From journal articles to Quick Guides and webinars, you will find tools and information to support.
This short article from Emerging Minds offers advice for practitioners on how to support families and children while they are on the waiting list for specialist assessment or care for mental health issues. This piece was inspired by research into barriers and facilitators to early childhood mental health pathways in the Barwon region in southwest Victoria. One of the barriers identified was long wait times for appointments, and the following practices were suggested by professionals interviewed for this research.
This case study sheds light on a early years program which takes a culturally responsive approach to work with families from refugee and migrant backgrounds. It focuses on building connections and providing confidence to parents to support their children.
This report from The Parenthood uses modelling by Equity Economics to recommend increased investment in universal childcare, parental leave, family-friendly workplaces and early education programs in order to improve lifelong outcomes for all Australian children and their families. The linked webpage features the full report, as well as a summary, factsheet and video recording of the report launch.
The Victorian Government has several frameworks that support organisations in their consideration and implementation of a client participation process. This document, published by CFECFW, explains how these government frameworks support organisations in embedding the client voice in practice, as well the opportunities and challenges in these frameworks for participatory processes.
This piece provides an executive summary of a longer literature review on parent engagement and participation approaches conducted by CFECFW in partnership with the University of Melbourne. The findings of this review contribute to the work of the Voice of Parents, a two-year project led by the Centre, supported by Gandel Philanthropy and Equity Trustees. The Voice of Parents continues the Centre’s commitment to promoting client voice and learning from those with lived experience to achieve better outcomes for children and support parents in their critical role in their child’s life.
This literature review published by the Voice of Parents project in partnership with the University of Melbourne aims to identify key strategies for effective parent participation whilst understanding the barriers that impact, and in effect, compromise meaningful engagement with services. The report includes a review of national and international models where the voice and experience of parents has been intentionally sought in service design and development with a dedicated focus on those that have been successful in engaging parents (specially within overrepresented cohorts), leading to improved outcomes for children, young people and their families.
This resource highlights the key findings, recommendations and takeaways from this July 2020 report by the Brotherhood of St. Laurence. The report explores the inadequacies of existing service provisions for children and young people aged 10-16 years who do not qualify for statutory removal but who cannot remain at home due to family conflict.
The AIFS Life during COVID-19 survey ran from May 1 to June 9 2020 and had 7,306 participants from around Australia. It was the first survey in the Families in Australia Survey series. The aim was to understand how Australian families coped with the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the greatest health, social and economic challenges in history. The findings in this report are drawn from our first analyses of the survey data. Later reports will add to, and expand on, these findings.
This impact report from CFECFW is based on a review of data gathered by the CFECFW during the period March-June 2020, sometimes called the ‘first wave’ of the coronavirus in Victoria. During the four months covered by this report, CSOs across Victoria demonstrated their ability to respond quickly to the unprecedented challenges facing their clients and workers by implementing creative solutions and workarounds in the face of restrictions on face to face engagement. This report also highlights the challenges experienced by families and workers, the ‘pragmatic problem-solving’ of our CSOs as they transformed their service delivery models, and the lessons learned.
