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Who we are

Belongside Families is an independent, not-for-profit peer support organisation for families of children with disability, developmental delays and autism. We help families to navigate complex disability systems and services and build the skills, knowledge and confidence that will see their children and family thrive. Our peer groups and programs, trusted resources, and supportive community are online and free. We're passionate about all children and families living their best lives and discovering a future full of possibility.⁠

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What we do

Support

Parenting a child with disability or developmental delay can feel overwhelming. Our trained Peer Workers can help you to navigate the various systems and services, understand your child's disability and provide guidance in accessing community and mainstream supports.

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Connection

We know that connecting with like-minded parents and caregivers can change everything. We provide opportunities for families to come together for support and to share and learn from each other. Our peer groups are delivered online and are a safe and inclusive space.

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Education

Our online programs, workshops and webinars are based on best practice, evidence-based approaches. We believe in empowering families, so they are equipped to navigate systems and have the skills needed for self-advocacy.

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Resources

Drawn from the lived experiences of our team and families, our practical tip sheets and resources can assist you in making informed choices. The stories shared by parents and people with disability can help you to feel more positive and hopeful for your child and family’s future.

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No family should start their journey alone

Help us reach families navigating a new disability diagnosis for their child.

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A word from our community

“This is my protected timeslot. It is saved in my calendar and my partner knows that this is a non-negotiable for me. I have learnt so much from everyone in the group and I love being able to share and help other parents.” 

I just wanted to thankyou for what you are doing. It was wonderful to come across a page that is so positive! I get so overwhelmed and depressed with so many groups but this one has really helped and encouraged me. Thank you.

Belongside Families’s workshops have been practical and specific. The fact that the team are all parents with a disabled child themselves makes them a unique organisation. They create a culture of acceptance and acknowledgement, by sharing their experience with disability and valuing ours. It’s this sense of community that has helped me normalise and acknowledge the challenges. They are knowledgeable and connected and have helped connect me with other services.

My experience with Belongside Families has been AMAZING! When my children were diagnosed it was very much a “what now?” response. All of the therapies targeted them, but I knew that I was a huge part of their life so why wasn’t there any help/training/advice for ME? Like if I was able to do MY best then how much better could they be?! Belongside Families was that for me.

Belongside Families provides a much-needed source of positive parenting information and community support for special needs families. I highly recommend this invaluable service.

Connecting with Belongside Families and the wonderful empowering programs they run, and resources has been life changing for our family.

Belongside Families has provided the platforms to challenge old thoughts, tackle and create new ones! Thank you.

Belongside Families has created an essential community for parents and carers. The team at Belongside Families have created a village for families walking a similar path. Some are a little further along than others and some are deep in the trenches just be starting to navigate their way.  But although every family’s path is different, we are all walking together in solidarity. This community creates strength & moves us forward with hope. When we have the right support, anything is possible.

I love being able to learn off other parents. I equally, if not slightly more, love being able to help other parents. It feels so good to be connected to a community – to MY community – through Belongside Families. I’ve had chat conversations with strangers for an hour who I’ve helped solve problems with, and vice versa. It’s such a crucial network for our well-being as parents and when we feel in control and informed them, we can support our kids to the best of our abilities.

Feeling connected with other like-minded & supportive other parents who are living similar (never the same) experiences, is empowering and comforting – I no longer feel alone – Thank you Belongside Families for assisting me to feel engaged & connected.  Since becoming a member of the Belongside Families family, I have been able to improve my skills as a parent of a child with a disability and strengthen my attitude to be a ‘can-do’ motivated & confident parent!

All the information that is provided is valued and I can become a bigger advocate for both of boys who have disabilities but also a more confident and stronger advocate for the disability community.

Belongside Families is a trusted and safe place to access invaluable information and support to help our family thrive.

Sign-up to our newsletter

Don’t worry, we’re not here to overload your inbox. What you’ll get from us will be inspiring stories, details of upcoming events, helpful resources and other opportunities to be part of our community. From our family to yours, every fortnight or so.

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Join our community facebook group

To connect, celebrate and learn with parents and carers on their own beautiful journeys. Ours is a safe space where you can come to ask advice and share experiences on anything from your child's diagnosis to navigating the NDIS.

