Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency

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Delivery of Culturally Responsive Early
Intervention and Family Support Programs to
Aboriginal Children and Families
Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency
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Our context of risk - colonised Australia

• Colonisation is an ongoing reality.
• Indigenous peoples
• - subject to the imposed laws and economic and
  political systems begun by the Captain Cooks
  implanting of British sovereignty in 1770 without
  consent or treaty.
• - subject to a legal, political and economic
  system which ignores culture and enables racism
  

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Why We Do The Work We Do

• The challenge for VACCA today is to turn around
  the following statistics
• Aboriginal children and young people make up 8.3
  of the total number of current clients in the
  child protection system.
• The under 18 year old Aboriginal population is
  10.5 times more likely to be involved in the
  child protection system.
• 5.7 of the under 18 year old population
  recording as Aboriginal is involved in the child
  protection system in comparison to 0.5 of the
  non-Aboriginal population.
• Aboriginal children are 6 times more likely to be
  removed from their family by Child Protection.

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Resilience

• The ability to reframe negative events by
  searching for a perspective that is
  simultaneously truthful and favourable helps
  people maintain a realistically optimistic
  perspective (Ashford, Kreiner and Schneider)

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Culture Abuse

• When the culture of a people is ignored,
  denigrated, or attacked it affects
• the very identity and soul of people
• their sense of self-esteem,
• their connectedness to their family and
  community.
• It is estimated that tens of thousands of
  Indigenous children were removed from their
  families and raised in institutions or
  fostered-out to non-indigenous parents.
• Cultural abuse remains to this day. Child
  protection intervention in the lives of
  Indigenous community remains disproportionate in
  Australia.

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Rights and Cultural Respect

• Enabling self-determination for Aboriginal
  communities.
• Respect for Aboriginal cultures and embedding
  culture into all aspects of service delivery
  both in organisational structure and practice.
• Positive and mutually respectful engagement
  between Aboriginal agencies and services and
  mainstream services
• Holistic and strengths based approach

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Speaking Up Self-determination

• self-determining peoples not client communities
  (i.e. as passive recipients of welfare)
• overseas experience indicates that
  self-determination and embedding culture in
  Indigenous child and family welfare programs and
  services lead to better outcomes.
• giving communities more control over the future
  of their children and creating services which are
  culturally competent and use culture as treatment
  is not only just it is also effective.

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Rights based approach

• Victorian Children, Youth and Families Act is
  premised on principles of self-determination and
  capacity building for Aboriginal and Islander
  communities.
• To have voice strengthens resilience by
• encouraging self reliance
• empowering the disempowered.

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Embedding Culture as Resilience

• Culture is central to identity. Culture defines
  who we are, how we think, how we communicate,
  what we value and what is important to us. We
  now know that fostering cultural identity is in
  the best interests of the child.

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Culturally Embedded professional practice

• Holistic healing approach
• Narrative rather than diagnostic assessment and
  planning approach
• Culture as treatment
• Family strengthening
• Culture as resilience creating a culturally
  imbued framework for families
• Empowerment model participant families become
  active participants in treatment rather than
  passive recipients

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A FAMILYS JOURNEY THROUGH VACCA FAMILY SUPPORT

• A Family can refer or be referred in at many
  points in the continuum from playgroup,
  community based intake to Family Restorations
  program
• All families apart from playgroup families
  undergo an Assessment process during which a
  service plan is developed and recommended
• The service plan may recommend that the family
  requires and is eligible for one or more of our
  programs.
• The family is allocated a worker from the program
  which is assessed as being the service option
  that is central to achieving positive change for
  the family.

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Dhum Djirri Aboriginal Family Decision Making
(AFDM)

• Family Decisions making is a culturally respected
  meeting involving the child or young person,
  significant others of the child or young persons
  community, Elders, and Community organisation
  staff. The decisions to be made by families in
  regard to protecting a child at risk of harm.
• The Aboriginal Family Decision Making
• empowers families and communities to have control
  over addressing their own issues and allows for
  realistic change.
• working together allows for the effects of change
  to be implemented in ways which are of benefit to
  all involved and
• enables the maintenance of an Aboriginal
  child/young persons link to community,
  encouraging stronger families and communities.

