CCDE Annual Report 2012 - The Centre for Child Development ...

Research Highlights
Child Protection Research
CCDE’s Child Protection Research Program (CPRP) aims to better understand
how to protect the safety, health and wellbeing of children in the
Northern Territory (NT). Informed by international and national research,
the specialist CPRP team is building a local evidence base to improve policy
and practice across the children and families service system. This service
system includes a range of Aboriginal, statutory and non-government
organisations delivering early intervention, child protection and out-ofhome
care programs and services to vulnerable children. To effectively
support these children, we must also support parents, carers, extended
family, kinship groups, broader communities and practitioners. With a
high number of Aboriginal children entering the child protection system,
the program has a particular focus on developing and implementing
culturally responsive strategies to prevent child abuse and neglect.
Established as a partnership with the NT Government, in 2012 the program
completed a number of important research projects for the NT Office for
Children and Families (OCF). The scope of the program was expanded to
work with a range of Aboriginal and non-government organisations.
Projects included:
• Implementation support and preliminary evaluation of a Family
Group Conferencing model for Aboriginal children
• Literature review of Men’s Places focusing on the prevention and
responses to family violence with a focus on engaging Aboriginal
men in remote communities
• Social marketing and community education campaign to prevent
child abuse and neglect in the NT-consortium partnership with
Strong Aboriginal Families, Together (SAF,T), the NT peak body for
Aboriginal children and families: Exploring bicultural practice in the
NT children and families sector
• Consultancy for Relationships Australia NT to evaluate the Holding
Children Together Model, a therapeutic counselling model for
Aboriginal children
• Clinical consultancy to provide professional development, reflective
and complex case supervision to therapeutic services, practice
advisors and team leaders within NT OCF.
Annual Report 2012
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