More than 500 community and family projects worth more than $71 million have been approved through the Australian Government’s Stronger Families and Communities Strategy (SFCS). In addition, $65.4 million has been allocated to increase the flexibility and range of childcare options available to Australian families. As part of this funding, more than 3,000 in-home care places have been approved, through 94 service providers.
Nineteen new childcare centres offering 652 places have been approved in rural and remote Australia, and the quality assurance system for Long Day Care has been extended to Family Day Care and Outside School Hours Care. Launched in 2001, the SFCS has helped communities and families across Australia make a difference by taking a prevention and early intervention approach, helping build resilience and the ability to deal with problems before they become entrenched. The SFCS is a groundbreaking and innovative program ‘first’ for Australia, and is at the forefront of social program development internationally.
What is the Stronger Families and Communities Strategy?
People live in all kinds of communities. However, they are all part of the broader social and economic life of Australia. The Australian Government believes that communities thrive best when they have good leaders, skills, knowledge and committed volunteers and achieve strong partnerships between the public and private sectors.
The SFCS focuses on the following:
- the needs of families with young children
- community based early intervention projects
- strengthening marriage and relationships
- flexible childcare
- balancing work and family
- the longitudinal study of Australian children.
The Government cannot build community capacity or trust alone. Trust comes when communities take responsibility for their own future and drive change at the local level. Under the SFCS, the Government aims to help communities to build their own resources, rather than control developments. This basic shift in approach has led the Government to rethink program management, project identification and contract design, while using a collaborative approach to developing project proposals, performance indicators and evaluation frameworks.
Eight principles of the Strategy
- Working together in partnerships. There are many organisations making a real difference to Australian families and to the strength of communities. By working in partnerships, communities, government and business can support community and family life in more sustainable and successful ways.
- Encouraging a preventative and early intervention approach. Prevention and early intervention helps families and communities early, before problems become entrenched. Australian Government prevention and early intervention initiatives include relationship education, preventing domestic violence and child abuse, youth suicide and youth homelessness.
- Supporting people through life transitions. People’s lives go through cycles, such as finding a job, starting a committed adult relationship, having a baby, approaching retirement and coping with grief. People often need extra support or information and advice during these times and are often very receptive to new ideas.
- Developing integrated and coordinated services. Australia has a large network of services provided by governments, businesses, community organisations and volunteers. Yet families and individuals sometimes find it difficult to find help and information when they need it. The SFCS is helping to integrate and coordinate services and information at a local level.
- Developing local solutions to local problems. Australia is diverse and infrastructure, networks, services, issues and needs vary. One size doesn’t fit all. Local communities are usually the best at identifying and responding to local problems. Lasting solutions are more likely to emerge if governments work in partnership with communities to find them.
- Building capacity. Capacity building increases the personal and collective resources of individuals and communities and helps them develop skills and abilities for responding to challenges and taking advantage of opportunities. Solutions that come from the ground up produce results that are owned and used by the families and communities that need them, and often increase skills and capacity in the process.
- Using the evidence and looking to the future. There is a base of existing evidence about what does and does not work in helping families and communities prosper. The SFCS draws on Australian data that shows that prevention and early intervention programs are effective long term responses to many social problems. It also flags the Australian Government’s commitment to add to the evidence base under the SFCS.
- Making the investment count. Government investments are based on objective criteria that draw upon a range of data including benchmarking and key performance indicators. The SFCS often works outside the usual government program model and is contributing to new ideas of public administration. However, the primary objective remains to achieve results and make changes that last.
Initiatives
Community driven projects are linked by a range of initiatives under the program. These projects and initiatives show the changing face of government service delivery. The SFCS encourages local communities, businesses, community organisations and other levels of government to work in partnership to develop practical and innovative projects from the ground up.
- Stronger Families Fund – encourages communities to find new ways to strengthen families and focuses on early childhood development and effective parenting.
- Early Intervention, Parenting and Family Relationship Support – encourages communities to provide innovative services and activities like parenting support and playgroups, marriage and relationship education and family counselling.
- Potential Leaders in Local Communities – helps skill, develop opportunities and support potential community leaders.
- National Skills for Volunteers – develops practical training and skill to meet needs identified at a local level to strengthen volunteering in communities.
- Local Solutions to Local Problems – helps communities develop solutions to their own local problems and in the process increases their skills and abilities.
- Can Do Community – showcases ‘real life’ examples of people working together to renew and strengthen their communities.
- Greater flexibility and choice of childcare – is an investment in Australian families through an integrated program comprising three funding components: increased availability of in-home care places; private provider incentives for the establishment of rural and remote child care centres; and the extension of quality assurance systems to Family Day Care and Outside School Hours Care.
- The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children – is a comprehensive study of Australian children and their families. It provides the basis for policy on child related issues covering childcare, early childhood education and schooling, health and wellbeing, and family functioning, with a special focus on highlighting opportunities for early intervention or prevention. Over $20 million has been committed to this nine year study.
Innovations
The Strategy is a new way of working with communities involving the following.
- It moves away from traditional funding rounds – communities can apply for funding at any time over the life of the Strategy.
- It supports grass roots, community developed and driven projects.
- It aims to build sustainable solutions that will support families and communities in the long term.
This approach means a much closer involvement and partnership between the government and communities in working through funding proposals.
Community achievements
The SFCS has clearly touched on real community need. Ninety-one per cent of communities funded through the SFCS have successfully achieved what they wanted. More than 89 per cent of communities involved in the strategy have formed partnerships in pursuing their goals – which is one of the key aims of the program.
The Government helped identify likely partners in only a handful of cases. While the original idea for the project came from the community in only half these early projects, in nearly all projects, community members were involved in identifying local issues or possible ways of addressing them, and in taking on key roles in developing and setting up the projects. This high level of community involvement has been a major contributor to the success of about 50 per cent of projects, and resulted in a positive contribution in more than 90 per cent of projects.
Some examples of successful projects include the following.
Ramingining Women’s Centre
Ramingining is located in north east Arnhem Land, about 500 km east of Darwin. It has a population of 700 and another 180 in outlying areas. Indigenous women in the area needed training and services to help them meet their needs and those of their local families. Funding enabled the Community Council to appoint a Women’s Centre Coordinator to ensure services were easily accessible through the Centre. Services include meals on wheels, women’s cultural initiatives, sewing lessons and selling clothes, working with the local health clinic and developing an on site creche.
Nambucca Heads Blokes Project
A project officer has been funded for two years to develop and coordinate men’s services at Nambucca Heads, New South Wales. Faced with a downturn in local employmentopportunities, participants needed to find ways to manage their lives better through relationship training and anger management. The project targets young men, Indigenous men and fathers. More examples of successful projects are available on the SFCS website at www.facs.gov.au/sfcs/index.htm.
These stories highlight one of the main aims of the SFCS and the new Australian Government direction of encouraging communities to identify their own needs, find solutions and better use existing services and funding opportunities.
* Copy supplied by the Department of Family and Community Services