WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.360 Hello, welcome to this, the penultimate session of the Festival of Ideas. 2 00:00:05.580 --> 00:00:10.180 My name's Brenton Caffin, I'm the CEO of the Australian Centre for Social Innovation. 3 00:00:11.460 --> 00:00:16.160 And we're delighted to be hosting this session on Family by Family, 4 00:00:16.340 --> 00:00:21.060 Thriving Families, Changing Systems, with Carolyn Curtis, the Director of Family by Family. 5 00:00:21.280 --> 00:00:24.460 I'd like to start by acknowledging that we meet on the lands of the Kaurna people 6 00:00:24.460 --> 00:00:27.680 and pay our respects to elders past and present. 7 00:00:27.680 --> 00:00:29.980 A little bit of housekeeping before we start. 8 00:00:30.380 --> 00:00:33.960 If you have a mobile phone, can you please turn it to silent, 9 00:00:34.100 --> 00:00:36.300 because no doubt you'd like to be doing some tweeting. 10 00:00:37.840 --> 00:00:44.000 Tweeting can be done at Ideas Adelaide, and the hashtag is hash A-F-O-I. 11 00:00:44.780 --> 00:00:47.180 And so today's speaker is Carolyn Curtis. 12 00:00:47.300 --> 00:00:50.540 Carolyn came to the Australian Centre for Social Innovation in May last year 13 00:00:50.540 --> 00:00:54.360 to join the Radical Redesign team and to work with families to discover, develop 14 00:00:54.360 --> 00:00:56.960 and co-design new ways to cut family stress. 15 00:00:57.680 --> 00:01:01.420 She's now Director of Family by Family and has a long history of working with families. 16 00:01:01.600 --> 00:01:04.680 For eight years she worked with South Australia's Department of Families and Communities, 17 00:01:04.840 --> 00:01:06.960 many different social work and leadership roles, 18 00:01:07.160 --> 00:01:12.100 most recently as a manager of an innovative service for high-risk infants called Safe Babies. 19 00:01:12.400 --> 00:01:14.420 Carolyn and I have worked together for the last 18 months, 20 00:01:14.520 --> 00:01:20.080 and her story, I think, is a very unique one of a person who's come from inside systems 21 00:01:20.080 --> 00:01:23.600 to come out and design innovation in what is a very, very difficult space. 22 00:01:23.820 --> 00:01:25.120 So please welcome Carolyn to the stage. 23 00:01:28.080 --> 00:01:30.320 Hi everyone, and thanks for having me. 24 00:01:30.380 --> 00:01:31.920 It's lovely to be here today. 25 00:01:32.320 --> 00:01:36.880 Well, as Brenton said, he's already started my talk off very easily for me. 26 00:01:36.980 --> 00:01:40.720 My name is Carolyn Curtis, and I'm the Director of Family by Family. 27 00:01:41.260 --> 00:01:46.160 The biggest part of my story before coming to Taxi was with Families SA 28 00:01:46.160 --> 00:01:49.640 and with the South Australian Child Protection System. 29 00:01:49.980 --> 00:01:51.920 I'm a passionate child protection worker. 30 00:01:52.140 --> 00:01:56.420 I loved my job, and I didn't leave there because I was unhappy. 31 00:01:57.680 --> 00:02:01.360 I feel passionate about families, about children, and outcomes for families. 32 00:02:01.980 --> 00:02:05.940 When I was at Families SA, I worked in a range of different roles. 33 00:02:06.140 --> 00:02:09.460 I started off as an investigator, and from there, 34 00:02:10.260 --> 00:02:15.140 continually got told off for spending too much time out with families and talking too much, 35 00:02:15.200 --> 00:02:16.920 which is not uncommon for me at all. 36 00:02:17.260 --> 00:02:21.560 So I found a niche for myself and specialised in babies. 37 00:02:22.840 --> 00:02:26.580 And from a systems standpoint, they're referred to as high-risk infants. 38 00:02:27.680 --> 00:02:31.940 And I loved my time working with all the babies that I got to meet. 39 00:02:32.480 --> 00:02:38.500 So I started as a senior social worker with a program at the time that was called Strong Families, Safe Babies. 40 00:02:38.600 --> 00:02:42.200 And down the track, that name was changed to Safe Babies. 41 00:02:42.360 --> 00:02:46.840 I then became the supervisor and manager of the high-risk infant program, 42 00:02:47.080 --> 00:02:55.280 and then later did a stint before coming to Taxi as the manager of Woodville District Office in mainstream child protection. 43 00:02:56.080 --> 00:02:57.300 So I guess today... 44 00:02:57.680 --> 00:03:02.200 I'm really conscious of the title of my talk that was up before about changing systems. 