Grandcarers SA Support Services for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren
Who Grandcarers SA Actually Is
Grandcarers SA — formally Grandparents for Grandchildren SA Inc — is the only organisation in South Australia built specifically around grandparents and other relatives raising someone else's child. They operate from 30 Pitt Street in Adelaide and run outreach across regional SA, including Mount Gambier and Port Augusta.
They are not a government department and they cannot pay you an ongoing allowance. What they can do is connect you with people who understand exactly what you are going through — and hand you practical help when the system is not moving fast enough.
Village Groups
The centrepiece of Grandcarers SA's work is the Village program: peer support groups where grandparent carers meet regularly, usually monthly, in community venues across Adelaide and some regional centres. Villages are not therapy sessions. They are rooms full of people who have already navigated the exact Centrelink call you are dreading, or who know which school principal in your area handles kinship enrolment without drama.
New carers often say that the first Village meeting was the moment they stopped feeling completely alone. The groups are free to attend, and Grandcarers SA coordinates them with volunteer facilitators who are often grandparent carers themselves.
Education Fund Grants
Grandcarers SA runs a small Education and Development Fund that provides one-off grants to help cover costs like school uniforms, textbooks, sports equipment and extracurricular fees. The fund is discretionary, meaning grants depend on available donations and are assessed case by case through their intake coordinators.
These grants will not replace School Card or Family Tax Benefit — they are emergency-level support when you need shoes before the term starts and the Centrelink payment has not come through yet.
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Emergency and Practical Help
Beyond the Village groups and the education fund, Grandcarers SA provides direct practical assistance: emergency clothing, bedding and household essentials when a child arrives with nothing. They also offer system navigation support, helping carers understand which department does what and which phone number to call first.
Their intake workers can point you toward the Grandparent, Foster and Kinship Carer Adviser Line at Centrelink (1800 245 965), help you prepare your proof-of-care documents, and connect you with the Legal Services Commission Helpline (1300 366 424) if your situation involves a legal question.
How to Contact Grandcarers SA
Phone: 08 8212 1937 (Monday to Thursday, 9:30 am to 4:00 pm). Their office is at 30 Pitt Street, Adelaide SA 5000. They serve both metropolitan Adelaide and regional South Australia, though regional access is mostly by phone and outreach rather than walk-in.
If you are in immediate crisis — a child has just arrived and you have nothing — call them directly. They have seen it before and they will not judge.
What Grandcarers SA Cannot Do
They cannot provide legal advice, represent you in court, or pay you a regular income. They cannot replace the Department for Child Protection caseworker you will not get as an informal carer. And they serve over 1,300 families with limited staff, so wait times for individual support can stretch during busy periods.
For the payments, paperwork and step-by-step process of claiming everything your grandchild is entitled to in South Australia, our complete SA kinship carer guide walks you through each agency, each form and each deadline — from Centrelink FTB claims to School Card applications to medical consent under the SA Consent Act.
Making the Most of Their Services
Before you call Grandcarers SA, gather what you can: the child's date of birth, any documents you have (even a school report or Medicare card), and a rough timeline of when the child came into your care. The more organised you are when you make contact, the faster they can help you.
And if you have already been through the system and come out the other side, consider attending a Village group. The person sitting next to you at the next meeting might be exactly where you were six months ago.
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