Open Family Australia is a community organisation established in 1978 that has been working with youth on the streets. It aims to improve the well being and self worth of alienated and excluded street frequenting young people through unconditional support, whenever and wherever necessary, with the view to reconnecting them with the community. Open Family’s model of street outreach work provides a unique, yet highly effective response in contacting and assisting street children and hard-to-reach adolescents who live on or around the streets.

Open Family currently employs full-time street outreach workers in metropolitan Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and areas of regional Victoria and NSW. The Outreach workers are personally available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to their targeted intensive clients on a 24-hour basis. This model provides organisational challenges but is very effective in engaging and assisting young people who are typically resistant to using mainstream services

  Classification(s)


 Homeless

 Youth