45 00:03:02.820 --> 00:03:08.520 And it's quite fascinating the number of places I've gone to recently that have asked me to talk about 46 00:03:08.520 --> 00:03:14.240 how you change a system and how you fix it, particularly the child protection system of all systems. 47 00:03:14.520 --> 00:03:16.060 You know, so how are we going to fix that? 48 00:03:16.280 --> 00:03:19.240 And I think that's a really difficult question, 49 00:03:19.360 --> 00:03:23.640 and it's definitely not a question that we're going to answer in 35 minutes today. 50 00:03:24.840 --> 00:03:27.620 So I want you to walk away today with... 51 00:03:27.680 --> 00:03:32.460 more of a sense of hope and a sense of possibility about what can be 52 00:03:32.460 --> 00:03:36.320 when you look at things through some different perspectives. 53 00:03:37.020 --> 00:03:39.760 Now, just for some background, just to set the context, 54 00:03:40.100 --> 00:03:44.360 you know, this really will highlight to you why I do what I do, 55 00:03:44.440 --> 00:03:46.360 why Taxi does what Taxi does, 56 00:03:47.120 --> 00:03:50.020 and why Families SA do what they do. 57 00:03:50.880 --> 00:03:54.240 In 2007, there were 1,000... 58 00:03:54.920 --> 00:03:57.120 There were 177,000 children. 59 00:03:57.680 --> 00:04:01.560 There were children under the age of 18 that were reported for abuse or neglect in Australia. 60 00:04:01.880 --> 00:04:02.960 And that's reported. 61 00:04:04.020 --> 00:04:09.920 The estimated cost of that was somewhere around $10.7 billion for Australia. 62 00:04:10.860 --> 00:04:15.540 Between 2003 and 2008, there's been a 40% increase 63 00:04:15.540 --> 00:04:20.260 in notifications made to the state in relation to child abuse. 64 00:04:20.500 --> 00:04:22.220 And that's just in South Australia. 65 00:04:23.360 --> 00:04:27.500 Between 2007 and 2008, there was a total number... 66 00:04:27.680 --> 00:04:33.680 of 20,847 child abuse notifications made 67 00:04:33.680 --> 00:04:36.620 to South Australia's child abuse report line. 68 00:04:37.220 --> 00:04:40.140 Families SA had the capacity to investigate 69 00:04:40.140 --> 00:04:44.920 and work with 5,453 of those investigations, 70 00:04:45.440 --> 00:04:51.120 which left 15,394 71 00:04:52.060 --> 00:04:55.660 that either didn't receive a service from Families SA 72 00:04:55.660 --> 00:04:57.360 and were just closed due to... 73 00:04:57.680 --> 00:05:02.540 lack of resources, or families that were referred on to other agencies 74 00:05:02.540 --> 00:05:04.300 for a different type of service. 75 00:05:05.260 --> 00:05:09.280 It's this group of families that encouraged me to move to Taxi. 76 00:05:10.220 --> 00:05:11.780 During my time in Child Protection, 77 00:05:12.060 --> 00:05:16.960 there was a repeated frustration that came up for me time and time again, 78 00:05:17.140 --> 00:05:19.620 which was, when you work with these families, 79 00:05:19.900 --> 00:05:22.440 sometimes you even manage to keep their kids at home with them. 80 00:05:22.620 --> 00:05:26.820 But how do you stop another report coming in 6, 12, 18 months down the track? 81 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:27.660 Because they're not going to be able to get a job. 82 00:05:27.680 --> 00:05:28.740 They just kept coming in. 83 00:05:28.880 --> 00:05:32.080 And if those families didn't have a personal network 84 00:05:32.080 --> 00:05:35.620 or family network bolstering them or surrounding them, 85 00:05:35.700 --> 00:05:38.660 the likelihood of them bouncing in was far, far higher. 86 00:05:39.020 --> 00:05:43.760 So with mandated notification introduced in South Australia in 1969, 87 00:05:45.580 --> 00:05:49.480 it was really clear that we kind of set our system up 88 00:05:49.480 --> 00:05:51.520 for a little bit of failure from the start. 89 00:05:52.360 --> 00:05:53.860 Our system, the Child Protection system, 90 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:57.020 was never going to have the capacity to deal with the demand 91 00:05:57.020 --> 00:05:57.660 that was declared. 92 00:05:57.680 --> 00:05:58.640 And we were not going to have the capacity to come in down the track. 93 00:05:59.400 --> 00:06:02.860 So now we're in this situation where everywhere I go 94 00:06:02.860 --> 00:06:04.160 and everyone I talk to, 95 00:06:04.300 --> 00:06:07.480 you hear about the failing Child Protection system 96 00:06:07.480 --> 00:06:11.220 and the Child Protection system that's not doing its job 97 00:06:11.220 --> 00:06:12.600 or that needs to be fixed. 