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families and schools working in partnership to ensure the emotional well-being of young people
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Families Matter Newsletter Volume 1 No. 5: February 2006
Families Matter is a resource for families and schools working in partnership to support the well-being of young people. The Families Matter initiative has been researched and developed jointly by the Australian Council of State School Organisations (ACSSO) and the Australian Parents Council (APC) under contract funding provided by the federal Department of Health and Ageing. The purpose of Families Matter is to build a positive partnership between families and schools around a shared understanding of the support needs of young people, to provide a joint focus on their social and emotional development, fostering their sense of connectedness, belonging and purpose in life. The design and operation of Families Matter is unique in its model of parents working with parents as leaders and presenters of workshops and as peer mentors. It equips and empowers parents as process leaders, to engage and involve other parents in a flexible and interactive process to build equal and complementary partnerships with school leaders and teachers. Funded to focus on secondary school students, Families Matter was successfully piloted in a range of high schools in 2004 and then rolled out to some 200 other schools keen to participate in that first year of operation; and to some further 150 schools seeking to take up the resource in 2005. National Evaluation already shows good things happening – and great potential Families Matter and all other elements of the national MindMatters suite of initiatives are currently being evaluated to enable the Department to make decisions about the future direction and operation of all elements of the program. In their work-in-progress report to 31 December, the consultants state: “The evaluation shows without doubt that the Families Matter concept is strong. The program has already shown it can make a major impact on resilience and emotional well-being among young people, and bring about positive cultural change in schools, particularly in the relationship between parents and schools”. Training support for interested schools continues into 2006 We are now funded to provide further Training Days for interested schools, through to the end of May 2006, pending mid-year decisions by the Department about the future direction, scope and operation of Families Matter. We have scheduled a program of Training Day events around the country. Because of the dynamics of the term holidays in each State, these will be mainly in Term 2. This gives schools lead time to select and prepare their teams of parent presenters and staff liaison people to participate in that training. As well as training for teams from further schools taking up Families Matter, this is also an opportunity for already-participating schools to re-train team members or to train new members of their team. The schedule of Training Days to May 2006
We also have some limited additional resource capacity to develop an additional workshop in the situation where a cluster of schools in a particular area can negotiate a mutually convenient date and location. To confirm your interest in participating, please download, complete and return the 2006 Registration Form – at this URL: http://www.familiesmatter.org.au/reg06.pdf. To discuss any matters relating to the Training program for 2006, please contact: Ms Kelli Kiernan For an overview of how a school community becomes involved and implements Families Matter, you should check out the information on the site at: http://www.familiesmatter.org.au/yourschool.htm. Stop Press: Primary School Pilot in 2006 Under Negotiation The initial development and implementation of Families Matter was focused by the Department on the needs of families in the early years of secondary schooling. ACSSO, APC and the Australian Primary Principals Association have always been firmly of the view that this resource is appropriate to the needs of families in primary schools, a conclusion based on our discussions with parents and families across the country. The Department of Health & Ageing has recently indicated that in 2006 it will seek to work with stakeholders to develop a pilot resilience and well-being program focused on the needs of students and families in the primary years of schooling. ACSSO and APC will be actively involved in this process – and we will ensure you are kept informed of progress as this important initiative takes shape. Questions and Enquiries Rupert Macgregor SCHOOL REGISTRATION FORM – TRAINING DAYS 2006 (click to download in PDF format) |
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