Susan and Lisa attended the AbSec quarterly Sector Forum this week.
The theme of the forum was Solid Foundations. Six thousand, three hundred and sixty four little paper hands were placed around the room. A powerful visual to remind us that these terrible statics of over representation of Aboriginal children in out of home care are children and families torn apart.
We discussed Active Efforts in Childrens Court, implementation of the Aboriginal Case Management Policy, TEI recommissioning as well as Aboriginal Family Preservation (FP) within the recommissioning framework and Indigenous led data sovereignty tool.
Minister Washington joined us to reinforce her commitment to working in partnership to drive seismic reform so that more children and families have access to early intervention and prevention.
“The forum was an excellent opportunity to learn from ACCO’s and hear about the incredible support being offered to families, despite the challenges of systemic racism, conscious and unconscious bias compounded by long term under resourcing”, said Susan.
“Fams is committed to a genuine partnership with AbSec and the ACCO sector. We are calling on the government to increase early intervention and prevention funding by 25%, prioritising ACCOs”.
As we move into recommissioning of the Family Connect & Support and TEI programs we encourage services to reach out and connect with their local ACCO and start the conversation.