98 00:06:13.380 --> 00:06:19.160 But today, I'd really like to focus on those 15,394 families 99 00:06:19.160 --> 00:06:22.560 that didn't receive a service from Families SA 100 00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:23.740 for one reason or another. 101 00:06:24.420 --> 00:06:26.180 Now, we can view this as a problem, 102 00:06:26.340 --> 00:06:27.660 but for the purpose of this program, 103 00:06:27.660 --> 00:06:28.280 for the purposes of today, 104 00:06:28.420 --> 00:06:29.820 I'd like to view this as an opportunity. 105 00:06:30.960 --> 00:06:34.140 When I left Families SA, or I was actually given an opportunity 106 00:06:34.140 --> 00:06:37.260 to go across the taxi on secondment, 107 00:06:37.340 --> 00:06:40.760 which was fantastic on my part, I was given a brief. 108 00:06:41.460 --> 00:06:44.860 And the brief wasn't how do we fix our existing business. 109 00:06:45.200 --> 00:06:47.800 The brief was how do we stop more people 110 00:06:47.800 --> 00:06:49.300 from showing up on our doorstep. 111 00:06:49.860 --> 00:06:53.460 I'm sure all of you who have had anything to do with families here, 112 00:06:53.600 --> 00:06:57.220 and you're all part of a family, can probably identify 113 00:06:57.220 --> 00:06:59.740 with the fact that having the government rock up and knock 114 00:06:59.740 --> 00:07:02.980 on your door is maybe not always the best way to go about it. 115 00:07:03.180 --> 00:07:06.360 And there's a lot of families that, you know, 116 00:07:06.360 --> 00:07:09.080 an alternative response would be much more appropriate. 117 00:07:10.340 --> 00:07:11.660 And there's a range of services 118 00:07:11.660 --> 00:07:14.440 that South Australia currently offered, targeted services, 119 00:07:14.800 --> 00:07:17.700 family support services, child development programs. 120 00:07:18.420 --> 00:07:21.320 But clearly, there's still some gaps 121 00:07:21.320 --> 00:07:22.520 that are needing to be filled. 122 00:07:23.360 --> 00:07:27.200 So, before I left Families SA, I was told, okay, 123 00:07:27.220 --> 00:07:29.120 so you're going to go to this place called TAXI, 124 00:07:29.220 --> 00:07:31.140 the Australian Centre for Social Innovation. 125 00:07:31.540 --> 00:07:33.300 I'd never heard of social innovation before. 126 00:07:33.360 --> 00:07:34.780 I had no idea what it was. 127 00:07:34.840 --> 00:07:36.740 But I thought, okay, I'll give it a go. 128 00:07:37.180 --> 00:07:38.860 So, I said, sure. 129 00:07:39.260 --> 00:07:41.640 Next thing I got home and less than, you know, 130 00:07:41.660 --> 00:07:42.780 I reckon 20 minutes later, 131 00:07:42.860 --> 00:07:46.600 I had this very excitable Texan girl ring me up on the phone 132 00:07:46.600 --> 00:07:49.640 and say, hi, Carolyn, are you ready to come on board? 133 00:07:50.580 --> 00:07:55.200 And from there, it was just a whirlwind. 134 00:07:55.700 --> 00:07:57.200 And it's been quite an amazing experience. 135 00:07:57.220 --> 00:07:57.880 It's been an amazing 18 months. 136 00:07:58.280 --> 00:08:01.600 So, I was working with two people by the name 137 00:08:01.600 --> 00:08:03.240 of Chris Vanstone, who's a designer, 138 00:08:03.380 --> 00:08:05.700 and Sarah Shulman, who's a sociologist. 139 00:08:05.940 --> 00:08:08.780 And we were using a methodology called radical redesign, 140 00:08:09.040 --> 00:08:10.500 which you've probably heard about before. 141 00:08:11.560 --> 00:08:17.460 Now, what happens when you put a dedicated social worker 142 00:08:17.460 --> 00:08:21.920 slash manager who's passionate about assessment and outcomes 143 00:08:21.920 --> 00:08:25.700 for families and child protection in the room 144 00:08:26.540 --> 00:08:27.200 with a job that's not a job that's not a job that's not a job 145 00:08:37.360 --> 00:08:40.140 that should be, should be, should be, 146 00:08:40.260 --> 00:08:40.640 should be, should be, should be, should be, 147 00:08:40.640 --> 00:08:40.720 should be, should be, should be, should be, should be, 148 00:08:40.720 --> 00:08:41.980 should be, should be, should be, should be, should be, 149 00:08:41.980 --> 00:08:42.160 should be, should be, should be, should be, should be, 150 00:08:42.160 --> 00:08:42.200 should be, should be, should be, should be, should be, 151 00:08:42.200 --> 00:08:42.320 should be, should be, should be, should be, should be, 152 00:08:42.320 --> 00:08:42.800 should be, should be, should be, should be, should be, 153 00:08:42.920 --> 00:08:54.640 should be, should be, should be, should be, should be, 154 00:08:54.640 --> 00:08:59.240 the one today that I'm going to focus on is design and this concept of design and child protection. 