Berry Street Web Docs Annual Report 2009 | Page 11

Our Leadership and Advocacy
contributing to improvement

We also contributed to:- legislative changes which
extended the period for Child Death Reviews; the
Bushfire Royal Commission; the Inquiry into Strategies
to Prevent High Volume Offending by Young People;
the Government Discussion Paper on Mental Health
and Wellbeing in Victoria; the Vulnerable Youth
Framework; the National Quality Framework for Early
Childhood Education and Care; the Discussion Paper
on Strengthening Student Support Services; and
Contribution of the Not-for-Profit Sector (Productivity
Commission).
Our Knowledge team in Take Two found new ways of
sharing the knowledge we are developing from our
clinical work with children and young people who have
suffered profound trauma from severe abuse, violence
and/or neglect.

It is an expectation of everyone working at Berry
Street that they use their knowledge and experience
to contribute to improving policies, processes and
systems which impact on our clients. At the most
basic level, this is within the team but extends across
Berry Street, through local networks and State and
National forums.
At a national level, we contributed to the development
of the National Framework for Protecting Australia’s
Children, which was signed off by the Council of
Australian Governments in December. This is the first
time there has been commitment by non-government
organisations and State and Federal Government to
work together on a strategy to reduce Child Abuse and
Neglect in Australia.
At a State level, we played a leadership role in the
campaign which resulted in an additional $134 million
over 4 years for Out of Home Care. The ‘Vulnerable
Kids Can’t Wait’ campaign drew attention to the
plight of more than 120 children and young people
(at any one time) who were removed from their
homes because of abuse, but couldn’t get safe and
appropriate care.
We took leadership roles in the development of a new
funding price for Family Services and advocated for
a better scheme to achieve portability of Long
Service Leave.

• In partnership with Westcare, we were responsible
for the rollout of therapeutic residential care
training (2 days) to all residential care workers in
Victoria and 5 days training to organisations which
are piloting therapeutic residential care.
• We provided ‘Calmer Classrooms’ (a guide to help
teachers understand the impact of trauma)
training to over 1,100 teachers and education
support staff at 16 schools, one pre-school, six
Department of Education and Early Childhood
Development regional forums and one Catholic
Education forum.
• In partnership with the Department of Human
Services (DHS), La Trobe University, Melbourne
University, Bouverie and VACCA, we developed
a new Graduate Certificate in Child and Family
Practice and Graduate Diploma in Child & Family
Practice Leadership.
• In partnership with Bouverie, we piloted a new
Graduate Certificate in Aboriginal Family Therapy.
• We partnered with 12 other community service
organisations and DHS around therapeutic foster
care and residential care.
• In partnership with DHS, we piloted an initial Health
Assessment for all children entering out of home care.

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