Resources

This Curtin University report details findings on Australia's gender pay gap with recommendations for a balanced representation of genders across industries to decrease the pay gap. This report also provides insights into specific industries and communities with higher gender pay gaps.

The UNODC and UN Women's report provides global estimates of gender-related killings of girls and women in 2021. It aims to improve data and response strategies. The report highlights an increase in femicides in Northern America and parts of Europe, potentially influenced by COVID-19 lockdown measures.

The Brotherhood of St Laurence has published an analysis of youth employment trends in Australia, which uncovers some concerning statistics. Youth underemployment is now the highest it has been since 1978 when the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) first started collecting the data, reaching 18 per cent in early 2017. The report shows that 650,000 young people in total were unemployed or underemployed in February 2017.

This Summer Foundation and People with Disability Australia report provides insights into people with a disability using the NDIS. The report highlights the importance of communication, a timely and efficient system with more expertise among NDIA staff. This report is relevant for services with clients accessing NDIS.

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education is important in developing young people’s skills for the future of work. This report examines the reasons that girls have not pursued study and careers in STEM to the same extent as their male peers and recommends initiatives to encourage girls’ participation in these subjects at school. The report is based on a comprehensive review of the international literature, and consultations with representatives from education, government, and industry.

The Victorian Ombudsman has compiled a good practice guide to help employees effectively manage complaints related to human rights. The Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (the Charter) is an Act of the Victorian Parliament that sets out the rights and freedoms shared by everyone in Victoria and protected by law. This guide outlines important roles and responsibilities under the charter, and explains how organisations can integrate transparent and accessible complaint processes. It also emphasises that an effective human rights culture is not simply about handling complaints, but taking a human rights approach to all work.

These publications from the Department of Health and Human Services share the complexities of work with children, youth and families and some of the innovative practice approaches being used to address them. This is an annual publication shining a spotlight on examples of good practice and the variety of practice approaches available.

This presentation - part of a workshop delivered by Gray Poehnell - shows how we can help disadvantaged young people to craft a better life story through hope-filled engagement. This is an important method for engaging hard to reach young people, and can help them to think about their career options as a part of their broader life story.

This presentation - part of a workshop delivered by Gray Poehnell - shows how we can help disadvantaged young people to think about who they are, and who they feel connected to. This strengths-based approach is part of helping a young person form a hope-filled story about themselves, which allows them to think about what they might want to pursue as a career.

This presentation, part of a workshop delivered by Gray Poehnell, shows how we can help disadvantaged young people to build resilience through helping them feel visible and recognised - ensuring that they feel they 'matter'.

A short guide prepared by co-designers for YFS2020 Sneha Challa and Tadc Williamson-Lee demonstrating inclusive language during presentations and public speaking

The Guide to Support Children in Residential Care during times of Crisis was released in June 2020. The guide has been developed to support young people during times of distress with a consistent approach that recognises their trauma, and aims to minimise their involvement in the justice system. It was developed in partnership between East Division Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Justice and Community Safety, Victoria Police, Residential Out-of-Home Care providers and other members of the young people’s care team.

It is vital to recognise children and young people with disabilities as experts on their own situation, and as capable of contributing to the decision-making processes that affect their lives. This paper offers practical guidance to professionals who work with children with disabilities, including tips for working with children with specific impairments, and case study examples of effective consultation.

This report from the Healing Foundation offers a cultural framework for addressing child sexual abuse in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. It views sexual abuse holistically exploring impacts on children, families and communities as well as exploring processes for healing, wellbeing and safety.

This Monash University research article engages qualitative data from service practitioners to help identify factors that can lead out-of-home care leavers to become parents before age 21. Some key themes included feelings of loss and isolation and poor sex education with implications for service practitioners.

Public Health England (PHE) has updated their Healthy beginnings guidance sheet to include the most up to date research about neurological development, including the impact of stress and anxiety in pregnancy, and the importance of bonding and attachment. It provides snapshots of information about important periods such as pregnancy and the early weeks of life, as well as examples of good practice in service delivery.

The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission has released a report detailing the experience of students with disabilities in Victorian schools. The report assesses the progress made by the Department of Education and Training (DET) on the Commission’s recommendations in its 2012 research report. Though there is evidence of improvements since the 2012 report, disability discrimination is still occurring in schools and students with disabilities continue to face significant barriers to achieving equal educational outcomes. Barriers include lack of funding, lack of specialist support and lack of training for teachers about disability.