155 00:09:00.260 --> 00:09:05.340 When I was told by my manager and family to say that I'd be working with a full-time designer, 156 00:09:05.660 --> 00:09:10.820 I thought, wow, we're obviously going to have some pretty special brochures. To need a full-time 157 00:09:10.820 --> 00:09:18.880 designer, that's great. You know, I really like good brochures, so that's exciting. And I'd never 158 00:09:18.880 --> 00:09:22.680 had a chance to make my own brochures in government, so I thought, well, wow, this is going 159 00:09:22.680 --> 00:09:29.080 to be a great opportunity and I like making things look pretty. Needless to say, my idea of 160 00:09:29.080 --> 00:09:34.640 design and Chris's idea of design is quite different. And just to give you an idea, 161 00:09:35.340 --> 00:09:45.320 this is my idea of good design. If I was to make a radical redesign poster, I love having every 162 00:09:45.320 --> 00:09:51.400 letter a different colour and I'm obsessed with text being justified and I love stars and butterflies 163 00:09:52.040 --> 00:09:52.660 and I love having a poster that says, I love you. And I love having a poster that says, I love you. 164 00:09:52.660 --> 00:09:58.020 And Chris, our designer, is quite horrified by this and we have regular arguments still today 165 00:09:58.020 --> 00:10:04.140 about what good design is. So it was quite uncomfortable right from the start in terms 166 00:10:04.140 --> 00:10:08.600 of really stepping outside the box. And I found this very short little movie that really helps 167 00:10:08.600 --> 00:10:14.420 communicate how it felt to leave Families SA and step into taxi. 168 00:10:22.660 --> 00:10:27.500 Often we throw around this term thinking outside the square or thinking outside the box. And I know I 169 00:10:27.500 --> 00:10:33.480 definitely use that term quite a lot. And I think we often think outside the square, but we still 170 00:10:33.480 --> 00:10:38.340 think within a square that's quite comfortable. And we still think within a square that, you know, 171 00:10:38.360 --> 00:10:43.040 we've heard about before or we know that other people have experienced. But thinking out the 172 00:10:43.040 --> 00:10:50.080 square or thinking outside the box for me at taxi was really, really entering new territory. And we 173 00:10:50.080 --> 00:10:52.640 use the term at taxi, you don't know what you don't know. And I think that's a really good term. And I 174 00:10:52.660 --> 00:11:01.460 really had no idea about what I was getting myself into. So I went from a world that was based around 175 00:11:01.460 --> 00:11:10.980 assessment, around strengths and needs, around, you know, complex families, around a statutory court 176 00:11:10.980 --> 00:11:18.560 system, to one that talked about tools used within anthropology, co-design, co-production, 177 00:11:19.960 --> 00:11:22.640 prototyping. All these terms I'd never heard of. 178 00:11:22.660 --> 00:11:27.720 And I think that's something that I've learned a lot about before in my life. And as we go through, you'll get more of an understanding about what some of those terms actually mean. 179 00:11:28.740 --> 00:11:40.440 But we undertook a 12-month process to design something new for families and design something that they would buy into and have a sense of ownership over. 180 00:11:41.240 --> 00:11:50.180 So the process that we undertook started with this thing called ethnography, which is really much easier than assessment, so I figured out along the way. 181 00:11:50.940 --> 00:11:52.620 Basically, you hang out with families. 182 00:11:53.480 --> 00:11:58.620 You hang out with them, you don't need to categorize them, diagnose them, try and figure out what's wrong with them. 183 00:11:58.760 --> 00:12:02.520 You just spend time with them and understand their life as they live it. 184 00:12:02.660 --> 00:12:04.940 You experience the ups with the downs. 185 00:12:05.080 --> 00:12:10.140 You understand what it's like for them to walk in to their local child and family health. 186 00:12:10.360 --> 00:12:15.420 You understand what it's like for them to visit centre link because you walk that journey with them. 187 00:12:15.680 --> 00:12:17.800 And we did this for a period of three months. 188 00:12:18.460 --> 00:12:22.640 And we've worked with over 100 families in the Marian area of South Australia. 