Olivia Walker
Editor in Chief
Dan Mitchell
Assistant Manager
Noah Patterson
Programming Editor
Tess Anderson
Art Director
What people are saying about Winangay
Fiona Ward
Deputy Chief Executive Department for Child Protection, Adelaide, South Australia, June 2021
It was such a pleasure to be there the team from Winangay, Annette Groat, Kerry Rogers, Sue Barr and Robyn Skilbeck led us through where we began with Winangay in 2017 and where we are now. Most moving for me was to hear our Lead Aboriginal Practitioner, Annette Groat, talk about how many years ago she and other staff had a vision about how to engage with Aboriginal families differently and better. This vision has come to fruition because of the approach and tools that Winangay have developed and tested over time. I know there are still gains to make, but with many of you having completed the training (with more to come) I really wanted to take this opportunity to highlight how this change in practice is getting us closer to where we want to be as an agency in terms of working with Aboriginal families. The thoughts I shared on the day are thoughts that I’d like to share with those of you that couldn’t be there. Children need to be safe; children need to be heard, children thrive in their families, carers need to be respected and carers need to be included. All of these things which seem so simple, but are in fact complex, Winangay helps us to achieve.
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Dawn Wallam
Chair of SNAIC
The tool is ground breaking and will result in a new way of workingthat will redefine best practice, requiring workers to work collaboratively with carers, identifying their strengths, as together they find ways of building carers capacity……… and ensure Aboriginal kinship carers and kids are heard.
Richard Weston
CEO Healing Foundations
The Winangay team have blended experience, expertise and blended that with Aboriginal knowledge and wisdom to develop a very sophisticated model. It is very sophisticated, it is effective and it works.
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It creates high expectations and confidence in our mob… we have the solutions to our own problems.
Professor Fiona Arney
Director ACCP
The Winangay approach represents a seismic shift in working with Aboriginal families and children – from a ‘power over’ to a ‘power sharing’ relationship, and hopefully to an empowering one. The approaches also include a clear focus on the professional development of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal workers to undertake this work in a culturally safe and evidence-based way.
An award recognising an individual who has made outstanding active efforts to implement the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Protection Principle, including the precursor element Identification and/or one or more of the core elements of Prevention, Partnership, Placement, Participation and Connection.
The KiDS SAY Project: 'Supporting Children to Talk about their Experiences and Engage in Decision-Making
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The award for significant contribution for advancement of knowledge and significant contribution to professional practice.