Who we are — ACME Community Services

How we got here

From one refuge in Parramatta to four program areas

We opened in 1998 as a single youth refuge on Civic Way, run by a handful of workers who were tired of telling young people there was no bed tonight.

Everything since was added for the same reason: the families already in front of us needed something we did not do, and sending them elsewhere meant starting again. Foster and kinship care in 2004. Family preservation in 2011, because the cheapest place to keep a child safe is usually home. Disability supports through the NDIS rollout in 2018. Aged and community care in 2021 — the same families, at a different point in their lives.

Today we run four program areas and twenty-seven funded programs across Greater Western Sydney and the Illawarra, and we answer to the families who live here.

1998 A single youth refuge opens in Parramatta.
2004 Foster and kinship care begins as the sector moves out of institutional care.
2011 Intensive family preservation starts, keeping children safely at home.
2015 First Nations practice established, designed and led by Aboriginal staff.
2018 Registered as an NDIS provider during the rollout.
2021 Aged and community care added across the Illawarra.
2024 One client record across all four areas — the join, finally, in one place.

What we stand for

Turn up, stay honest, stay long enough

Three commitments we are prepared to be measured against, rather than a values statement nobody reads twice.

Vision

A community where support arrives before a crisis does

Where the suburb and household someone starts in stops being a reliable predictor of how their life goes, and asking early is treated as sense rather than failure.

Mission

One team around a person, for as long as it takes

We join up the programs a person needs and stay long enough for the change to hold — measured at six and twelve months, not on the day the file closes.

Tell it once

If you have told us, you have told us. Repeating a hard story to four teams is a failure of our systems, not your patience.

Say the real answer

Waiting times, eligibility, what we must report. You get the honest version early, even when it is not the one you wanted.

Culture is not an add-on

Aboriginal-led practice, and interpreters booked by default rather than offered when someone visibly struggles.

Stay after the funding stops

Programs end on a date. People do not. The wind-down is designed at the start rather than improvised at the end.

Accountability

Four regulators, twenty-seven agreements, one set of evidence

A multi-program provider answers to more oversight than a specialist one. Out-of-home care answers to a children's guardian. Disability supports answer to the NDIS Commission. Aged care answers to its own quality standards. Each funded program has its own reporting obligation on top.

We decided early that the evidence should come out of the work rather than be assembled afterwards, which is why casework notes, case plans, incidents, complaints and internal audits all live in one place.

Complaints register

Every complaint from a young person, family, carer or partner is registered, answered and reviewed — including the ones about us. It is the first thing an assessor asks to see.

Restrictive practice authorisation

Endorsed by the senior therapeutic specialist, then the director of service delivery, then approved by the principal officer, with a fixed period of approval and re-authorisation before it lapses.

Internal audit

We audit ourselves against practice standards on a cycle, and the findings feed the evidence pack rather than a drawer.

Governance

The board

Unpaid directors. Strategy, risk, and the safety of every child we are responsible for.

Chair

Runs the board and holds the chief executive to what was agreed.

Director

Finance & Audit

Solvency, external audit, and whether donated money went where we said.

Director

Clinical & Practice

Whether the practice is safe and good across all four program areas.

Director

People & Culture

Whether staff are supervised, supported and able to raise a concern.

Director

First Nations Advisory

Holds us to Aboriginal-led decisions about Aboriginal children and families.

Director

Risk & Compliance

Incidents, child safe standards, and four regulators with four sets of expectations.

Portfolios rather than people: this is a demonstration site, so no director here is a real person.

The people who do the work

240 staff, 60 carer households, one on-call roster

Caseworkers, support workers, therapeutic carers, night staff, coordinators, intake, quality and the people who make the rosters work. Roughly a third have been here more than five years, which in this sector is the number that matters.

Everyone in a client-facing role gets clinical supervision, and everyone carries a working with children check. Our First Nations staff work across all four program areas rather than sitting in a single team on the side.

Work with us Become a carer

Publications

What we publish, and why

If we are going to ask people to trust us with the hardest parts of their lives, the least we can do is show our working.

Annual report

Outcomes at six and twelve months, the donation split, and the programs that did not work as well as we hoped.

Sample document — this is a demonstration site

Reconciliation commitment

What we have committed to on cultural safety, kin-first placement and Aboriginal employment, with the dates against each.

Sample document — this is a demonstration site

Keeping children safe

How to raise a concern about a worker, a carer or us, and what happens after you do.

Sample document — this is a demonstration site