This video provides an overview of the online platform Hello Insight, which helps youth development programs evaluate and respond to what young people need through online surveys and real time data analysis. The overview is provided by the founder of the platform, Dr Kim Sabo Flores, who has a long history conducting and championing youth participatory evaluation practice.

This report from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse explores the service needs and help-seeking behaviours of professionals, parents and community members in relation to child sexual abuse. The report evaluates the effectiveness of existing services that respond to the needs of these groups and makes suggestions for improvement. It concludes that there are limited programs and services targeted to these particular groups, and those that do exist are not well coordinated. It also suggests that programs are often unregulated, under-evaluated and that there is a lack of understanding of child sexual-abuse related issues within the community. A whole of community response and a focus on primary prevention would do much to improve our response to child sexual abuse.

This report from Child Trends and the National Center for Children in Poverty includes a review of the prevalence of early childhood trauma in the US and its effects on the child, family and wider society. The report discusses promising strategies for ECEC providers that aim to support children who have experienced trauma, and presents a number of recommendations for policymakers. It highlights the need to develop an integrated, trauma-informed culture for young children.

This National Centre for Children in Poverty (NCCP) paper presents an overview of early childhood trauma, the impact it has on young children and brain development and promising strategies for trauma-informed care in early care and education. Along with high quality programming, strong policy is crucial to meeting the emotional and early learning needs of children who have experienced trauma. The NCCP makes a series of recommendations to better support access to quality, trauma-informed early care and education.

In this video, attendees share their highlights and key takeaways from the 2018 OPEN Symposium.

This fact sheet examines cases of hospitalised assault perpetrated against women in the period 2013–14. Women aged 15-19 and 50-54 years experienced the highest rates of assault. Fifty-nine percent of all these women were assaulted by bodily force. Where information about the perpetrator was available, a spouse or domestic partner was the most commonly reported perpetrator, evident in 59% of cases.

In this journal article, Herrenkohl et al. explain how the vulnerabilities for many children that are exacerbated by COVID-19 reinforce the need for systemic change within statutory child welfare systems and the benefits that would accrue by implementing a continuum of services that combine universal supports with early intervention strategies. This article also focuses on promising approaches consistent with goals for public health prevention and draw out ideas related workforce development and cross-sector collaboration.

This article, published in Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance, explores how leaders in child welfare organisations can best support the implementation of evidence-based approaches to deliver ‘what works’ to improve outcomes for children and families. A systematic review identified 12 articles and finds that leaders achieve this by providing vision, cultivating organisational culture, proactive planning and investment, developing capabilities, and maintaining relationships required to enable implementation.

This summary report explores the ways in which we can improve the academic achievement of low performing schools with relatively disadvantaged students. It considers the particular challenges faced by disadvantaged schools and proposes recommendations such as effective learning practices in the classroom, training and professional development for teachers and provision of quality educational resources. Allocating resources more equitably across schools is a key first step to achieving this goal.

This Australian Council of Social Services report details the findings of a survey of 449 Australians who receive government support payments as their primary income. This report can provide service providers insights into the areas of living that are causing impactful financial stress.

This guide from Emerging Minds is designed to assist practitioners in having conversations with parents regarding the sources of their parenting information and support. It aims to help you and the parent identify what type of support the parent is seeking (their motivation) and the most appropriate sources for this support. Ultimately, it will help you build a parent’s capacity to access the best quality information or support to suit their needs.

McKinsey & Company has published the first of a series of reports tackling some of the big questions in education, including the role of mindsets, teaching practices and technology. The report indicates that student mindsets have a greater impact on student performance than any other factor—and double the effect of socioeconomic background. It also finds that students who receive a mix of teacher-directed and inquiry-based instruction have the best outcomes.

This short resource from AIFS provides guidance and links to additional information to step you through a basic literature review. It is particularly for people working in the community services sector who want to use a literature review to inform the design, delivery or evaluation of a program, service or approach to practice. The resource will also help those unsure of how to go about a literature review. Specifically, this resource outlines the process for conducting a narrative‑style literature review.

Save the Children has written a short article on how to have open and honest discussions with children about what it means to be a refugee or an asylum seeker. It provides facts and figures, video clips and other resources that can be used to start the conversation about refugee and asylum seeker journeys.

HundrED, a Finnish-born project, has selected 100 inspiring innovations that are changing the face of K-12 education across the globe. Over 1000 innovations were researched and interviewed, coming from more than 40 different countries. You can find out more about each innovation on their website, along with step-by-step instructions on how to implement them at your school.

The Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre (MGFVPC) conducted a research project in collaboration with FSV to develop MARAM practice guidance. This report presents findings from in-depth interviews with Victorian children and young people (ages 10-25) who have experienced family violence, providing valuable insights for practitioners working in this field.

