The Silent Crisis Facing WA Children This Christmas

Across Australia, December marks a familiar rhythm, a final sprint to year-end targets, calendars full of client lunches, offices winding down as families prepare for the Christmas holidays. It is a season of reward after a year of hard work and one that, for many, symbolises prosperity and connection.

But while Western Australians exchange gifts and gather around Christmas tables, thousands of children across the state brace for the most volatile period of their year.

Family and domestic violence does not pause for the holidays. It escalates.
WA Police were called to 42,325 family and domestic violence incidents in the 2024 calendar year. The most dangerous place for a child at Christmas is too often their own home.

The combination of financial pressure and heightened emotions means December consistently brings a surge in violence behind closed doors. It is confronting to acknowledge which is why we often don’t. Yet leadership, whether corporate or social, starts with looking directly at the realities most choose not to see.

This year, Anglicare WA’s Christmas Appeal is asking Western Australians to widen their definition of success and consider the children for whom Christmas is not a celebration, but a threat.

Young Hearts is a unique counselling model in the state. It was designed specifically for children recovering from trauma , not retrofitted from adult services. The program places a child’s emotional healing and development at the core. Within its counselling rooms, warmth and safety are intentional,  spaces where children can speak freely, play without fear and gradually rediscover who they are beyond the violence they’ve lived with. Counsellors listen without judgement and guide children to rebuild confidence, stability and hope, one session at a time.

The scale of need is sobering. In 2024, more than 400 children accessed the program and over 2,000 counselling sessions were delivered across Rockingham, Mandurah, Gosnells and Albany. In one location alone, 20 children are currently waiting for support, and other waitlists across WA have already been forced to close because they have become too long. A waitlist is not a number, it is a childhood paused. Young Hearts has been able to support these children because organisations stepped forward when others didn’t. Partners such as Telethon, the Alcoa Foundation and Austal have been pivotal in ensuring the program has remained accessible and free. Their multi-year support represents corporate citizenship at its most effective: investment targeted to proven outcomes, delivered through a program that prevents intergenerational harm.

The 2025 Christmas Appeal seeks to raise $150,000 , enough to fund the Young Hearts program in Gosnells for another twelve months. Gosnells remains one of the highest-need areas in Western Australia. Meeting the appeal target means every child who reaches out receives support.

For business leaders, this moment is not about charity for charity’s sake. It is about strategic impact and an investment in the psychological wellbeing, safety and long-term prospects of the next generation of Western Australians. The evidence is clear, children who recover from trauma early are significantly less likely to become trapped in cycles of violence, unemployment, mental illness, substance dependence or homelessness later in life. Early intervention works, and it changes futures.

Contributions to the Christmas Appeal translate directly into hours of safety and healing for a child , one session at a time. The return is not measured in dollars, but in outcomes: children who sleep through the night, play without fear, re-engage at school and finally begin to believe their future can look different from their past.

This is a moment for Western Australia’s business community to lead not through sponsorship logos or performative generosity, but through decisions that meaningfully strengthen the fabric of the state we work in and profit from.

The Christmas season will come and go but the impact of generosity or its absence will be felt for decades.