189 00:12:22.640 --> 00:12:28.580 Australia to really understand what family life was like. From there we came up with some really 190 00:12:28.580 --> 00:12:34.680 early ideas. So okay, so this is what we've learned. The overwhelming standout theme from 191 00:12:34.680 --> 00:12:39.820 our time with these 100 families was social isolation. And as I'm sure most of you know, 192 00:12:39.900 --> 00:12:45.160 social isolation runs down the side of many other risk factors such as drugs and alcohol, 193 00:12:45.480 --> 00:12:52.140 domestic violence, disability, relationship breakdown, being a new arrival to the country, 194 00:12:52.640 --> 00:12:57.340 but it was a standout and it was something that the majority of families said to us is, 195 00:12:57.380 --> 00:13:00.720 do you know, I don't actually need another service. We don't need another service because 196 00:13:00.720 --> 00:13:06.320 I've got a list of them here. What I really need is a friend or what I really need is I just wish 197 00:13:06.320 --> 00:13:10.980 I had family or I just wish that I had someone that I could have a cup of coffee with or cry 198 00:13:10.980 --> 00:13:16.900 with or go to the shops with. That was really the standout. So from that we came up with some 199 00:13:16.900 --> 00:13:21.580 early ideas and we went and hung out with families and tested out these ideas with them. And the 200 00:13:21.580 --> 00:13:22.620 beautiful thing about families is that they're not just families, they're not just families. 201 00:13:22.620 --> 00:13:28.800 families is they are so honest, so, so honest with you. They're very happy to tell you if they don't 202 00:13:28.800 --> 00:13:33.120 like something or if they'd never rock up to that thing or if that didn't make sense to them. 203 00:13:33.300 --> 00:13:40.400 So with families, we then developed these ideas alongside them. We then tested out these ideas 204 00:13:40.400 --> 00:13:46.120 using a method called prototyping, which is a design method. I guess for a lot of us in this 205 00:13:46.120 --> 00:13:51.040 room, we'd be more used to the term piloting or running a pilot program, which is usually over, 206 00:13:51.040 --> 00:13:57.700 you know, anywhere from a six to 12 month period, sometimes longer. And my experience of piloting 207 00:13:57.700 --> 00:14:01.480 was even when they did work well, often you couldn't get the money. So they often sort of 208 00:14:01.480 --> 00:14:07.200 stopped dead in the road. But prototyping is much quicker. Prototyping happened in a 12 week period 209 00:14:07.200 --> 00:14:12.500 for us. And we tested out these ideas with real time, with real people, with real interactions. 210 00:14:12.720 --> 00:14:17.220 And as we saw things working or not working, we'd throw them out and we'd start again. 211 00:14:18.300 --> 00:14:20.960 From there, it was around, okay, so we've, 212 00:14:21.040 --> 00:14:24.780 we've kind of got to a place now where some things are working, but how are we going to capture that? 213 00:14:24.960 --> 00:14:29.600 And how are we going to measure that? And from there, it was developing the business case. 214 00:14:29.820 --> 00:14:35.400 So, okay, we've tested this out with roughly 20 families, but how do you go from 20 families to 215 00:14:35.400 --> 00:14:41.880 100 families? And how do you go from 100 families to 200 families across South Australia or across 216 00:14:41.880 --> 00:14:47.900 Australia? So what is it? This thing that we came up with, this thing that Chris, Sarah and I, 217 00:14:47.940 --> 00:14:51.020 plus 100 families of married in South Australia came up with. 218 00:14:51.040 --> 00:14:56.540 And it's called Family by Family. And I'm sure many of you have heard a little bit about it already. 219 00:14:57.720 --> 00:15:04.080 So Family by Family combines social work. It combines service design with sociology, with business, 220 00:15:04.300 --> 00:15:11.420 with management, with leadership, with the views, experience and knowledge of over 100 families. 221 00:15:12.100 --> 00:15:17.340 And it's probably that experience and the knowledge that those families bring to Family by Family, 222 00:15:17.420 --> 00:15:18.920 which is by far the most important. 