Resources

OPEN organised this Knowledge Building workshop where Dr. Penny Hagen from the Auckland Co-design Lab shared approaches that are participatory, gentle and respectful in order to bring less privileged perspectives to the surface in complex conversations.

OPEN organised this Knowledge Building Workshop led by Dr. Penny Hagen, from Auckland Co-design Lab and Angie Tangaere, The Southern Initiative, where they talked about privilege and power. Their approach encourages us to flip where the expertise lies and be social innovation agents who need to be ‘in service’ of the change that the families want.

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'.

This free online international conference features live and pre-recorded sessions from various countries, including the USA, Australia, Israel, South Africa, Ghana, Italy, and Wales. The conference focuses on sharing current research on supporting care leavers' transition to parenthood. Presentations cover topics such as housing needs among care-experienced young parents, the implications of routine practices for pregnant and parenting teens in alternative care, and early pregnancy and parenting experiences of young women who have left care in Ghana and Uganda.

Coffee Talk Session on the Evidence Based Decision Making for Human Services Leaders course Eric Barends, Center for Evidence Based Management at Carnegie Mellon University presentation on the Evidence-based Decision Making for Human Service Leaders’ course. The course is hosted by the Outcomes, Practice and Evidence Network (OPEN) and is co-facilitated by Eric Barends, the Center for Evidence Based Management at Carnegie Mellon University and Dr Lisa . Griffiths, CEO, OzChild.

In this video, keynote speaker Deborah Rubien shares her reflections on implementing evidence-based practices in the New York City's child protection and out-of-home care sectors.

In his keynote address, Chris Vanstone from the the Australian Centre for Social Innovation shares his experiences of collecting and evaluating evidence, to create better outcomes.

In this presentation, MaryAnn Notarianni outlines the journey of the Ontario Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health (the Centre) in supporting the child and youth mental health sector to mobilise knowledge and improve quality to meet child and youth mental health needs across the province.

In this OPEN Forum, Mary Ann Notarianni discussed how the Ontario Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health have developed their thorough 'Quality Standards' for engaging with both young people and with families.

In this presentation, Renee O'Donnell (Monash University) and Andrea Dunbar (MacKillop Family Services) discussed their evaluation of the Cradle to Kinder program in three locations across Victoria. Cradle to Kinder is an intensive maternal support program for disadvantaged young mothers (under 25 years), designed to support positive parenting and improve child safety and developmental outcomes in families where there is an elevated risk of child removal.

Paula Anderson (Baptcare) and Margaret Kertesz (University of Melbourne) discuss the development of the +SHIFT group work program for women using force against their intimate partners and children – a challenging issue given the complex trauma histories of these women. The program uses a “healing place” approach to support women to reflect on how violence has influenced their parenting strategies and the wellbeing of their children. Formative data indicates that participants recognise how use of force has negatively impacted their parenting, mother/child relationships and family functioning.

Isla Swanston and Robyn Buchanan present on Victoria Legal Aid’s innovative new Independent Family Advocacy and Support (IFAS) service, a three-year pilot operating in Bendigo and Moreland/Darebin that provides non-legal advocacy and support to parents and/or primary carers in the early stages of child protection involvement. This pilot aims to build the evidence base for the value of representational advocacy in improving outcomes for families, and diverting them from statutory child protection.

In this keynote address, Eileen Munro (Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics) discusses the challenges of translating research evidence from one system to another - with particular reference to her work in reviewing child protection practices in English local authorities.

Heidi Tucker (Anchor Inc.), Meg Beilken (Brighter Futures) and Dylan Langley (Brighter Futures Youth Ambassador Group) discuss the Brighter Futures Transformation Pilot: Learning for Life through Community Connection. The pilot utilised co-design and collective impact to create an enabling environment for innovation and systems change. The presenters discuss the importance of youth participation and collaborative efforts to improve outcomes for young people in out-of-home care.

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.