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Playgroups

• Provide activities which promote healthy
  development and enrich the lives of Koorie
  children.
• Strengthen identity and cultural awareness.
• Strengthen families by
• connecting them to Community
• Strengthening inter-generational links.
• Providing parenting advice and support and
• Link children and families to universal services
  where required.

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Child FIRST and Aboriginal Families

• The Impact of community based intake has the
  potential of being a beneficial system for
  providing support to vulnerable Aboriginal
  families at an earlier point of intervention
• It has an equal potential to be of greater
  disadvantage by moving vulnerable Aboriginal
  families through to the Child protection system
  as a result of failure to engage at Intake.

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Impact of Child FIRST

• THE IMPACT OF CHILD FIRST ON ABORIGINAL FAMILIES
  WILL BE LARGELY DEPENDENT UPON THE WAY THE CHILD
  FIRST INTAKE SYSTEM ENGAGES AND OFFERS A
  CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE SERVICE TO THOSE FAMILIES.

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Culturally Responsive Intake

• Child FIRST intake - Provide a response to
  Aboriginal families that is culturally sensitive
  and competent.
• Attempt to reduce the anxiety that an Aboriginal
  family may feel in being contacted by a
  Mainstream worker about concerns regarding their
  children
• Non-Aboriginal workers are supported in making
  assessments and plans that are culturally
  responsive
• Guidelines in the Strategic Framework for Family
  Services

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Culturally Responsive Intake

• Cultural identity needs to be ascertained at the
  beginning of the intake process
• Consultation must occur with an Aboriginal
  Liaison worker
• Families are given assurance that Child FIRST
  response will be culturally sensitive and
  competent
• From the beginning, the Aboriginal families are
  informed of the role of the Aboriginal Liaison
  worker.
• Family is immediately aware that their culture
  acknowledged and valued.
• Consultation can be identified or de-identified

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Integrated Family ServicesThe Aboriginal Liaison
Worker

• For Aboriginal families referred to community
  based intake we want to make sure that the
  response is culturally sensitive and competent.
• We want to try and reduce the anxiety that an
  Aboriginal family may feel in being contacted by
  a Mainstream worker about concerns regarding
  their children and also make sure that
  non-Aboriginal workers are supported in making
  assessments and plans that are culturally
  responsive.

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The Aboriginal Liaison Worker

• The role includes
• Exploring appropriateness of the referral
• Providing advice and information
• Support to non Aboriginal workers working with
  Aboriginal families for eg ways of working with
  Aboriginal families
• Assisting in assessing risk and strengths
• Identifying cultural issues- cultural safety
  connection to community
• Exploring support services/programs for families

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Aboriginal Liaison Worker

• The role includes
• Exploring support services for families
• Outreach to engage clients joint home visits
• Tasks associated with holding
• Information gathering
• Community education
• Attending Intake Allocations meetings
• Attending Team meetings
• Intake and assessment- referrals directly to
  VACCA

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Koorie FACES

• The program
• builds confidence in parents and families of
  Aboriginal children,
• focuses on the value and importance of Aboriginal
  culture and Indigenous families,
• uses a range of activities to ensure participants
  are involved in a fun and interactive learning
  environment,
• applies Aboriginal leaning styles and includes
  group discussions, story telling particularly
  by Elders, roles plays, fun group activities
  which are highly visual and interactive and time
  to reflect on learning

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The sessions

• Understanding our past
• Being a strong Koorie
• Being a strong Koorie family
• Connecting with your young fellas
• Managing your young fellas
• A celebration

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Conclusion

• Disconnection is a critical risk factor that
  mitigates against resilience.
• Therefore we need to develop strategies which
• re-connect the child with the family and the
  extended family,
• re-connect the child with social networks of care
  and
• re-connect the child with their culture.
• Our children live in a hybrid world which is both
  Indigenous and post-invasion Australian.
• We need to tell our Indigenous kids that they are
  valued and loved and that their culture is valued
  and respected.
• Culture can provide that sense of belonging and
  through that belonging, resilience.