This research project seeks to understand the concerns and identify the risk and protective factors for child abuse and neglect during pregnancy. It highlights two clear target groups for child abuse prevention and early intervention efforts in pregnancy: first time parents who have their own histories of abuse or neglect as children; and parents who had at least one child who was known to child protection. These families have the most to gain from early intervention and prevention efforts.

This article in the Journal of Gender-Based Violence outlines the shift in knowledge and practice that is driving new approaches to domestic violence and abuse. As the name implies, whole family approaches aim to engage with all family members living with domestic violence rather than focusing only on women as victims. This article describes findings from an evaluation of a pilot in one town in Northern England over 18 months. The pilot shows how, in a children’s social care setting, where additional resources and organisational support are made available, practice can be shifted away from a blaming approach to one that emphasises the potential for recovery and change for all family members. The article is available free of charge until the end of June.

The New South Wales (NSW) Department of Communities and Justice has released this Evidence to Action Note investigating the impact of maternal age on the likelihood a child will be known to the NSW child protection system. The department used linked child protection and Australian Bureau of Statistics data to conduct the analysis. It found that young maternal age is a risk factor for child protection, with these families more likely than average to be in contact with the system until the maternal age of 27.

The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has released its follow-on report on the implementation and performance of the Cashless Debit Card (CDC) Trial. There were many findings found through the audit and two recommendations were also made.

This action plan from the National Implementation and Research Institute provides a handy way to identify the next steps in implementing your program.

This toolkit contains practical insight, strategies and resources for the planning phase of implementation. It couples theory and research findings with practical strategies and real-life experiences from the field that may be relevant to your organization.

This toolkit by the Ontario Centre for Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health provides a comprehensive framework and tools to kick start the implementation process.

Education charity Teach First has found that children and young people in the poorest geographical areas in the UK have only a one-in-five chance of progressing to university. In contrast, half the young people born in the wealthiest areas go on to higher education. Disadvantaged young people are also almost twice as likely to drop out of university as their wealthier peers. Teach First proposes a series of recommendations to encourage more young people to access university. The recommendations focus on better targeting of support towards young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to enable them to access and remain in higher education if they choose.

This short article focuses on the need for better data collection to inform how to best support children and young people in out-of-home care (OOHC) at risk of offending. Research has clearly identified the link between living in OOHC and involvement in the criminal justice system. However, more work is needed to have an in-depth understanding of this cohort’s background, demographics, experiences and outcomes, and the different ways that vulnerable children become offenders.

This report shares insights from the Brotherhood of St Laurence's trial to support young people with disabilities in mainstream employment pathways. The trial used a place-based approach and Advantaged Thinking, emphasising participants' aspirations and abilities. It highlights program challenges, positive outcomes, and areas for improvement, offering valuable lessons for practitioners.

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.

Commissioned by Catholic Education South Australia, this review informs the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Strategy for Catholic schools in the region. Key themes explored include enhancing cultural responsiveness, valuing Indigenous educators, embracing diversity among Indigenous learners, and decolonizing the curriculum.

The Smith Family has released this evaluation of The Catch-Up Learning pilot program, a 20-week online tutoring program delivered one-on-one by qualified teachers for financially disadvantaged students struggling with literacy and numeracy. The evaluation assessed the program’s impact on student engagement and the extent to which literacy and numeracy improved. It found that 86 per cent of students showed above expected progress in either literacy or numeracy, and the program strengthened students’ love of learning. Four small modifications were identified that could strengthen the program and student outcomes moving forward.

This Productivity Commission report reviews the progress of the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement in each state and territory. The report details its findings and offers suggestions to ensure the future stability of the Agreement.

This report from the Australian Institute for Family Studies evaluates the In-Home Care program, which aimed to support early childhood education and care for specific cohorts. It finds that while the program reached its target groups, a shortage of qualified educators hindered its ability to meet demand, posing financial viability concerns. These findings highlight the need for addressing educator shortages to ensure the program's effectiveness and sustainability.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has released this report presenting data on the prevalence of income support receipt among young people transitioning from care. The study found that time in out-of-home care is associated with higher levels of income support receipt, with care leavers in young adulthood three times as likely as their peers who have not been in care to receive income support.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has released this report presenting data on the prevalence of income support receipt among young people transitioning from care. The study found that time in out-of-home care is associated with higher levels of income support receipt, with care leavers in young adulthood three times as likely as their peers who have not been in care to receive income support.