Not sure who to ask? Our intake line takes any question: (02) 5550 1800, weekdays 9am–5pm
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ACME Community Services Support that stays with you
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Home/Get support

How we can help

Four program areas, twenty-seven funded programs, one client record. Most people who come to us need support from more than one area — which is the whole reason we run them together.

How it works

Seven steps, whichever door you come through

Foster care, an NDIS plan, home care for a parent and in-home family support look nothing alike from the outside. Underneath, they run the same way.

1

Get in touch

Refer yourself, or have a family member, school, hospital or caseworker refer you with your consent.

2

Work out the fit

Eligibility, urgency, and whether we are the right service. If we are not, we say so and tell you who is.

3

Agree the plan

Goals written with you. You get a copy, in your language, and you can change it.

4

Do the work

A named worker, and a second person who knows your situation for when they are away.

5

Check it is working

Review points that exist for you, not for the file. If it is not working we change it.

6

Show the evidence

Funders and regulators need proof. We produce it once, from the work — we do not ask you to tell it again.

7

Move on well

Transition with a warm handover and a door left open, not a date on a funding agreement.

Across all seven

One record

If you are in two programs, both teams see the same plan. That join is the thing we are actually good at.

Response commitment: two business days from referral to a human being telling you where you stand.

Program areas

Four areas, and the joins between them

Youth & Out-of-Home CareAges 0–21

Foster, kinship and residential care

When a child cannot live safely at home, the aim is a placement that holds — with people who know them, near the school they already go to, connected to the family they still have.

  • Foster and kinship placement, with matching that starts from the child
  • Therapeutic residential care in small homes for young people with complex needs
  • Case plans with permanency direction, reviewed on a cycle and evidenced to the regulator
  • Cultural support plans the family writes, with us doing the paperwork
  • Leaving-care support to 21, because the order ending is not the support ending
Make a referral
Disability & NDISRegistered provider

Supports that follow the plan, not the paperwork

An NDIS plan is only worth the supports that actually turn up. Most of our work here is making the plan real and keeping it funded.

  • Support coordination, including the calls providers do not return
  • Supported independent living, shared and individual
  • Community participation, skills and employment pathways
  • Plan management support: budgets, claims and getting ready for plan review
  • Positive behaviour support, with restrictive-practice authorisation done properly
Talk to us
Aged & Community CareIn-home

Staying at home, for longer, on purpose

Most people want to stay where they are. The work is the practical scaffolding that makes that safe — and support for the family members quietly holding it together.

  • Domestic help, personal care, transport and social support
  • Respite and restorative programs, short-term and reablement
  • Carer support for the family doing the day-to-day work
  • Specialist support for CALD, LGBTIQ+ and First Nations elders
Enquire
Family PreservationIn-home

The cheapest place to keep a child safe is usually home

Intensive, in-home, high-frequency work with families under real strain — the alternative to a removal that no one involved wants.

  • Intensive family preservation, several contacts a week, not several a month
  • Family restoration and supported reunification after a removal
  • Parenting programs and one-to-one early support
  • Practical help — food, furniture, a rental arrears plan — alongside the casework
Make a referral
Youth housingAges 12–24

Somewhere to sleep tonight, then somewhere to stay

Crisis accommodation through to transitional housing, with the case support that stops the same crisis arriving again in six weeks.

  • Crisis and medium-term accommodation with staff on site
  • Help sustaining a tenancy before it fails, which is far easier than after
  • The unglamorous prerequisites: ID, a bank account, a Centrelink claim
  • Re-engagement with school, TAFE or work
Get help now
CarersAlways recruiting

Become a foster or kinship carer

Sixty households are authorised with us today. The assessment is thorough because it has to be, and we will be straight with you about what it involves.

  • Enquiry and information session, no commitment
  • Assessment and authorisation, with clearances held per adult in the household
  • Training before a placement and support after it, including 24-hour on-call
  • Annual review, and a register kept current — the thing an assessor asks to see
Start the conversation
First NationsAboriginal-led

Aboriginal children, Aboriginal decisions

Aboriginal children are still removed at many times the rate of other children. Our First Nations practice is designed and run by Aboriginal staff alongside families and Elders, because the alternative has been tried for a century and did not work.

  • Cultural support plans written by the family, reviewed by the family
  • Kin-first placement, and the search for kin done properly rather than quickly
  • Aboriginal staff across all four program areas, not in one team on the side
Talk to the team
MulticulturalInterpreters standard

Settlement and multicultural support

Greater Western Sydney speaks more than a hundred languages. Interpreting is booked by default here, not offered when someone struggles.

  • Settlement casework for newly arrived families, across whichever programs they need
  • Help with visas, legal steps and tracing relatives overseas
  • Education, English language and employment pathways
  • Care and guardianship for young people who came here alone
Enquire
Before you call

The awkward questions, answered up front

Every one of these gets asked on the phone. Here they are in writing so you can decide whether we are worth the call.

Do I have to be referred?

No. Young people can refer themselves, and so can family members. Some funded programs need a referral from a government agency — we will tell you which on the first call.

Is there a waiting list?

Sometimes, and it differs by program. We will give you the real number rather than "we will be in touch", and we will tell you who else to try while you wait.

Do you have to report what I tell you?

Some things, yes — where a child is at risk of significant harm we are legally required to report. We will tell you that before you tell us, not after.

What does it cost?

Funded programs cost you nothing. Some aged care and NDIS supports carry a co-contribution set by the funding body, and we will put it in writing before anything starts.

Are you outside my area?

Our funded catchments are Greater Western Sydney and the Illawarra. Call anyway — pointing you to the right service somewhere else is part of the job, not a brush-off.

Referrals

Make a referral or enquiry

If you would rather write than call. It takes about two minutes and reaches the same intake team the phone does. If you are worried about someone's immediate safety, call 000.

Referring from an agency

The full referral form

For departments, police, health, schools and community agencies placing a formal referral. It takes about five minutes and asks for dates of birth, cultural identity and known risks, so it needs someone who holds that information and has authority to share it.

Referrals

A phone call settles in minutes what a website cannot

Tell us what is happening and we will tell you whether this is ours to take on. If it is not, you get the name of the service it belongs to before you hang up.

Intake line
(02) 5550 1800
Hours
Monday to Friday, 9:00am – 5:00pm
After hours
See the crisis numbers on our contact page
All contact options
An intake worker taking a call