223 00:15:19.980 --> 00:15:20.940 So what's 224 00:15:21.040 --> 00:15:25.840 different about this? Because often when I start to explain it, I've had many comments about, 225 00:15:25.980 --> 00:15:31.680 oh, yep, you know, when back 20 years ago, these were the sorts of community development projects we had. 226 00:15:31.840 --> 00:15:35.000 This is what we used to have. It's good to see that we're getting back to that. 227 00:15:35.520 --> 00:15:41.660 Well, as opposed to reinventing the wheel, how do we reinvent it, but a whole layer above that and create 228 00:15:41.660 --> 00:15:47.800 something new and exciting? So when it comes to what's different about Family by Family, there's a few 229 00:15:47.800 --> 00:15:49.140 things that stand out to me. 230 00:15:49.980 --> 00:15:57.380 It's the intentionality behind every aspect of it. Everything happens for a reason, whether that be a dinner, 231 00:15:57.520 --> 00:16:03.680 whether that be a brochure, whether that be an activity. There is a reason behind everything we do. 232 00:16:04.140 --> 00:16:10.980 The focus on outcomes and behaviour change. I'm not interested in how many people turn up to an event. 233 00:16:11.200 --> 00:16:17.700 I'm not interested in how many families we introduce to each other. I'm interested in what happens as a result of that. 234 00:16:18.120 --> 00:16:18.960 So we... 235 00:16:18.960 --> 00:16:23.040 We too often get stuck with outputs. 236 00:16:23.580 --> 00:16:26.420 And yes, outcomes for families are really hard to measure. 237 00:16:26.540 --> 00:16:30.240 And measuring behaviour change for families is even more difficult. 238 00:16:30.400 --> 00:16:32.240 But it's the stuff we need to get at. 239 00:16:32.400 --> 00:16:34.760 It's what's important and it's what's going to help this grow. 240 00:16:35.240 --> 00:16:37.480 The language and materials that we use, 241 00:16:37.540 --> 00:16:41.700 and there's some materials up the back for you to grab on the way out. 242 00:16:42.340 --> 00:16:46.560 But the look and feel of things, the words we use, are family's words. 243 00:16:46.820 --> 00:16:48.480 Hence, I tend to use the word stuff. 244 00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:50.920 Constantly, and it's because it's all I hear all the time. 245 00:16:50.940 --> 00:16:52.860 Stuff. Oh, you know that stuff I was talking about. 246 00:16:53.000 --> 00:16:54.540 So apologies for my stuff. 247 00:16:55.520 --> 00:16:58.240 But the materials that we have, they're not polished. 248 00:16:58.440 --> 00:17:01.840 They're not beautiful. They're not printed on glossy paper. 249 00:17:02.420 --> 00:17:03.140 They're raw. 250 00:17:04.120 --> 00:17:05.660 They speak to families. 251 00:17:06.860 --> 00:17:07.660 They're playful. 252 00:17:08.600 --> 00:17:10.560 Family by families for whole families. 253 00:17:11.180 --> 00:17:13.900 And whole family being whoever your main people are. 254 00:17:14.020 --> 00:17:16.060 So it doesn't have to be a mum and dad and two kids. 255 00:17:16.200 --> 00:17:18.660 It might be an auntie and a little one. 256 00:17:18.660 --> 00:17:19.480 She's looking after. 257 00:17:19.580 --> 00:17:20.320 It might be grandparents. 258 00:17:20.760 --> 00:17:22.620 It might be six kids and a dad. 259 00:17:22.940 --> 00:17:25.680 Auntie is whoever that family call family. 260 00:17:26.460 --> 00:17:29.180 And last of all, and probably most importantly, 261 00:17:29.480 --> 00:17:31.060 it's designed by families. 262 00:17:31.600 --> 00:17:34.580 So yes, more resource goes in initially 263 00:17:34.580 --> 00:17:37.560 in terms of prototyping and chucking stuff out 264 00:17:37.560 --> 00:17:40.700 and spending lots of time getting it right to start with. 265 00:17:40.820 --> 00:17:44.820 But you're saving so much time down the track 266 00:17:44.820 --> 00:17:47.540 in terms of having to recreate something five years later 267 00:17:47.540 --> 00:17:48.640 when you finally come back. 268 00:17:48.660 --> 00:17:49.640 And that's why we've come to terms with the fact 269 00:17:49.640 --> 00:17:50.520 that it's not working. 270 00:17:51.340 --> 00:17:52.260 So what is it? 271 00:17:52.860 --> 00:17:53.920 Family by family. 272 00:17:54.580 --> 00:17:56.440 We find two groups of families. 273 00:17:57.020 --> 00:17:59.680 We're looking for families that have been through tough times 274 00:17:59.680 --> 00:18:00.960 and come out the other side. 275 00:18:01.180 --> 00:18:02.760 We refer to these families often 276 00:18:02.760 --> 00:18:04.460 as the positive deviants of society. 277 00:18:05.100 --> 00:18:07.140 And we link them up with families 278 00:18:07.140 --> 00:18:09.040 that are still struggling. 279 00:18:09.560 --> 00:18:11.100 Putting one foot in front of the other. 280 00:18:11.300 --> 00:18:13.140 It might be drugs, alcohol. 281 00:18:13.540 --> 00:18:15.580 They might have come out of a DV relationship. 282 00:18:16.080 --> 00:18:17.340 They might just be unhappy. 