The Pathways to Prevention Project in Brisbane has been operating since 2002 in a disadvantaged urban area of Queensland. However, planning began as far back as 1999, following the publication of the well-known Federal Government report Pathways to Prevention, written by Professor Ross Homel and colleagues. As the name suggests, the Pathways to Prevention Project is based on the thinking in this report. The Pathways Project in Brisbane is the product of a partnership between Mission Australia and Griffith University, supported by funding from corporate and philanthropic sponsors, the Queensland Government, and the Australian Research Council. This partnership works because it has, in turn, allowed the development of extensive partnerships at the local level: partnerships with schools and preschools, partnerships with other helping agencies, and partnerships with local families and community groups, including the major ethnic communities and the indigenous community. This document provides a brief overview of the project, and presents reasons why its approach to enhancing the wellbeing and life chances of children, young people and their families should be emulated in other disadvantaged communities throughout Australia. The document begins with a brief account of social trends in Australia, highlighting the need for enhanced approaches to meeting the needs of the most vulnerable groups in our society. This is followed by a summary of the developmental approach to the prevention of social problems, explaining why it has such relevance to the needs of Australian children and their families at this time. The remainder of this document outlines the programs and operations of the Brisbane project, and summarises the main results to date. Not only have outcomes been measurably improved for children and their parents, preliminary economic and mathematical modelling indicates that these outcomes will deliver considerable savings to the government and the community in both the short and long term. A concluding section argues that the Pathways approach is urgently needed in disadvantaged communities throughout Australia.