A program allowing Aboriginal people to take control of decision making for Aboriginal children in out-of-home care is addressing an over-representation of Aboriginal children in the system.
Ballarat and District Aboriginal Cooperative is the latest in Victoria to become authorised to run the Aboriginal Children in Aboriginal Care program.Aboriginal children are 22 times more likely to be removed from their families and placed in the child protection system than non-Aboriginal children in Victoria.
"It is giving community, families and children self determination back and decision making back with Aboriginal people instead of having the department make those decisions," she said.The Victorian government's 2021 Aboriginal Affairs Report said almost 30 per cent of children in the out-of-home care system were Aboriginal, despite Aboriginal people representing less than 1 per cent of the Victorian population.
Bendigo and District Aboriginal Cooperative's numbers have grown to more than 100 children since also beginning the program in 2019. She said the Aboriginal Children in Aboriginal Care program was healing of intergenerational trauma that had created distrust in child protection services. "You prevent the next generation from having contact with the system," she said while speaking at a confence in Ballarat this week.She said it took her organisation 10 years of lobbying for the government to entertain the idea of guardianship.
Child Protection Aboriginal Children Out Of Home Care Badac Aboriginal Children In Aboriginal Care Bendigo Bendigo And District Aboriginal Cooperative Ballarat And District Aboriginal Cooperative Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Aboriginal woman details traumatising experience in hospital following Ballarat assaultVictoria's health minister has described the treatment of an Aboriginal woman who self-discharged from hospital as 'shocking', while government data shows an increase in the number of First Peoples leaving hospitals against medical advice
Read more »
This organisation is lobbying for Aboriginal kids in First Nations care after 'devastating' death of teenagerBendigo District Aboriginal Co-operative has welcomed and fully supported the recommendations issued from the coronial inquest into the death of an Aboriginal teenager in state care.
Read more »
Coroner finds Aboriginal teenager who died in care had her human rights breachedThe Wemba Wemba girl wrote a letter six months before her death asking for cultural connection and time with Elders.
Read more »
Rangers from Yalata Aboriginal Community using drones to care for local landIndigenous rangers from a remote South Australian community are using drones and thermal technology to care for country. The rangers in Yalata on South Australia's far west coast, have rediscovered forgotten cultural sites and found seal populations along the coast.
Read more »
Prison lacked care for Aboriginal life: grieving motherJoshua Kerr's mother Aunty Donnas Kerr demanded inquest findings be implemented in all prisons.
Read more »
Prison lacked care for Aboriginal life, mum says, as coroner rules her son could have livedFor 16 minutes an Indigenous man was left unconscious in his prison cell before dying, in what his mother describes as a system lacking care and compassion for human life.
Read more »