First Nations Early Years Programs Report – World Vision Insights

First Nations Early Years Programs Report – World Vision Insights

Purpose

Through work undertaken by SNAICC – National Voice for our Children (SNAICC) and Social Ventures Australia (SVA) to establish the THRYVE initiative [now Early Years Support], it has become clear that much of the work and learnings of the early years community-controlled sector has not been documented or analysed. World Vision Australia (WVA) has undertaken significant work in this area.

The lessons learned from this work have the potential to benefit many others working in the early years sector enabling the building of an evidence base of what works and what doesn’t work for establishing new early years programs in regional/remote communities and transitioning early years services and supports to an Aboriginal community-controlled organisation (ACCO).

In 2022, under the guidance of SVA, SNAICC and WVA, SVA Consulting developed two case studies of work undertaken in the early years space by WVA in northern Australia (in the West Kimberley and Central Desert) to understand two key aspects of WVA’s journey:

1. the establishment of early years services in remote/regional communities, and
2. the process of building partnerships with communities and transitioning ownership and governance of services over to ACCOs.

World Vision’s approach to early years First Nations projects

World Vision’s approach is characterised by extensive engagement and relationship building with communities and organisations; a focus on parent empowerment and ownership; capacity building; social transformation; and a gradual and sustainable transfer of project management to community members through strong partnerships.

First Nations Early Years Programs Report key findings

Key success factors in WVA’s journeys

1. Developing a local understanding of early childhood development and the importance of early childhood programs amongst the communities where WVA is working.
2. Developing strong community governance: WVA has fostered the development of early childhood reference groups (ECRGs) it has worked in. These ECRGs are made up of predominantly local community members, who meet regularly to discuss anything related to early childhood in their respective communities. Over many years (since 2008 in the Central Desert and since 2014 in the West Kimberley), WVA has provided governance training and skills training to these groups, building up the community’s knowledge on early childhood and governance capabilities. Having strong, established ECRGs in place has allowed WVA a mechanism through which to obtain community input into its programs, enabling community ownership of program design.
3. Developing strong relationships with the community: this is imperative – trust, communication, time and a clear commitment to a long-term partnership is necessary to establish early childhood programs and support positive relationships with ACCOs. What this looks like in practice might look different in each community.
4. Successfully working with ACCOs and other First Nations organisations/bodies requires developing a shared understanding of each party’s roles, perspectives, experience and expectations.
5. Investing in the development of a local community workforce sets programs up for long-term success.

Key challenges

1. WVA took a community development approach to its work across both case studies, which did not always sit consistently with other organisations’/funders’ experience of service delivery approaches, where “community development” had not necessarily been part of “service delivery” contracts.
2. Funding – both the lack of, and the lack of certainty for ongoing funding – provides an ongoing challenge for getting programs up and running, securing infrastructure for the programs and maintaining the programs.
3. Lack of a deep and shared understanding of the respective roles, perspectives, experience, and expectations of WVA and ACCOs and other First Nations organisations/bodies can lead to miscommunications and a breakdown of trust. This is a significant barrier to working collaboratively and successfully.
4. Capacity-building may be needed to ensure ACCOs are equipped to do this work in the long term. However, capacity-building is complex and time-consuming work which is not currently funded by government.