Kara Women & Children's Refuge

Kara is our dedicated family refuge, which offers short-term crisis accommodation for single women and women with accompanying children.
It has three self contained units and four family rooms which are all furnished, allowing us to accommodate up to seven families. There is a large rumpus area, a playground for children and a child minding and activities centre where our Child Support worker can look after the children to give mum a break or when she has important appointments.

Support facilities are in place for children to attend preschool and primary school and our staff who are very experienced are dedicated to the well being of each and every resident. Staff offer assistance to residents with parenting skills and the development of living and social skills. To cope with their circumstances residents are given support in arranging for counselling, medical and dental attention, support from Centrelink and other agencies.

Ideally women and families should only need to stay for a few weeks at Kara, however the shortage of affordable housing on the Central Coast has meant that the average length of stay at Kara is now almost 6 weeks.

If the Kara staff determine that it would be beneficial and a house becomes available then a family may be invited to join the Outreach Program to give them more time to find find suitable permanent accommodation and address the issues that led to them becoming homeless.

Ultimately, our goal is to assist residents to find permanent independent living premises and we are assisted with this process by working closely with the Department of Housing, Pacific Link Community Housing Association, and other support agencies.

All residents are invited to attend weekly meetings to plan the programs of the house and have input into its management.

Residents pay a weekly rent and/or board and are encouraged to save to move onto independent living.

Kara Cottage is funded by the Department of Community Services through the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program and from Public Donations.

Kara Women & Children's Brochure (169 KB)