Recently Allambi staff represented at the Association of Children’s Residential and Community Services 67th Annual Conference in Minneapolis. Below are some individual takeaways from their time at the conference.
Nekia Stewart
Some take home messages for me were looking at Tanagers intake process and that it involves a meeting with a clinician and the completion of a behaviour support plan within 48 hours of a young person entering their care. The inclusion of relationship plans, personal awareness plans and the behaviour support plan being driven by the young person. Another interesting discussion was on diversity, equity and inclusion – the creation and importance of a specific role that oversees this and the different committees Pathfinders implement within their organisation.
Like the others have mentioned the power of family inclusive practice and family partners. A presentation on Family Systems Therapy highlighted that family is the interpretive lens that makes meaning of traumatic events; and that the family system can be a risk or a protective factor and the power in shifting the family to be the protective factor for the young person.
Rebecca Shiels-Earl
The take home for me is around the innovative work that is happening in the space of Lived Experience Expertise. This is where families (Family Partners) or youth (Youth Advocates) with a lived experience of the child welfare system, are employed within organisations as mentors and advocates. These specialised staff members support families and youth who are currently experiencing the system, to feel heard and understood. Family Partners and Youth Advocates support family inclusive practice, youth and family participation, motivation, empowerment, and family driven care.
Tineal Corrigan
I am very similar to Bec, the Family Partner’s, Youth Advocates and how their lived experience helps with family inclusive practice, youth and family participation, motivation and empowerment. Another take home for me was Gaelin Elmore’s keynote but more so the conversations had with him afterwards about the need for belonging, the need to work through your trauma and experiences to actually feel whole. His story is more than a foster child making it to the NFL, it is actually about knowing who you are and where you belong and being comfortable with this being the ultimate goal. He speaks about making the NFL and thinking that this would make everything better but quickly realising that he had made the NFL and something was still missing, this was when he realised he needed to focus on him, who he was, his story and where he belongs.
Sally Sutton
Like others mentioned below; there is a need for Parent Partners and Youth Advocates throughout any child and family’s journey and time in OOHC. For the success of the roles, it does require a planned and considerate approach of implementation, however once established children and parents act as their own advocates and their voices are clearly heard by others. The value of having them connect with youth and families from the time of entry into OOHC and remain as a reliable, non-judgemental supportive person has proven through data collection and lived experiences that this will have the ability to change the trajectory of a child and family’s outcome and lives.
Over the years, I have seen ACRC conferences be mainly theoretical, and I was pleased with how practical the agenda was this time. This year's themes highlighted the importance of young people having connections to family and the need for us to prepare them for their life after care, not just in care.
This has significant implications for designing our practices and preparing for young people across all Allambi department areas. I also attended sessions focused around the use of outcome data and its application to improvements of programs. Again, good data and outcomes should be centered around how the young person exits Allambi and transitions to greater independence.