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Helping Young Parents

We help young parents aged 19 or under who live in any of 10 selected areas in creating a positive future for themselves and their children.

If you are 19 years of age or under, receive Parenting Payment, and live in one of 10 selected Local Government Areas, we will write to you when your child turns six months old and ask you to meet with us, in order to see how you are doing and whether there is any extra assistance we can offer.

When your child turns one, we will meet with you again to help you develop a plan that will let you work toward achieving your year 12 certificate or a Certificate II equivalent qualification. The study activities included in your plan will be flexible and will be included only after talking about the options that best suit your circumstances and family needs.

We will also give you information about local services that can help you care for your children and other local services that can help you meet your parenting responsibilities.

By linking you with this support and helping you improve your education, we hope to empower you so that you can build and develop valuable life skills. This will mean that when you are ready and your child is older, you will have a better chance of getting a job that suits you and your interests.

You need to know

About the program

If you are eligible for this assistance, you will need to go to interviews every six months while your child is six months to six years old.

We will work with you to find activities that will help you in improving your education and accessing local services that can help you care for your children and meet your parenting responsibilities. These activities will take into account your needs and circumstances, as well as those of your child.

Selected Local Government Areas

The 10 selected Local Government Areas are:

Bankstown, Shellharbour, and Wyong (NSW)
Logan and Rockhampton (Qld)
Greater Shepparton and Hume (Vic)
Playford (SA)
Burnie (Tas)
Kwinana (WA).

Supporting you and your children

We realise that being a young parent can be really hard. We can help you create a positive future for yourself and your children.

We want to make sure that you and your children have many opportunities and that you get the support you need in order to finish school or study, through flexible options that best suit your circumstances.

We understand that it is important that your children be cared for while you focus on your study so we’ll help you access support services, such as child care, if needed. We may also be able to provide you with help to pay for child care.

You will also learn about local community support and services available to help you as a young parent.

Existing customers

Love.Learn.Grow - the Helping Young Parents online community

When you go to your first interview, you will receive access to ‘Love.Learn.Grow’ - the Helping Young Parents online community. This is a place where you will be able to talk with other young parents about your experiences and theirs. You will also find information that will help you while participating in the Helping Young Parents program.

Love.Learn.Grow also gives you the chance to talk to the people who developed the Helping Young Parents program. Access to this online community is limited to program participants. If you’re already participating in this program, you can visit Love.Learn.Grow now.

Participating in the program

We will work with you to identify a learning path that will help you achieve a Year 12 Certificate or a Certificate II equivalent.