Welcome to the first edition of TQKP enews for 2025!
In this edition:
Featured initiative: Enabling Workforces and Organisations for Thriving Kids
TQKP portfolio updates
Partner and sector news
Opportunities
Resources
Get involved
TQKP enews is published quarterly. In between editions, we invite you to bookmark our website to stay informed and connected with the latest updates about Thriving Queensland Kids Partnership's initiatives as well as news and events from our partner organisations.
Visit tqkp.org.au to find out more about TQKP, including how you can get involved in our collective efforts to create lasting, positive change right across Queensland so that every child and young person, their families, and our communities can thrive – now and into the future!
Featured Initiative
Enabling Workforces and Organisations for Thriving Kids (EWOT) is the first stage of an initiative to broaden and sustain learning within and across organisations in Queensland, so that practitioners and communities are better equipped to support kids and their families to thrive.
EWOT is one of 11 initiatives currently underway as part of Thriving Queensland Kids Partnership's multi-faceted approach, designed to coordinate and amplify collective efforts in areas identified as key to enabling systemic change for Queensland children and young people.
EWOT aims to improve access to knowledge, skills and connections that can support those working with children, young people and families, with a particular emphasis on:
brain and body health and development, mental wellbeing, healing and resilience; and
understanding the incidence, impacts and protective factors related to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), trauma, complexity and diversity for children, young people and their families.
In its now complete initial phase, EWOT carried out extensive engagement and consultations with stakeholders, including Department of Education, Department of Health, and Department of Child Safety and Youth Justice.
A comprehensive map of the existing capability-building offerings, policies, and professional standards was developed. The results of these consultations are now being compiled into a mapping document that TQKP will publish later this year.
Enabling Workforces Workshop during Phase 1.1
Enabling Workforces Toolkit
Using the consultations and learnings from the first phase of EWOT, we have developed the Enabling Workforces Toolkit, a comprehensive and easy to access collection of free and low-cost resources aimed at supporting practitioners working with children, young people and families.
Resources in the toolkit can be filtered by length and category, and are grouped according to five core capability strands:
Brain Development & Brain Health
Protective and Adverse Childhood Experiences
Trauma & Healing
Resilience
The Whole Person
Development of the toolkit has been underpinned by the following research by Queensland Brain Institute, at The University of Queensland:
The next phase (1.2) explores how organisations can use resources from the Enabling Workforces Toolkit to support a shared language across workforces.
Working with several pilot sites in Education, Youth Justice and Child Safety, we will examine the use of ‘Heart’ resources: Short-form content that can easily be added to existing structures such as team meetings, supervision sessions and lunch-and-learn sessions to boost learning opportunities without adding to workforce constraints.
Staff at Gainsborough School engaging with content from the Enabling Workforces Toolkit during a recent pupil free day.
Each pilot site has selected a learning approach to meet their specific needs and is supported by the EWOT Project Team. On completion of this phase, we will share our findings in a Learning and Progress Evaluation Report with case studies and recommendations to support scaling up of the Toolkit and implementation into the future.
Feedback about the Toolkit has so far been very encouraging, and we'd love to hear your thoughts.
Please get in touch to share your experience with using the Toolkit, and let us know if you have any recommendations on resources to include.
For more information on this, or other aspects of the initiative, please email Michelle Cole: michelle.cole@aracy.org.au
Brain Builders animation: 'What surrounds us shapes us'
This short video, created as part of the Brain Builders Initiative and included in the Enabling Workforces Toolkit introduces the Resilience Scale: an easy to understand model for understanding the impact of environment and experiences on children's brain health.
Using ARACY's The Nest, Australia's child wellbeing framework, it provides examples of what children need to thrive and how adults in their lives can help equip them with the right supports to maintain a healthy balance and protect against toxic stress, now and in the future.
The Framing for Change Learning Hub has a range of great resources to support you in creating more impactful communications, using proven language strategies that help engage audiences and drive positive change.
Learning to apply these framing strategies takes practice, and we can all benefit from each other’s experience and insights along the way. That’s where our monthly
Framing for Change Community of Practice comes in – it’s a safe space to share and build a supportive network focused on improving the effectiveness of our messaging.
Anyone interested in creating impactful communications to drive meaningful change is welcome to join – please register your interest here.
Thriving Lockyer Kids putting data and learning to work building personal strengths and community connections
On 27 February, Nicci Martin, representing TQKP's partner-led project, the Thriving Lockyer Kids Initiative (funded by Helping Hands Network Foundation), presented at the USQ Innovations in Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Wellbeing Symposium.
