What We Do / Our Initiatives
Thriving Kids Integrated Service Systems Collaborative
Purpose
To support adoption, innovation, and scaling of integrated and developmental service systems.
Partners
This initiative is facilitated by Thriving Queensland Kids Partnership with leaders and practitioners from Government, not-for-profits, and universities. This initiative is collaborating with The Bryan Foundation, Department of Education, the National Child and Family Hubs Network, Supporting Advocacy for Youth Collaborative and many others.
Imagine a welcoming 'front door' for services...
Our children thrive when we have access to the right supports and services, at the right time.
However, most of us have experienced how time-consuming, expensive, confusing and exhausting it can be to navigate disjointed services, especially for multiple family members.
Child and Family Hubs are designed to be like a ‘one-stop-shop’ or ‘front door’ for families – a welcoming place that brings together supports across health, education and social care, and even provides a safe space to build social connections.
There are approximately 300 Hubs across Queensland including in early years services, primary schools, community/non-government organisations, Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations, primary health care, and virtual/digital settings.
Thriving Queensland Kids Partnership aims to grow Child and Family Hubs across Queensland as a powerful way to make sure every family in every community gets the support they need.
“Fundamentally, our systems are too often experienced by children, young people and families as disconnected or duplicative, wasteful and discordant. Too often our systems don’t work together to actually ‘serve’ – in the sense of enabling people to exercise agency and to be able to change their life circumstances and trajectory.” From Joint Project on Systems Leadership for Child and Youth Wellbeing: Stage 1 Synthesis Report. Every Child and ANZSOG – 2021
What we're already achieving
Together with our partners, we’ve:
- Established the Thriving Kids Integrated Service Systems Collaborative with 38 diverse leaders
- Strengthened connections with the National Child and Family Hubs Network (a national, multidisciplinary group hosted by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and dedicated to strengthening Child and Family Hubs across Australia)
- Co-created the Child and Family Hubs Framework to inform the design, implementation and evaluation of best-practice family hubs in the Queensland context and beyond. Consultation for the Framework involved more than 160 people across 6 innovation labs, 13 site visits, 10 interviews and 7 targeted consultations.
The Child and Family Hubs Framework is building on the important work of the National Child and Family Hubs Network to:
- enhance partnerships and connections among key child and family-focused agencies across Queensland and potentially Australia
- foster a common language and understanding regarding Child & Family Hubs
- synthesise research, experience and learnings into an evidence-based practice framework.
As outlined in the National Child and Family Hubs Network’s Strategy 2024 – 2029, it will be used as the basis for developing a national practice framework as well as an evaluation framework.
“The Network’s vision is that families are able to walk through a Child and Family Hub’s welcoming front door and receive the right care and support for the child and family at the right time, leading to improved and equitable health and development outcomes.”
Prof Sharon Goldfeld, National Child and Family Hubs Network Chair
How you can get involved
To find out more and talk about ways to get involved, contact us at sophie.morson@aracy.org.au.
Related links & documents
DOWNLOAD
Child and Family Hubs: An integrated means of enhancing equitable wellbeing for Australia’s children and families
This short document provides a brief overview of Child and Family Hubs and covers the following topics:
- What are Hubs?
- What is the impact of Hubs?
- What are the core features of an effective Hub?
- ARACY’s commitment to Child and Family Hubs
DOWNLOAD
Child and family hubs: an important ‘front door’ for equitable support for families across Australia
This National Child and Family Hubs Network paper explores the meaning of a ‘Child and Family Hub’ and identifies core components that underpin the delivery of these hubs that have emerged from Australian and international research. The authors propose opportunities to consider how hubs can become important ‘front doors’ to drive equitable access and quality service delivery across Australia.
DOWNLOAD
National Child and Family Hubs Network Strategy 2024 - 2029
The National Child and Family Hubs Network (the Network) is a national, multidisciplinary group dedicated to strengthening Child and Family Hubs across Australia.
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You should know...
Explainer video: "What surrounds us shapes us"
This short explainer video introduces the Resilience Scale and ARACY’s The Nest framework as models to help understand how experiences and environments shape children’s health and development.
Partnerships charter
Our Charter clearly sets out the partnership’s shared goals, values and ways of working to improve systems for Queensland’s children. We invite you to review the Charter and join us if you support our shared vision for Queensland kids.
Report: Queensland Place-Based Rivermap
The Queensland Place-Based Rivermap proposes systemic actions to support our many place-based initiatives. Let’s work together to create local conditions that are good for families and kids.