- About Us
- Our Communities
- Our Work
- News & Events
- Resources
- Join WDO
- Foundation
- About Us
- Our Communities
- Our Work
- News & Events
- Resources
- Join WDO
- Foundation
Christopher Vanstone
The Australian Centre for Social Innovation
Families in Marion and Playford and The Australian Centre for Social Innovation
Australia
Australian International Design Awards
Family by Family emerged from a co-design process with 100s of families that was framed by the question: “How can a new service enable more families to thrive and fewer to come into contact with crisis services?”
Over 12 months The Australian Centre for Social Innovation worked with government child protection services, local NGOs, child protection academics, a local city, a design team and most importantly families to design what became Family by Family.
Family by Family is a new network of families helping families. It enables families to set and achieve their own goals with the support of other families who have ‘been there, done that’. Goals like improving kids behaviour, making better friends, getting out more, or learning about Australia. The service finds and trains families (kids included) who have made it through tough times, matches them with families who want things to change, and coaches family pairs through a 10-30 week link-up. The aim is to enable families to thrive, not just survive.
Core to the model are two new roles: the Sharing Family role and the Family Coach, each requiring the design of new recruitment materials, training experiences, support systems, and incentives.
The roles play out over 5 service stages:
1. Finding – how we attract families with family friendly language, messages and visual identity
2. Training – how we build capacity of ‘sharing family’ adults and kids
3. Linking-up – how families work together over 10 to 30 weeks
4. Coaching – how families are supported during a link-up
5. Measuring – how progress is made visible to families and funders.
In it’s first year of evaluation 90% of families participating in Family by Family met their goals. If this figure is discounted to 30% Family by Family still saves $1 for every $7 invested by preventing children from entering residential care services. Family by Family shows that families, with well designed support systems, can be more effective and efficient at creating change than professionals.