In her presentation, Nicci drew on AEDC Laidley Community and Laidley District State School data to explore the factors that contribute to a positive trajectory on the multi-strength indicator. The indicator highlights developmental strengths in social and emotional development, such as self-control, pro-social skills, respectful behaviour towards peers, teachers and property, and curiosity about the world, alongside literacy and numeracy skills.
This was an opportunity for Thriving Lockyer Kids to showcase recent achievements in connecting the community through collective impact and the proactive strategies the project has embedded in community culture in the early years.
The Thriving Lockyer Kids Initiative is being led locally in partnership with Together4Lockyer, Darling Downs and West Moreton PHN, Kambu Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation for Health (Kambu Health) and University of Southern Queensland, Our Heartland, and Queensland Department of Education.
SEEN the film
Members of the TQKP team were delighted to attend the first Queensland public screening for the deeply thought provoking new documentary from ParentTV, SEEN The Film, alongside over 200 parents, caregivers and educators on the Sunshine Coast.
Through poignant personal stories interwoven with insights from neuroscience, the film highlights the importance of connection for building secure attachment and healthy brains – elements which we know are fundamental for wellness and resilience.
As one of the film's contributing experts, Professor Selena Bartlett, explains, "A healthy parent-child relationship and seeing our children for who they truly are, can build lifelong mental wellbeing."
A common challenge for parents is understanding that their own mental health is important, and that prioritising it is not being selfish.
"You cannot use logic to escape the programming of your own childhood," says Selena, however, neuroplasticity means that it can be changed. “That’s the hope in this story,” she adds.
This screening was aptly timed to coincide with #BrainAwarenessWeek. We highly recommend this beautiful documentary, which highlights the power of unconditional love and the strength and hope to be found in healing. Watch the trailer below and find more screening dates at the official 'SEEN the film' website here
Opportunities
WEBINAR Shaping Fatherhood’s Role in Child and Family Health
Wednesday 26 March 2025, 11:00am-12:00pm AEST
Fathers play a vital role in child development, health, and family wellbeing—yet their impact during the perinatal period is often overlooked in population studies.
ARACY invites you to join Professor Craig Garfield, a global leader in father inclusion in health settings, as he shares innovative approaches from the U.S. on father wellbeing, data collection, and how these insights are shaping policy and practice. Associate Professor Richard Fletcher (Fathers and Families Research Program, University of Newcastle) and Gautam Raju (Global Director, Policy and Advocacy, Movember) will also contribute to a thought-provoking discussion on strengthening father inclusion in public health.
Don’t miss this opportunity to explore the future of fatherhood in health policy.
WEBINAR Changing Trajectories: Insights on an Intensive Early Childhood Education and Care Model for Children Living with Significant Family Stress
Monday 24 March 2025, 10:00am-11:00am AEST
This session is designed for ECEC sector leaders, advocates, philanthropists, and policy makers to learn more about evidence-based models supporting children and families experiencing significant family stress and social disadvantage.
Parkville Institute is hosting this webinar to discuss key findings from its replication of the Early Years Education Program (EYEP), set out in this Implementation Insights Report. Topics will include:
the program’s early impacts on children, families and educators, and;
insights, learnings and enablers for implementing this model effectively.
The Queensland Family and Child Commission is again hosting a Youth Summit for 2025, to be held at the Emporium Hotel, South Bank.
This free one-day event aims to amplify the voices of young people. Each speaker will be given a 6-minute time period to present their advocacy piece on stage to an audience of decision- and policy- makers. Key leaders in the sector will provide reflection speeches after each of the six speaker sessions.
There will be an opportunity to network with attendees, sector leads, the QFCC Commissioners and the young speakers during the morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea breaks.
GRANT OPPORTUNITY: PRF First Nations Targeted Grant Round
Applications close at 5:00pm on 7 April 2025
Paul Ramsay Foundation (PRF) is currently inviting applications for grants, valued up to $500,000 each, to support regional and remote First Nations peoples' and communities’ self-determination and empower First Nations-led organisations to strengthen their impact.
This opportunitiy is open to First Nations communities in Tasmania, the Northern Territory, the Torres Strait, regional and remote Queensland, and regional and remote South Australia. The geographic areas have been carefully selected to increase access to philanthropy for First Nations-led organisations which might not have previously received or applied for PRF funding.
GRANT OPPORTUNITY: Queensland Child Protection Week 2025
Applications close 16 May 2025
Grant applications for the Queensland Child Protection Week 2025 (7–13 September) are now open in the Activity, Regional, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander categories.
5 June 2025, Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre
Hosted by the Queensland Centre for Perinatal and Infant Mental Health, this second annual event will take place in the lead-up to Infant Mental Health Awareness Week.