Jonathan Finch, Anthony Denahy and Emma Stirling (OzChild) discuss the development of CaringLife: an online platform and app that provides a private, safe and secure system for agencies, carers and children to upload photos, videos and important mementos during a child’s time in out-of-home care that are stored securely in perpetuity and can follow them throughout their care journey. The Pilot Program has demonstrated high levels of engagement and has been evaluated as having significant therapeutic and identity benefits.

In this presentation, Jade Purtell (Monash University) and Ralph Salera (Salvation Army) discussed their evaluation of the Westcare Continuing Care program. The evaluation focused on the effectiveness of support provided to young people leaving care, and to their foster or residential carers. The evaluation was also supported by youth participation, as The Youth Advocates Group (TYAG) provided feedback on service improvements.

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.

Simon Green and Haley Zilberberg (Youth Disability Advocacy Service) discuss their development of their Emerging Young Leaders Program for young people aged 14 to 20 who identified as having disability. With the NDIS changing how people with disability engage with society, accessible and inclusive practice is key to ensuring organisations can deliver safely and effectively. Feedback from participants, and their teachers and parents confirms that this program has created positive opportunities for people with disabilities to develop themselves.

In this presentation, Casey Hepburn and Jenny Fairbairn from the Queen Elizabeth Centre (QEC) discussed their design and implementation of a new Client Engagement Framework. The new Framework focuses on using social media to engage clients and involved three components: QEC Video Stories, a Client Online Panel and a Client Advisory Group.

In this presentation, Anneliese Spiteri-Staines (University of Melbourne) and Patrizia Favorito (Women's Health West) discussed the development and evaluation of the Keeping Safe Together program, which focuses on families effected by domestic and family violence that are still living together or in regular contact. In this pilot program, everyone in the family is eligible for a service and is supported: mother, father, and the children.

A panel event discussing the key ingredients to successful youth participation practice. Hosted by Sam Champion (Youth Affairs Council of Victoria), and featuring: Siobhán McCann (Commission for Children and Young People), Cathy Carnovale (Create Foundation), Lauren Oliver (Berry Street), Brittany Witnish (Youth Advisor, Master of Social Work and lived experience consultant), Jade Purtell (Researcher and Youth Participation Consultant) & Jenna Bolinger (Researcher)

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.

Lucy Healey (University of Melbourne) and Rosie Carr (Uniting ReGen) discuss The STACY Project, which focuses on improving collaborative working with families living with family violence, where children’s wellbeing is impacted by intersecting parental issues of mental health and substance misuse. It utilises the Safe & Together™ Model to work with all family members, including child and adult victim/survivors and perpetrators. This project revealed the challenge of keeping the focus of care on both the children’s needs and on the family violence occurring.

In this presentation, Casey Howden (Kids First) explores how to bring children to the centre of our work. By using a strengths-based, child-centred approach, children can tell us who they are – and how we can partner with them to achieve positive outcomes. So, who is Casey Jones? Casey Jones is the name of a child’s favourite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, and the bridge that enabled practitioners to join with this child and his mother. Casey Jones sparked a positive transition by shifting the focus from what might fail, to what might work.

This keynote by Tom McBride was given at an event co-hosted by CFECFW and Berry Street. It discusses the formation of the Early Intervention Foundation in the UK, and gives an overview of their purpose, evidence standards and how they approach early intervention work across a range of areas.

In this webinar Sarah Bendall (DFFH) gave an overview of the Client voice framework for community services and how it helps to ensure the quality and safety of community services for everybody, every time. This webinar also included a panel of representatives from across community services who are passionate about client voice and will share some practical examples and ideas about how to engage clients well.

These webinar slides, developed by Kerry Graham for ARACY, outline the theory and practice of system change - including why it is needed and where are the best points to intervene. While this webinar was held in preparation for the 2020 National Early Years summit, the slides will provide a useful introduction to the key concepts of systems change (incorporating some great explanatory images) for a wider audience in child and family services. 

In this seminar, Professor John Lynch and Dr Rhiannon Pilkington from the University of Adelaide discuss recent large-scale data projects in South Australia and Victoria that have informed child protection policy and practice. Professor Lynch explains how big data and epidemiology can be used to inform government, non-government and community organisations to answer important policy questions.