Community Connectors

Walking alongside Logan families to connect them with the right support, at the right time.

What Are Community Connectors?

Community Connectors are trusted local community members who guide families, build bridges and smooth transitions between community and services, making navigating complex systems easier. Community Connectors:

build relationships with families, understand their situation, share information and connect families with the right support
build bridges and smooth out transitions between systems and ‘hardly heard’ community members, moving beyond systems navigation
identify needs, offer social prescriptions, and provide wraparound health and wellbeing supports within the culturally safe environment of Community Hubs.

Logan’s Connectors sit outside systems such as the health or education system. Their lived experience helps them focus on the priorities of the families they work with, while supporting them to engage with those systems. In 2025, Logan Together established the Network for Connectors to create shared learning, peer relationships, practice development and to harness their experience for systems change advocacy.

The impact of Community Connectors in Logan

Community Connectors are now seen as an essential part of community-based teams, making it easier for families to find their way and feel supported.

In Logan, we have learned that service investment alone is not enough. Families also need trusted people who can help them understand, access and stay connected to the right support. Connectors do more than increase service uptake. They support early intervention and sustained engagement, helping improve outcomes for families and reducing the likelihood of higher-cost interventions over time.

An evaluation of the Community Connector role (commissioned by Communities for Children, Logan) found:

Families gain a better understanding of child development and the child healthcare system
Connectors help reduce family anxiety
Connectors strengthen the sector by sharing knowledge about service gaps and issues

Due to the connector work in Maternal and Child Health Hubs, there has been a 48% decrease in the number of birth parents receiving nil or inadequate care since 2021.

Why Community Connectors matter

The system of social supports in Australia is complex, siloed and designed by governments and institutions that often fail to adequately consider and resource equitable access to services.

Families in Logan need people who understand their lived experience and can walk beside them, translating and facilitating.

Families told us systems were confusing and difficult to navigate, and that some families were falling through the cracks as they didn’t know about services, so the roles were shaped through co-design to meet real family needs in Logan. Connectors provide support that is tailored to the needs of the family considers the breadth of their wellbeing needs and joined up across various service systems. They often share cultural understanding with the families they help, which builds trust and rapport.

Connectors are often part of local community hubs, offering support in safe and welcoming spaces where families already feel comfortable. Being in familiar, accessible locations helps families engage confidently and get the help they need.

Each family is supported by a single Connector throughout their journey, ensuring consistent guidance, trust, and connection over time.

Community Connectors do more than connect families with services. They build and strengthen the relationships that help the whole early years system work better – connecting families with services, services with one another, communities with government, knowledge with practice, and culture with mainstream systems.

Through these relationships, Connectors are becoming an important part of Logan’s social infrastructure. They help information, trust and support move more effectively across community and service systems, creating a more connected, responsive and culturally informed network around children and families.

Support can range from short, casual conversations to long-term, intensive guidance, helping families build understanding, confidence, and connection to the right services.

The Universal Elements of Community Connectors in Logan

Strong Local Knowledge

Advocacy Capabilities

Confidence to work in the ‘grey zone’

Two-way Learning

Relationships First Approach

Rich Social and Cultural Capital

Deep connections to community

Deep Pastoral Orientation: ‘going beyond’

Problem solving skills at a systems level

Focus on families and children’s needs

Capacity to build agency

Providing unconditional positive regard

Adaptability

Translation between systems and families

Logan Together’s vision for the future of Community Connectors

At Logan Together, we are creating a permanent, formalised and visible Community Connector workforce for the future. Our partners have come together to co-design a fully integrated approach. This model will both strengthen and support the Community Connectors in their critical work and will enable systems advocacy underpinned by the evidence for change.

This involves:

Building an enabling ecosystem that includes secure employment, professional and cultural supervision, sustainable workloads, and continuous professional learning.
Establishing qualitative and quantitative processes for capturing data on the impact of Connectors.
Pursuing opportunities for investment into the System of Connectors in Logan.

By strengthening this workforce, Logan Together can demonstrate a model of equity that honours children’s rights, supports families and offers a framework that can be shared across Australia.