From journal articles to Quick Guides and webinars, you will find tools and information to support.
Child Family Community Australia (CFCA) has released this scoping review of local and international evidence examining the factors that influence placement moves for children in out-of-home care. Factors found to increase the risk of a placement move include the age at which a child first enters care and the presence of externalising behaviour. CFCA found kinship care to be a factor that reduces the risk of placement moves. The paper identifies a lack of evidence on factors influencing placement moves relating specifically to Aboriginal children.
The Commission for Children and Young People (CCYP) has released its report examining the lived experience of Aboriginal young people who have had contact with Victoria’s youth justice system and the factors that contribute to their overrepresentation. CCYP found that the continuing legacy of colonisation, the stolen generation and structural and institutional racism play a significant role in the over-representation of Aboriginal young people in the youth justice system. The report makes 75 recommendations.
This research project identifies priorities for reducing and preventing violence against, and improving services for, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in the Victorian and New South Wales towns of Mildura and Albury–Wodonga. It examines the capabilities of frontline family violence services, both Aboriginal-controlled and non-Indigenous, with regard to improving the safety of women and children experiencing violence. The cross-border context of these locations enabled investigation of cross-jurisdictional issues.
This promising practice guide from Orygen draws on an emerging, yet disparate, evidence-base about promising practices aimed at improving the social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people. It aims to support service providers, commissioners, and policy-makers to adopt strengths-based, equitable and culturally responsive approaches that better meet the needs of this high-risk population.
This research tool, prepared by staff at the ACU Institute of Child Protection Studies (ICPS) is designed for people who may be interested in funding or conducting research with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children on the topic of family violence. Its guidance is informed by the views of Indigenous researchers, research ethics committee members, Elders and senior community members, service providers, parents and young people from remote, rural, regional and urban Australia.
This new toolkit from SNAICC gives fantastic guidance on designing and measuring for outcomes in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child and family services. It compiles an insightful list of 21 key outcomes for this sector, drawn from the 8 key principles of The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child and Family Services Wellbeing Framework. It also features a detailed, yet accessible, step-by-step guide to help you develop a theory of change to support and measure for outcomes. This toolkit centres on evaluation work in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child and family services, but its clear and concise explanation of how to use outcomes, an outcomes framework, and a theory of change will be relevant and useful to many workers across the wider child and family services sector.
In this presentation, Gabrielle Johnson (VACCA) and Prof. Margaret Kelaher (University of Melbourne) discuss their development of an Aboriginal-led, Aboriginal health, wellbeing and safety evaluation framework on behalf of the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). The framework foregrounds Aboriginal-defined measures of success for family violence, health, wellbeing and child safety – which align strongly with the principle of self-determination. The inclusion of Aboriginal voices in the development this framework means that the priorities of Aboriginal people will be addressed in forthcoming evaluations.
Kathy Crouch (MDAS), Nicola Thomson (DHHS) and Jessica Hateley-Browne (CEI) discuss the recent trial of the Common Elements Approach in the Mallee District Aboriginal Services, one of the five trial sites. Presenting wisdom from the frontline, experiences of collaboration, shared learning and joint problem solving from the two participating teams at MDAS reveals how co-design practice is an encouraging learning consideration for community services.
In this presentation, Melanie Ashman and Kerry Brogan from the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency (VACCA) spoke about the development and implementation of a culturally appropriate Evaluation Framework. VACCA’s process is Aboriginal led and privileges the voices of Aboriginal practitioners and clients. Their Evaluation Framework foregrounds culturally specific outcomes to ensure that evaluations measure what is most important to the Aboriginal Community to build an evidence base of effective programs and practices.
