Creating the Conditions for Collective Impact in Disadvantaged Communities in Australia Through an Enhanced Prevention Support System

There is a strongly felt need across the community services and education sectors in Australia for the development of integrated, evidence-based approaches to place-based services that tackle seemingly intractable problems affecting the wellbeing and ‘well-becoming ‘of children in disadvantaged communities. Communities for Children (CfC), a federal government program established in 2004 for children aged 0 to 12, functions in 55 disadvantaged communities throughout Australia. It is based on local partnerships of service providers coordinated by a facilitating NGO, and is the best available prevention delivery system in Australia. However, CfC falls short of best prevention practice in many ways, and has shown only modest improvements in child and parent outcomes at the whole of community level.

A partnership was formed in late 2012 of four NGOs and three government departments, including the federal agency that administers CfC. Funding has been sought for a project that for the first time in Australia will make collective impact possible by building a Prevention Support System (PSS) for CfC communities that empowers schools, community agencies and families to go beyond current CfC practice through implementation of key principles that form the acronym CREATE:

C – collaborative - a comprehensive, integrated approach based on good governance

R- relationship-driven – trust built on relationships with people and connections between organisations

E – early in the pathway – prevent problems before they emerge or become entrenched

A – accountable – a clear focus on measurable outcomes and shared responsibility for shared goals

T- training-focused – empowerment of teachers and community service staff and building parental efficacy

E – evidence-based – programs have clear evidence of effectiveness and can be implemented with integrity.

The PSS draws on lessons from Pathways to Prevention in Australia, and Communities That Care, PROSPER, and the Pennsylvania PSS in the United States, and incorporates implementation staff, a resource compendium of electronic and print technical resources, and resources for training and coalition governance. The project will build on partnerships in 3 CfC sites in New South Wales where the PSS will be field tested then evaluated for effectiveness by comparison with 3 matched CfC sites. It will also be tested for external validity in three remote Indigenous communities in central Australia.