Aboriginal families first projects

Project Status
Completed

Other Team Members
Pippa Craig, Roberta Chavez,Elizabeth Harris

Rationale

The poor health of Aboriginal children in SSW provided the impetus to ensure that the local implementation of the Families First policy was relevant to the local Aboriginal community.

Aim

There were three main focii of the project:

1. To undertake a preliminary study into the views of Aboriginal people across support AHS to the development of early childhood services for children. This was funded by the Sydney South West Health Research Foundation and led by Dr Pippa Craig.

2. To develop an Indigenous Model of Families First. This component was funded by the Department of Community Services and undertaken in collaboration with Marilyn Wise and Shane Hearn from the Australian Centre for Health Promotion.

3. To develop and support a network of local Aboriginal workers to develop programs to address issues that had been identified in the previous stages of the project. This project was funded by the Department of Community Services.

Design and Method

The three arms of the project used an action research framework that involved extensive consultation with Aboriginal workers, local Aboriginal women and major service providers. Information was gathered through an inerative process that enabled those involved to have ongoing input into the development of the program.

Key Publications

Related report - Fisher K, Kemp L, Tudball J.  Families First Outcomes Evaluation Framework: for the Cabinet Office of New South Wales, UNSW Research Consortium: Sydney. 2002.  Download PDF