First Point is a free phone service for Canberrans who are homeless or at risk of homelessness to find services that meet their needs.
First Point is a central intake service, meaning it is the single and only access point for Canberrans to find support in the homelessness system. One free phone call quickly and easily matches people to the best available resources, and no one is turned away.
In our work with people who are homeless First Point is driven by important values:
- the rights of the homeless matter
- safety for all
- children come first
- somewhere safe to live is everybody’s right
- we work with the relationship between people and their community.
First Point is jointly funded by the ACT and Australian Governments, under the National Partnership Agreement on homelessness, and operated by Connections ACT Inc. First Point operates out of the Central Access Point in Belconnen, a ‘one stop shop’ that includes community service organisations as well as Centrelink and Housing ACT.
WHY WAS FIRST POINT DEVELOPED?
For years Canberra had a network of more than 40 individual support organisations. While this is a strong network of services, it has sometimes been difficult for people to find the help they needed and difficult for organisations to make contact with the people they aim to help. The old way of doing things also meant people had to tell and retell their story to many different caseworkers — an often stressful, shameful or traumatic experience.
The solution was to create a central intake service — one clear place to find support. At First Point:
- You only need to make one phone call and explain your situation to one of our team members
- We look at your circumstances and ensure each person receives attention and a fair response
Information about who is homeless and what they need is collected by First Point, helping us to better understand homelessness in the ACT and make sure services respond in ways that better meet people’s needs.