The 2025 Symposium theme is Listening to Babies is Everyone’s Business. Program details will be released shortly.
More details are coming soon. To be added to a symposium mailing list, contact the symposium team: QCPIMH-events@health.qld.gov.au
Childhood Summit 2025
24 & 25 October 2025, Logan
The Childhood Summit is a platform for children to be heard on matters important to them. It aims to increase the value of listening to children and to promote children as active community citizens.
A systematic evaluation and comparison of the consistency of infant safer sleep messaging in Australia
This newly published paper (March 2025), co-authored by Dr Jeanine Young with colleagues from University of the Sunshine Coast and Monash University, examines the language used in recommendations about infant safer sleep and shared sleep in Australia.
To reduce the occurrence of sudden infant death, organisations need to provide consistent messaging on infant safer sleep to avoid public confusion. The authors advocate for the adoption of a Risk Minimisation approach with clearer messaging, which provides considerations for informed choice and strategies for safer shared sleeping; intentional or unintentional.
The Preventative Shift – a Demos-Health Foundation discussion paper
This report, published in February 2025, is part of an ongoing series of work by Demos making the case for a more preventative state, one that shifts from firefighting mode to preventing problems before they arise to improve people’s lives and reduce the spiralling cost of public services.
New Social Ventures Australia report – Targeting investment where it counts
This landmark report identified 131 Australian communities where socioeconomic disadvantage and “childcare deserts” are leaving children at risk of lifelong health, social and welfare problems. In Queensland, as in Australia more generally, most of these are located in regional and remote areas, with 111,000 young children nationwide identified as experiencing serious hardship in early childhood.
SVA's recommendations include extending investment in early childhood education and care (ECEC) and the establishment of integrated and inclusive early learning models, which offer a holistic and coste-effective way to meet many of the needs of children and their families.
Impact of Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs): A Systematic Review of Longitudinal Studies
This hot-off-the-press article by a team of Australian researchers, published in Child Psychiatry and Human Development, has made a significant contribution to the field of child development by undertaking a review of studies that had examined the impact of positive childhood experiences over time.
The authors (Kallapiran et al) found that positive childhood experiences were associated with reduced rates of depression, substance use, delinquent behaviour, risky sexual behaviour, persistent insomnia and inflammatory markers. Especially when cumulative, positive childhood experiences may buffer the effects of adversity to both reduce the likelihood of compromised outcomes and contribute to greater lifelong wellbeing.
These findings have important implications for the design and resourcing of communities, services and systems to help all families flourish, including supporting them to navigate turbulent seas when facing adversity.
Literature review: Service systems designed to prevent involvement in child protection and youth justice
The purpose of this report––prepared at the request of the Queensland Family and Child Commission––is to is review the evidence for systems reforms and identify what makes service systems effective.
Acknowledging that children, young people, and families are part of broader, interconnected social systems, researchers point to a need to consider whole service systems in the prevention of statutory involvement. Intervening at the child- or family-level will be inadequate if the service systems they may come into contact with are not robust, connected and designed to cater for communities’ needs.
Shared Stories of Brain Building Across Queensland Workforces
Shared Stories of Brain Building Across Workforces in Queensland provides real-life examples of how Queensland professionals in a range of sectors are applying the latest neuroscience and brain health knowledge to create the optimal conditions for children’s mental, physical, social, emotional and cognitive development from the early years onwards.
Engaging children as partners in practice helps ensure children’s voices, experiences and knowledge are valued in practice settings. Collaboration between practitioners and children lays a solid foundation for responding to child mental health concerns.
But how can you meaningfully partner with children in your own practice? In this article, Emerging Minds outlines six ways you can build partnerships with children and their families.
Given the widespread use of parenting programs as a form of family support, it is critical that decision makers and frontline practitioners understand the available evidence about the effectiveness of parenting programs. This can support decision making around funding and program design and planning the types of programs that services will deliver, when they will deliver them and to whom.
This resource summarises the evidence for the effectiveness of parenting programs, which populations they can support and when they can be effective.
Supporting infants and children in disasters: A practice guide
With severe weather top of mind for Queenslanders, we want to draw your attention once again to this practice guide recently published by Emerging Minds.
Developed in partnership with child development and disaster experts from across Australia, this resource is invaluable for anyone supporting children to navigate the impacts of natural hazards.
If you share our vision for a Queensland where every infant, child, young person and family has what it takes to thrive, we invite you to join Thriving Queensland Kids Partnership in creating a movement for change.
Please get in touch via email or LinkedIn and start a conversation about what thriving means to you, and how we can work together to create better systems for Queensland kids. We look forward to hearing from you!
What did you think of TQKP's December eNews?
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