Helping communities take charge of the early years

Central Great Southern couple Ella Maesepp and David Potter, with sons Zavier and Quade

A program unfolding in four very diverse locations across Western Australia is working to give children aged 0–4 the best start in life by placing curated, evidence-based information in the hands of communities and empowering them to decide what actions will work best, in their own contexts, to help their children thrive.

It’s well accepted by now that providing appropriate supports around families and children as early as possible in a child’s life will give kids the best chance down the track.

But deciding what those supports should be – and what is most likely to work within the context of a particular community – can depend on many factors. With so many diverse towns, suburbs and communities around the state, there can be no one-size-fits-all approach.

The Early Years Initiative (EYI) – a 10-year partnership between the State Government, Minderoo Foundation and four partner communities dotted throughout WA – seeks to work with that diversity and empower local communities to determine their own priorities for action when it comes to lifting up their children.

Telethon Kids Institute is the evidence partner for the initiative, helping to arm working parties in the partner communities – based in Armadale, Derby, Bidyadanga and the Central Great Southern It’s well accepted by now that providing appropriate supports around families and children as early as possible in a child’s life will give kids the best chance down the track.

But deciding what those supports should be – and what is most likely to work within the context of a particular community – can depend on many factors. With so many diverse towns, suburbs and communities around the state, there can be no one-size-fits-all approach.

The Early Years Initiative (EYI) – a 10-year partnership between the State Government, Minderoo Foundation and four partner communities dotted throughout WA – seeks to work with that diversity and empower local communities to determine their own priorities for action when it comes to lifting up their children.

Telethon Kids Institute is the evidence partner for the initiative, helping to arm working parties in the partner communities – based in Armadale, Derby, Bidyadanga and the Central Great Southern region – with evidence-based information about their individual communities.The State Government (through the Departments of Communities, Education and Health) and the Minderoo Foundation are providing local staff to facilitate community decision-making and actions, plus centralised administrative support.

Dr Rosemary Cahill, the Principal Senior Research Fellow leading the Institute’s contribution to the Early Years Initiative, said a key feature of the project was that communities remained in control, rather than outsiders deciding what should happen.

“The ownership in terms of priorities and any actions taken rests with those communities, not with Government, Minderoo, nor us as researchers,” Dr Cahill said.

Our role is to provide them with good quality research evidence about child health, development and learning, and to collate and sift through data specific to their community to help them identify what is most important to them, and what actions might be most productive given their own circumstances.

“Rather than throw mountains of information at them, we’ve provided a curated suite of administrative data relevant to each community, in the form of situational analysis reports that look at headline indicators for child and family health and wellbeing.”

The administrative data is drawn from sources including the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Child Development Atlas, the Australian Early Childhood Development Census and the Departments of Health, Education and Communities. Selected headline indicators include rates of teen pregnancy and smoking during pregnancy, dental health, domestic violence, preschool enrolments, household income and housing.

“Sorting through the data brings to the surface issues that stand out in that community, whether they’re strengths or things that may need attention,” Dr Cahill said. “We also share, as part of those reports, what research tells us about how those particular issues influence child development.

“The community members can then overlay that information with their own local knowledge, taking into account things like the cultural and demographic mix, the resources available, and what local people most want or need, and work out which issues are a priority for them to address with support from the .”

Telethon Kids can also help the communities clarify how they want to tackle the chosen priorities.

People can often see a problem and leap to what seems like an obvious solution, but without having a clear vision of exactly what improvements they want to see, it might turn out that wasn’t the best way to address the issue after all and there are other things that may be more effective.

"We step the working parties through a planning process called a Rapid Cycle Review. It asks things like what’s the problem behind the problem, how do you think you might approach it, who are the stakeholders, what do you want to achieve, what actions are you going to take, and – before you get started – make sure you are clear about what you will look for as indicators of progress being made, etc.

“In this way, they gain absolute clarity about why and how they’re doing something, what they want out of it, and how to know it’s getting better.

“The Rapid Cycle Review process is a great piece of capacity building – once guided through the process once or twice, they develop the capacity and confidence to do it on their own into the future.”