Part 2: Achievements and challenges–performance insights
- Building the evidence base
- Partnerships
- Volunteering
- Indigenous communities
- Stronger Families and Communities Strategy
- More help for families
- Helping prevent homelessness
- Giving children the best possible start in life
- The new Child Care Support Program
- Helping parents support their children—the Child Support Agency
- Work and family
- Encouraging participation
- Reforms to support people with disabilities
- FaCS–Centrelink Business Alliance
- People are a priority in FaCS
- FaCS triple bottom line reporting
Indigenous communities
Key points
- Financial management projects in Indigenous communities are helping families to build financial literacy, increase their purchasing power and improve living standards.
- Twelve Remote Area Service Centres (RASCs) are being progressively established in Indigenous communities across Australia–just one example of the Australian Government' commitment to improve access to programs and services for Indigenous Australians in ruraland remote areas.
making a difference
Katanning Breakfast Club (Western Australia)
One of the organisations to receive funding under the first round of VSEG in 2003–04 was the Katanning Breakfast Club in Katanning, Western Australia. The club provides a nutritional daily breakfast to children whose families are unable to provide this necessity at home.
Before receiving the grant, the club's volunteers were providing breakfast to 20 to 25 children each morning with a couple of very old two-slice toasters. They are now able to purchase two new four-slice toasters to make the jobs of their 15 to 20 volunteers easier and safer.
The breakfast club provides an incentive for disadvantaged children to attend school by providing them with breakfast. After the children have eaten, not only are they attending school but they also have higher concentration levels. With reduced truancy rates, the incidence of juvenile crime is lowered.
While most FaCS customers, like many Australians, live in cities, our most disadvantaged are Indigenous people living in remote locations. Over 25 per cent of Indigenous people live in remote areas compared to only two per cent of other Australians. Australia's Indigenous population is currently increasing at a rate twice that of the general population. High birth rates in many remote communities see their populations increasing at rates above 5 per cent a year. The implications for our work are significant. For example, in the next ten years in a typical remote region it is projected that there will be at least 30 per cent more working-age people in a population that is currently highly dependent on welfare.
FaCS' Statement of Commitment to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People provides an integrated and comprehensive approach to improving outcomes for Indigenous people. FaCS has adopted the motto 'Indigenous business is everybody's business'–our pledge to tackle the entrenched social and economic disadvantages experienced by many Indigenous Australians.
The statement commits FaCS to doing things differently. In particular, it recognises the need for a more collaborative approach. FaCS and key stakeholders–both within and outside the organisation–need to combine energies, expertise and resources to build on existing strengths, assets and capacities and forge partnerships that help solve the complex problems facing many Indigenous people. These important partnerships will help FaCS develop policies and deliver services that better meet the needs of all Indigenous people. The recent transfer of ATSIS functions to FaCS, including the FaCS presence in Indigenous Coordination Centres around Australia, will require ongoing commitment to collaboration and partnership with Indigenous communities.
FaCS not only administers a number of Indigenous-specific programs but also keeps a focus within mainstream programs on Indigenous services and projects that support communities, families, young people and children. For example, each of the following initiatives funds a number of Indigenous-focused projects:
- the Stronger Families and Communities Strategy
- the Family and Community Networks Initiative
- the Reconnect program
- the Child Abuse Prevention Program
- the National Disability Advocacy Program
- the National Illicit Drugs Strategy.
In 2003–04 FaCS, in close consultation with Indigenous people, communities and organisations, commenced management of the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children.
This study will help us better understand the links between early childhood experiences and outcomes in later life for Indigenous children.
FaCS continues to fund the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR) at the Australian National University. The centre is building a significant evidence base that will assist FaCS in its future policy development and advising role.
New measures under the Australians Working Together package, such as the Community Participation Agreements initiative, Remote Area Service Centres, Personal Support Programme and Personal Adviser service, are also benefiting Indigenous people.
making a difference
Family Income Management projects– improving Indigenous financial literacy and money management
A significant action research project has been operating in three communities in Cape York, northern Queensland, since mid-2002. The project has focused on improving living standards and family functioning by helping Indigenous families in Aurukun, Coen and Mossman Gorge budget and save.
The Cape York Family Income Management (FIM) project was designed by Indigenous people to build financial literacy, stabilise family functioning, improve living standards and contribute to economic development in a culturally sensitive and practical way. The project is overseen by a working group comprising representatives from the community, Australian Government agencies, Westpac and Cape York Partnerships. Westpac employees work alongside financial management workers for one month every quarter.
Outcomes to date have been so positive that the Government committed an additional $1.5 million in 2003–04 to increase the number of participating sites in Cape York and to establish a similar project in Wadeye, Northern Territory. The Office of the Status of Women, the Department of Health and Ageing, the Department of Education, Science and Training and the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations have also contributed to this funding commitment.
The following feedback from families, highlighted in Australian Institute of Family Studies reports of August 2003 and May 2004, shows how Financial Income Management projects are helping Indigenous communities:
- 'FIM has made me want to come to work for tourism and rangers and to teach the little ones our culture and stories.' (man, 40+ yrs)
- 'Kids are coming to school more regularly, happier and have lunch so have better health.' (teacher)
- 'I am saving $30 per week in a family account with my mother, sister, brothers and uncles for our outstation. We want to build a house on the outstation, buy a generator, boat and truck to take us there. I am also saving $30 per week in my own account to buy DVDs, etc.' (woman, 16–21 yrs)
- 'My family are comfortable with my involvement in FIM. My relationship with my daughter has improved and the $10 per week I provide for her (in school education account) makes it better for her at school.' (man, 22–40 yrs)
- 'Definitely much happier and better because I'm participating. Family life is easier (since I) started the family on FIM.' (woman, 16–21 yrs)
Workers in each site help families negotiate budget and savings agreements, set up direct deductions from accounts and provide bill-paying and purchasing assistance. Outcomes include debt reduction and debt management, better coverage of essential living costs, increased spending on food and reduced spending on alcohol and gambling, reduction in stress and conflict, and the ability to purchase whitegoods, furniture, TVs, videos and other household items.
Some participants have also purchased cars and boats, and set up small businesses. Arrangements with local stores, schools and pharmacies facilitate payment for food, education costs and medications. Financial Income Management is also increasing motivation to work or study as people can see material results for their effort, and there is a general change in orientation from daily survival to long-term planning. Building consumer capacity is contributing to the viability of local enterprises as FIM participants can purchase locally produced goods.
The Government announced in the 2004–05 Budget that $4 million in additional funding would be provided to establish similar programs in other sites.
