young people through special funding from the Queensland Department of Communities. These funds are either distributed through partnership organisations located in the North Brisbane, Sunshine Coast and hinterland regions or through the IFYS office in Burnett Street, Mooloolaba.

For more information on the Emergency Relief Program please click here.

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Child Protection Residential Programs