Stay informed and inspired with the latest updates from the ARACY community. Join us in our mission to ensure every Australian child and young person thrives!
ARACY partners with organisations across sectors to advance initiatives that promote the health and wellbeing of children and young people. By collaborating with government, educational institutions, and community organisations, ARACY is building a brighter future for Australia’s children and young people.
Key Initiatives:
Thriving Queensland Kids Partnership (TQKP): This initiative focuses on driving systemic change in Queensland to ensure children’s wellbeing and development. By aligning policy and practice with community needs, TQKP fosters cross-sector collaboration to address health, education, and social outcomes, creating a robust foundation for every child in Queensland to thrive.
Investment Dialogue for Australia’s Children (IDAC): ARACY leads this collaborative platform to bring together key stakeholders in conversations around effective investment in children’s futures. IDAC aims to influence policy and funding towards initiatives that offer long-term benefits for child and youth wellbeing, highlighting evidence-based strategies that contribute to better outcomes for young Australians.
Advocacy Priorities: ARACY’s advocacy work prioritises addressing systemic issues impacting children and young people, with a focus on youth justice reform, equitable access to quality education, and prevention of childhood poverty and homelessness. By highlighting these areas and working with our partners, ARACY works to ensure that Australia’s policies and practices support safe, healthy, and supportive environments where all children and young people can thrive.
Through these initiatives and advocacy efforts as well as working together with key partners, ARACY is leading the way in creating environments where every child and young person can thrive.
Journey: Thriving Queensland Kids Partnership (TQKP) fosters a collaborative approach to align systems with children’s needs, encourages fresh thinking, and connects ideas and people to drive meaningful change.
Achievements: In 2023-24, TQKP saw improvements in collaborative leadership for systems change, enhanced capacity in families and communities for child wellbeing, and stronger cross-system connectivity.
Learnings: Key insights included the importance of a systems and learning mindset, the necessity of trust-building in co-design processes, the value of responsive investment approaches, and the role of convening and brokering to advance shared goals.
On November 4 the Paul Ramsay Foundation, TQKP, and ARTD Consultants presented a webinar on evaluating the Thriving Queensland Kids Partnership (TQKP). This evaluation, covering January 2023 to June 2024, examined effective multi-sector engagement strategies within the TQKP initiative. Presenters shared key insights, lessons learned from working with an intermediary, and TQKP’s plans for applying these findings, as well as a question and answer session.
The Australian Children’s Wellbeing Index, a collaboration between UNICEF Australia and ARACY, measures children’s wellbeing across the six domains of The Nest (The Nest is Australia’s first evidence-based framework for national child and youth wellbeing developed by ARACY) to track progress over time.
"Healthy Children, Healthy Futures" (2023) is the first report related to the Healthy domain and highlights positive health trends and calls for improved mental health support, especially for LGBTQIA+ youth.
"Empowering Young Minds" is the second report in the series, released in September, and focuses on the Learning domain, examining the status of education for Australian children, and highlighting both achievements and ongoing challenges.
ARACY joins with FARE in calling on the Government not to extend alcohol advertising
The commercial TV industry seeks to extend alcohol advertising by 800 hours a year, including weekends, holidays, and school breaks, increasing children’s exposure during sports events.
Sports events already have more than 10,000 alcohol ads annually, totaling about 75 minutes a week; the proposed changes would increase this exposure further.
The Australian Government’s rapid review recommends limiting alcohol ads due to links between sports events and increased violence against women and children—add your voice by 11 November to oppose this change.
Australia’s community and charity sector says “no” to education inequality
No More Education Inequality: ARACY, ACOSS, SSI and CCA are united in calling for an end to the chronic underfunding of public schools, which disproportionately impacts disadvantaged students, including children from low socioeconomic backgrounds, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and students with disabilities.
Demanding Full Funding: These organisations urge the Federal Government to commit to funding at least 25% of the School Resourcing Standard, enabling every child access to quality education and essential support to succeed.
Investing in Australia’s Future: Fully funding public schools is vital to ensure the wellbeing, equity, and long-term prosperity of Australia’s children, families, and communities.
Youth mental health and social media: A Joint Position Statement by Australian mental health focused organisations working with young people
Complex Factors Affecting Youth Mental Health: The joint statement by youth mental health organisations emphasises that social media alone is not responsible for the youth mental health crisis. Other contributing factors, such as childhood maltreatment, family violence, poverty, and climate change, need to be addressed in policy-making.
Balanced View on Social Media's Role: Social media has both risks and protective benefits, especially for marginalised youth, enabling connection, support, and access to mental health resources. The statement advises against age-based social media bans, citing a lack of evidence for their effectiveness.
Call for Youth-Inclusive Policies: The organisations urge policymakers to engage young people in developing safer online environments and to collaborate with social media platforms, mental health organisations, and governments to create evidence-based, youth-informed solutions.
Place 2.0: A Transformative Approach to Community Development Through Indigenous Knowledge Systems
Place 2.0: This evolved approach to community development uses Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) to deepen connections between people and their places. It focuses on sustaining place-specific relationships and strengths rather than solely on service delivery.
Community-Centred, Long-Term Focus: By embracing the essence of each community, Place 2.0 emphasises understanding local cycles of advantage, positive connections, and environmental relationships, creating enduring impact without imposing generic, top-down models.
Regenerative and Inclusive: Place 2.0 values Indigenous perspectives on Country, fostering community agency, social cohesion, and adaptability by prioritising relationships with both human and non-human elements in the community.
Discover a world of knowledge with the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) podcasts.
Discover a world of knowledge with the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) podcasts, where leading researchers share insights across diverse fields including stem cell medicine, genomics, global health, mental health, allergies, and more. Each episode explores breakthroughs and innovations aimed at improving the health and wellbeing of children in Australia and beyond.
Tune in to hear from MCRI experts making a real impact in children’s lives every day.
