There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”

Nelson Mandela


Our Mission

To protect the mental health of children exposed to family breakdown and prevent anxiety, depression, self-harming behaviours and youth suicide.

To protect children from life-threatening risks associated with family breakdown and from all forms of harm, violence and emotional and psychological abuse.

To ensure that childrens’ rights and needs to maintain and develop relationships with those who love and care for them are widely understood, protected and observed, in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Our Vision

A world where children’s needs and rights are considered paramount whenever families separate and where everyone has the knowledge and understanding to play a part in preventing the harm to children that so often accompanies separation, particularly through traditional legal and court systems.

Our Values

To treat everyone with respect and courtesy;

To put the internationally recognised rights and the fundamental needs of children first;

To make accurate, balanced and gender-neutral information readily accessible to the whole community;

To support and inspire those who can benefit from knowledge and experience we share;

To be patient, compassionate and understanding, yet determined and persistent for the long-term tasks ahead;

To make a positive, sustainable contribution to our community.

Our Purpose

For many children, family separation is a major childhood trauma that affects their mental and physical health for the rest of their lives. It affects their behaviour and their education, and can lead to serious social problems, self-harm and even suicide.

For many parents, separation is the most stressful period of their entire lives, creating unfamiliar and frightening situations and extreme emotions. It’s a time when many parents need considerable help for themselves – and help to be able to do what’s best for their children. And it’s a time when children need their parents most.

We believe that we need to do much more to make sure children and their families have easy access to the information and professional help that they need before, during and after separation. We need to make sure that all professionals that work with separated families, and especially with children, are properly qualified in this specialised field. Far too few professionals have the necessary skills and experience – and, sadly, many cause further harm. We also need to find alternatives to the current family court experience. It’s far too slow, it’s beyond the finances of most families, and its adversarial nature escalates family conflict. This only increases the harm for our children.

Australia’s family courts deal with over 200,000 adults every year and, although the majority of families avoid actual trials, our family courts set the tone for family separation throughout the country; they affect outcomes for children even in families that avoid court proceedings. For our kids’ sake, we need to find alternative, better ways of dealing with family breakdown. And we need to work together to help our community, and our decision-makers, understand that family separation must no longer be treated first and foremost as a legal issue. It must instead be recognised as the major health and child welfare issue that it is – one that directly affects millions of Australians and indirectly, the whole of our society.

The financial cost of doing nothing runs into billions of dollars every year. The personal, human cost – for generations of Aussie kids and their families – is incalculable.

You can contribute to our work through donations, by working with us, or by becoming involved in developing and advocating better ways of dealing with the health and child welfare crisis that is family breakdown today. We need to make a difference, for kids’ sake. Together, we can.

International Ambassador

Lyn

Professor Lyn Beazley AO FAA FTSE FACE CIE (Aust)

International Ambassador

A graduate of Oxford and Edinburgh Universities, former Chief Scientist of WA and WA Australian of the Year in 2015, Lyn is a neuroscientist and educator based in Perth, WA. She is currently an Honorary Distinguished Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Western Australia (UWA), and the Sir Walter Murdoch Distinguished Professor of Science at Murdoch University. Among other awards, she has been named an Officer of the Order of Australia for her contributions to medical science and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA).

Executive Team

Anne-Marie


Anne-Marie Cade, LLB

Anne-Marie has a diverse range of qualifications and experience in dealing with separating families. She’s a nationally accredited mediator; trained as a divorce coach, NLP master practitioner, parenting coordinator and family dispute resolution practitioner; and qualified as a lawyer, having been admitted to the Victorian Bar in 2006. She’s also a Churchill Fellow, adjunct lecturer at the College of Law and city councillor in Victoria. As founder of Divorce Right, she’s passionate about helping separating families and believes strongly in the importance of early interventions.


Karen

Karen Clarke

Karen is the author of From Bullied to Brilliant, a fresh look at the nature of bullying and how best to deal with it, and director of Powerful Positive People. A qualified Trainer of NLP and Time Line Therapy® Coach, Karen helps children, adults, performers and athletes overcome confidence and self-esteem issues. Karen has a broad understanding of the dynamics of personal interactions, particularly bullying and social isolation, through both her professional and personal life. As a coach, she has seen how even the most hostile of parents, in seemingly intractable disputes with ex-partners, can be supported and coached towards better outcomes for themselves and their families. She is For Kids Sake’s first Ambassador.


David

David Curl MA (Oxf) PhD (Monash)

Father, film-maker, scientist and writer, David’s career bridges art and science. An award-winning cinematographer, director and producer, he has created and worked on numerous international films, produced media for TV, radio, print and online, and worked in science and wildlife conservation. He has been a long-time contributor to policy development in a number of fields, and a board member of industry guilds and non-profits for the past two decades. He is currently CEO of the Two Wishes Foundation andFor Kids Sake, a registered Australian charity, and an active member of a Cafcass UK Advisory Board improving practices relating to family violence and separation.


Toni

Toni Leahy

An award-winning technical producer with a career in radio, Toni brings a blend of ideas and a practical approach to bringing those ideas to life! Her quest for answers around what her son was experiencing when her contact with him was severed led her into a life coaching programme with a world leader in family therapy.

Toni has become a keen advocate for overhaul and change to the family law system, to bring about urgently needed changes that support a child’s right to have both parents in their lives whenever appropriate. She has a hunger for learning and sharing that knowledge with those around her. Her passion to help others was anchored in early on where she volunteered as a Counsellor with Youthline in New Zealand. The approach that came naturally to her, was not to judge, but to meet people where they were at, wherever that may be.


Cheryl

Cheryl Duffy

Cheryl is a certified divorce coach, accredited mediator and author of the “The Divorce Tango“. She’s a regular media contributor on TV, radio and in print in Australia and the USA.

After an 18-year career at a Global IT company leading transformational change programs, she found that the most difficult change & transformation she had to manage was her own divorce. Challenged and driven by her own experiences, she founded the online Divorce Centre with the ethos that “divorce isn’t the end – it’s a new beginning”.