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A place where a young person's voice can be heard

The Property Industry Foundation has pulled together a team of property advisors in Brisbane to help Act for Kids develop a new set of therapy rooms in Morayfield.

Karl Eckermann, Hugh Nagle and Casey Doyle from Architectus has joined up with Ben Weaver from Ethos Urban and Nick Prestwood from JLL.

“This project is a wonderful opportunity for the property & construction industries to give back to the community and support the great work PIF & AFK does. It’s a privilege for us to be a part of something tangible and to work together in creating a facility to support local child therapy services for those north of Brisbane.”

Nick Prestwood, Construction Project Manager JLL

Act for Kids has access to a property in Morayfield which it hopes to convert into useable space for child therapy sessions. The team from Architectus, Ethos Urban and JLL are advising them pro bono on whether this will be possible and how to go about it.

Act for Kids has been a beneficiary of the Property Industry Foundation for many years, and the foundation has funded therapists in Act for Kids in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. In Victoria, the Foundation has previously done a $300,000 renovation and makeover of its therapy centre in Broadmeadows.

Act for Kids works with children from disadvantaged backgrounds and helps them and their carers to work together to live an ordinary life. Young children from abused and neglected backgrounds often carry these issues with them and it can make it difficult to settle with new carers. Act for Kids in particularly champions an integrated therapy approach where young people get access to different therapists who all work on the same site, which minimises the chance for an issue to fall between the cracks.

“Sadly, the region has double the number of vulnerable prep aged children than the nation’s average, and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare identifies child abuse and neglect as the leading behavioural factor contributing to suicide and self-harm in Australia.
The reality is without early intervention, these children are at greater risk of falling through the cracks.
Research from around the world also shows there is a clear link between childhood trauma, dysfunctional families and youth disengagement and homelessness.
There are limited trauma-informed therapy services for children and young people in the Morayfield Caboolture region, which is what Act for Kids wants to change.”

Dr Katrina Lines, CEO Act for Kids Quotes

The Property Industry Foundation brings together the property and construction industry to have an impact on youth homelessness. We are always happy to work with donors such as JLL and Architectus to bring their specialist expertise together to help youth homelessness.