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We’re proud to be partnering with Siblings Australia to bring families of children with disability a free five-part webinar series focused on supporting siblings.⁠
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Each session combines expert guidance with lived experience through practical presentations and open conversations with professionals, parents, and carers. You’ll gain tools and strategies to build resilience, strengthen sibling relationships, and support the needs of every child in your family.⁠
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We’ll cover:⁠
🔸Understanding the Sibling Experience: Tue 27 May⁠
🔸Supporting Relationships & Resilience: Tue 3 June⁠
🔸The Sibling Role: Now & Into the Future: Tue 10 June⁠
🔸 Building School & Community Connections: Tue 17 June⁠
🔸Sibling Support in Medically Complex Families: Tue 24 June⁠
🕰All sessions run 12:00–12:45pm (NSW time)⁠
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✏️Register to attend live or receive the replay⁠ via linkin.bio⁠
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#SupportingSiblingsOfShildrenWithDisability #ByFamiliesForFamilies #PeerLed #ParentingDisability #PeerSupport #WalkingWithFamilies #ReframingDisability #SpecialNeedsMum #SpecialNeedsMother #DisabilityParenting
✨ Meet Bree: Program Manager at Belongside Families ✨⁠
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Bree began her career in medical practice management before moving to Karratha, WA to work in administration on a mining site. ⁠
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💁‍️ Bree returned to NSW when her son Dax was born with Congenital Cytomegalovirus (CMV). This sparked a deep passion for disability inclusion and showing what’s possible for families like hers. Bree began sharing her family’s story through CMV Australia and Cerebral Palsy Alliance, helping to raise awareness and connect with other families on similar journeys. ⁠
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👨‍👩‍👧‍👧 Now, as Program Manager at Belongside Families, Bree leads the design and facilitation of programs that support, empower and connect parents and carers of young people with disability. She works across workshops, peer groups and webinars – creating spaces where families feel informed, uplifted and, most importantly, not alone. ⁠
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🐶 A fun fact about Bree is that she has a beautiful one-year-old German short-haired pointer called Dolly Dog, who keeps Bree accountable for exercise. ⁠
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⛱ Outside of work, Bree loves going outdoors on the NSW South Coast where she now lives with her family. ⁠
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🧡 What Bree loves most about her job is the feeling she gets after a session, knowing a parent or carer has walked away feeling heard, supported and more confident. ⁠
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Everyone on our team is raising a child with disability, delay, or autism. That lived experience is at the heart of everything we do — and it’s what makes Belongside Families different. ⁠
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#BelongsideFamilies #WalkingAlongside #FamiliesSupportingFamilies #BelongsideCommunity #ByFamiliesForFamilies #PeerLed #ParentingDisability #BelongsideFamiliesTeam
🧡 Happy Mother’s Day to the mums and mother figures in our community.⁠
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We see your love, your growth, your quiet strength. These are the things that shape your child’s world in irreplaceable ways. It’s a role full of beauty and complexity, and one that at times can feel deeply emotional.⁠
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That’s why we created our new webinar series—about the parts of parenting we often carry alone.⁠
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Conversations: Beyond the Diagnosis is a four-part webinar series exploring the emotional realities of raising a child with disability.⁠
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Whether you've just received a diagnosis for your child, or have been on your journey for some time, this series offers understanding, practical ideas and strategies, and space to reflect on all the parts of parenting that often go unspoken, but that can make all the difference.⁠
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Starting Wed 21 May 12pm⁠
Register to attend live or receive the recording: ⁠
https://collections.humanitix.com/conversations
Part 3/3: Advice for a Good Life ⁠
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For me, a good life is to live fully – to build social connections and make a difference. ⁠
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On my journey to become a non-speaking Autistic advocate, I have met many challenges and worked hard to manage and overcome these. I now feel the need to devote time to help others in the same boat. Helping other non-speaking Autistics has also led me to develop and grow in many ways, in becoming the person I aspire to be, to be more skilled, compassionate and resilient. ⁠
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My advice to young Autistic people is this: don’t be deterred by neurotypical, deficit-based views of Autism – that Autism is a disorder. Live fully, as your Autistic differences provide valuable perspectives and can be assets. Always strive to show others what we are capable of, with our strengths and resilience in meeting life’s curve balls. ⁠
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To parents of Autistic children, I say: believe in your children, be aware of their differences and refrain from aligning with non-autistic values, often unconscious, in parenting. Don’t be afraid to take the road less travelled, in letting your kids pave the way to become self-advocates to meet their own support needs, with your support and guidance. ⁠
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Tim Chan is a proud Autistic non-speaking advocate and student. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Sociology and is currently undertaking a PhD on the neurodiversity movement and its applicability to Autistic individuals with complex communication needs. Tim is a board member of @reframing_autism and an ambassador for Communication Rights Australia and the @ican_rethinkautism . ⁠