283 00:18:17.660 --> 00:18:18.640 They might have had a hard time. 284 00:18:18.640 --> 00:18:20.380 They might have had a relationship breakdown in their house. 285 00:18:20.560 --> 00:18:22.680 They may be struggling to manage their kids' behaviour 286 00:18:22.680 --> 00:18:24.880 or have a disability that they're coping with. 287 00:18:25.060 --> 00:18:26.460 But for one reason or another, 288 00:18:26.560 --> 00:18:28.180 their life isn't where they want it to be. 289 00:18:28.820 --> 00:18:31.240 And we put these two families together. 290 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:33.540 And we look at what happens 291 00:18:33.540 --> 00:18:35.520 when you add those two families together 292 00:18:35.520 --> 00:18:38.240 through sharing stories and experiences, 293 00:18:40.260 --> 00:18:41.480 through role modelling behaviour, 294 00:18:41.940 --> 00:18:43.180 through active listening, 295 00:18:43.400 --> 00:18:45.360 through going out and having fun together, 296 00:18:45.520 --> 00:18:47.920 and through these families meeting new people 297 00:18:47.920 --> 00:18:48.620 and visiting. 298 00:18:48.640 --> 00:18:49.760 And we look at what happens 299 00:18:49.760 --> 00:18:50.160 when you add these two families together. 300 00:18:50.180 --> 00:18:51.520 So these families, 301 00:18:51.680 --> 00:18:53.680 the families that have come out the other side 302 00:18:53.680 --> 00:18:55.600 of some tough times and doing really well now, 303 00:18:55.640 --> 00:18:56.660 we call sharing families. 304 00:18:57.060 --> 00:18:58.720 They have something they want to share. 305 00:18:58.880 --> 00:19:00.660 They've learnt from their tough times 306 00:19:00.660 --> 00:19:01.860 and they're ready to give back. 307 00:19:02.260 --> 00:19:04.640 The other families that aren't quite there yet 308 00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:06.540 and they've really got something they'd like to change, 309 00:19:06.660 --> 00:19:07.740 we call seeking families. 310 00:19:09.120 --> 00:19:10.420 So how do we find them? 311 00:19:10.560 --> 00:19:12.720 We have events, all sorts of events. 312 00:19:12.880 --> 00:19:15.100 And this is a photograph of one of our sharing mums, 313 00:19:15.180 --> 00:19:17.400 Rihanna, having a sausage sizzle 314 00:19:17.400 --> 00:19:18.600 out the front of Coles. 315 00:19:18.640 --> 00:19:20.960 We don't ask families to come to us. 316 00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:22.700 We put ourselves in their space. 317 00:19:22.980 --> 00:19:24.960 So this might be supermarkets. 318 00:19:24.980 --> 00:19:26.080 It might be schools. 319 00:19:26.400 --> 00:19:30.780 It might be hardware stores, furniture stores. 320 00:19:30.960 --> 00:19:32.180 We go to them. 321 00:19:32.260 --> 00:19:34.840 And we offer a range of developmental activities. 322 00:19:35.140 --> 00:19:36.540 We call them pop-up stalls. 323 00:19:37.480 --> 00:19:40.440 And we provide an experience for the family. 324 00:19:40.740 --> 00:19:43.580 So most recently we had a pop-up stall at Castle Plaza 325 00:19:43.580 --> 00:19:46.860 whereby the kids could come and paint their own mask. 326 00:19:47.460 --> 00:19:47.980 And... 327 00:19:47.980 --> 00:19:50.120 parents were looking for this. 328 00:19:50.340 --> 00:19:51.940 They were looking for a way 329 00:19:51.940 --> 00:19:54.300 that their kids could do something exciting, 330 00:19:54.520 --> 00:19:57.560 something fun that was not going to take so long 331 00:19:57.560 --> 00:19:59.360 and also wasn't going to cost a lot of money. 332 00:20:00.200 --> 00:20:02.560 And we find both groups of families 333 00:20:02.560 --> 00:20:03.940 through very similar methods. 334 00:20:04.420 --> 00:20:07.980 As well as this type of recruitment, 335 00:20:08.200 --> 00:20:10.080 we also have referral pathways. 336 00:20:10.440 --> 00:20:14.700 So we did do quite a lot of work with Families SA, with schools, 337 00:20:15.700 --> 00:20:17.780 and with Department of Health, 338 00:20:17.980 --> 00:20:21.420 during our prototype to look at how we could best support the families 339 00:20:21.420 --> 00:20:23.720 interfacing with their services as well. 340 00:20:24.460 --> 00:20:28.760 After that, it's really important that we train our sharing families. 341 00:20:28.780 --> 00:20:30.760 So the families that are going to provide the mentoring. 342 00:20:31.240 --> 00:20:33.620 So we don't want to turn them into mini social workers. 343 00:20:33.800 --> 00:20:39.300 We just want to learn how to pull out their already fantastic natural abilities 344 00:20:39.300 --> 00:20:40.840 and bring them more to the surface. 