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🧡 You can read more about Tim's Good Life via the Linkin.bio⁠
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#StoriesOfTheGoodLife #BelongsideFamilies #ByFamiliesForFamilies  #AutismAwareness #AustismAdvocate #AutisticAwareness #AAC #FacilitatedCommunitcation
Part 2/3: Family ⁠
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My mother has played a pivotal role in translating the world to me, and translating me to the world. ⁠
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Mum has devoted her time and commitment to support me. She does everything. She is the chef, the washer-upper, the cleaning department, my personal wardrobe coordinator, as well as my social secretary and personal assistant. She is my teacher, my therapist and my advocate. She is the tinker, the tailor, the baker and the gluten-free bread maker. She is my chaperone and chauffeur. She also drives me up the wall with her insistence that I do things her way, some of the time. ⁠
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Her unconditional love for me knows no bounds. I would not have aspired as high, attempted as much nor gone as far, without her guidance and unwavering support. ⁠
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Stay tuned for the final instalment of Tim Chan's Good Life story ...⁠
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#StoriesOfTheGoodLife #BelongsideFamilies #ByFamiliesForFamilies  #AutismAwareness #AustismAdvocate #AutisticAwareness #AAC #FacilitatedCommunitcation
Part 1/ 3: Growing up ⁠
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I am the youngest of four children. In the first weeks of my life, my mother says, everything was going well. But then it became clear that I would not settle or sleep easily. My milestones were also delayed, not sitting up until I was eight months old. I never crawled, but stood up at around fourteen months, and walked two months later. ⁠
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My communication was also a little late, with babbling at 12 months, then single words not long after. Unlike my siblings whose first word was ‘ma’ (mother in Chinese), my first word was ‘dang’ – light – which I spent much time looking at. By 14 months, however, the single words disappeared, although there was nothing wrong with my hearing: I would start to cry whenever my older sister practised the violin. ⁠
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As the months rolled on, my developmental delays became more obvious, and by two and a half years of age my mother, a psychologist, could no longer deny my difficulties. She booked an appointment with a multidisciplinary team for an assessment and three weeks later she was told I had Autistic Disorder, with severe delays in cognition, social understanding and communication. ⁠
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From a toddler with no speech and huge developmental delays in all areas, I am proud to have mastered language between the ages of five and seven years via an individualised program designed by my mother. I went on to acquire communication at nine via the Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) method of Facilitated Communication, which involves assisted typing. ⁠
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With continued improvement in assisted typing, a whole new world opened up for me, and despite many hurdles and exclusionary barriers, I have been able to attend and complete mainstream schooling, make friends, join advocacy groups, present at forums, give a TED talk, go to university, graduate with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Sociology and currently to undertake a PhD program. ⁠
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Stay tuned for more of Tim Chan's Good Life story ...⁠
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#StoriesOfTheGoodLife #BelongsideFamilies #ByFamiliesForFamilies  #AutismAwareness #AustismAdvocate #AutisticAwareness #AAC #FacilitatedCommunitcation
✨ Meet Ginny: Community Lead at Belongside Families ✨ ⁠
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Ginny has divided her career between her two passions: books and advocacy. While the early years of her career were spent in the fascinating world of book publishing, she has invested her energies in more recent times into working on content for not-for-profit organisations in the disability space. ⁠
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👪 After becoming a mum to Finn and Ren, Ginny discovered both her children had wonderfully divergent brains. Soon after their autism diagnosis, Ginny was formally identified as autistic herself – a pivotal moment in her life. ⁠
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🎤 Following her autism identification, Ginny felt inspired to share her experiences as a multiply neurodivergent person. She joined the team at Reframing Autism and began writing blog pieces, which have been read widely. She hosted a podcast, Amplified, downloaded by thousands of listeners around the world. And she was invited to share her insights into neurodivergence on other podcasts and at conferences. ⁠
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📄 Ginny now has the pleasure of running Belongside’s growing Facebook community and also developing valuable new resources for parents and carers. ⁠
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📚 A fun fact about Ginny is that she is the author of a children’s book, Australia’s Greatest Landmarks and Locations. ⁠
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🐕 Outside of work, Ginny is a volunteer carer for Guide Dog puppies – spirited creatures which keep her on her toes! ⁠
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🧡 Ginny hopes that the families she connects with through Belongside feel seen, supported and uplifted. ⁠
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Everyone on our team is raising a child with disability, delay, or autism. That lived experience is at the heart of everything we do — and it’s what makes Belongside Families different. ⁠
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#BelongsideFamilies #WalkingAlongside #FamiliesSupportingFamilies #BelongsideCommunity #ByFamiliesForFamilies #PeerLed #ParentingDisability #BelongsideFamiliesTeam⁠
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