345 00:20:41.120 --> 00:20:43.400 So we start off by taking them away on camp. 346 00:20:43.720 --> 00:20:44.860 We do a range. 347 00:20:44.880 --> 00:20:46.600 We employ storytellers. 348 00:20:46.600 --> 00:20:47.800 We play games. 349 00:20:47.800 --> 00:20:48.600 We paint. 350 00:20:49.540 --> 00:20:51.360 We go on walks. 351 00:20:51.640 --> 00:20:54.700 But most importantly and probably the key part 352 00:20:54.700 --> 00:20:59.280 to the training is scenario based and around working 353 00:20:59.280 --> 00:21:02.520 through different scenarios and acting out what could happen 354 00:21:02.520 --> 00:21:03.580 in different circumstances. 355 00:21:04.120 --> 00:21:07.160 And most importantly with the training is keeping the focus 356 00:21:07.160 --> 00:21:07.780 on change. 357 00:21:08.160 --> 00:21:10.480 We want these families to be more than friends. 358 00:21:10.780 --> 00:21:12.700 We want them to enable change. 359 00:21:12.920 --> 00:21:15.620 We want them to help these seeking families make the 360 00:21:15.620 --> 00:21:16.780 changes they want to make. 361 00:21:17.180 --> 00:21:17.780 From the beginning, we've been working with families, 362 00:21:17.780 --> 00:21:17.800 we've been working with families, we've been working with families, 363 00:21:17.800 --> 00:21:20.460 And from there, after they get back from camp, we link them up. 364 00:21:21.660 --> 00:21:24.280 So we put the power back with the families. 365 00:21:24.460 --> 00:21:26.400 Every family has their own profile. 366 00:21:26.660 --> 00:21:30.100 And seeking families get to choose who they hang out with 367 00:21:30.100 --> 00:21:31.300 and who they link up with. 368 00:21:31.740 --> 00:21:33.420 One link up is 10 weeks. 369 00:21:34.360 --> 00:21:37.640 But for some families, 10 weeks doesn't even scratch the surface. 370 00:21:37.920 --> 00:21:41.180 So a family can have anywhere from one to three link ups, 371 00:21:41.340 --> 00:21:42.900 which is 30 weeks all up. 372 00:21:43.860 --> 00:21:47.120 It's with the support that we introduce the professional role. 373 00:21:47.320 --> 00:21:47.760 And this is a challenge. 374 00:21:47.780 --> 00:21:49.120 This is what we call a family coach. 375 00:21:49.900 --> 00:21:53.060 The family coach is not a service provider. 376 00:21:53.540 --> 00:21:56.340 They're very much in the background coaching, 377 00:21:56.640 --> 00:21:59.780 mentoring, inspiring our sharing families. 378 00:22:00.540 --> 00:22:02.380 And this role is vital. 379 00:22:02.840 --> 00:22:05.960 It's keeping the focus on change. 380 00:22:06.220 --> 00:22:08.760 So it's making sure that we're more than a friendship program. 381 00:22:09.420 --> 00:22:11.100 And it's there to troubleshoot. 382 00:22:11.300 --> 00:22:13.880 They're there to manage any risk that might come up. 383 00:22:14.060 --> 00:22:17.760 They're there to, you know, help families get through the tough times. 384 00:22:17.760 --> 00:22:22.320 They're there to also help sharing families achieve their own family goals. 385 00:22:23.300 --> 00:22:26.480 And then lastly, how do we capture all of this? 386 00:22:26.620 --> 00:22:27.820 So how do we measure it? 387 00:22:27.980 --> 00:22:31.420 And we actually tried 15 different versions of measurement. 388 00:22:31.880 --> 00:22:33.460 And we ended up with stickers. 389 00:22:34.040 --> 00:22:36.860 And it so turns out that families love stickers. 390 00:22:38.040 --> 00:22:42.680 And we have these sticker sheets that you'll see up on the slide there. 391 00:22:42.920 --> 00:22:47.540 And the sticker sheets are introduced at different intervals in the link up. 392 00:22:47.540 --> 00:22:52.420 To help a family mark what's changed for them, what hasn't, what's gotten worse. 393 00:22:52.740 --> 00:22:54.440 Because that's always an option. 394 00:22:54.700 --> 00:22:57.600 Or what's better or what would they still like to improve on. 395 00:22:58.100 --> 00:23:01.000 As well as measurement in this form, 396 00:23:01.800 --> 00:23:06.840 we've just employed an external evaluator that will be taking more a traditional sort of focus group, 397 00:23:07.600 --> 00:23:10.920 observational, ethnographic approach in terms of making sure that 398 00:23:11.720 --> 00:23:13.540 A, family by family works. 399 00:23:13.920 --> 00:23:16.740 But what we're more interested in is who does it work for? 400 00:23:16.740 --> 00:23:18.120 Why does it work? 401 00:23:18.260 --> 00:23:20.360