CFRE travelled to Kununurra in the East Kimberley region to provide workshops and program support to Save the Children.
In 2016, CFRE was requested by the Department of Social Services (DSS) to increase the capacity of fifteen remote and regional Communities for Children (CfC) service delivery agencies in remote and rural communities to use and generate evidence. Save the Children Kununurra is the Facilitating Partner of the East Kimberley CfC program.
CFRE provided a two-day capacity building workshop on program planning and evaluation for this agency and their Community Partners. This on-site workshop focused on the steps in developing a program from identifying the community needs, addressing key causes, planning the program activities and evaluating the program outcomes. The agencies worked on their own projects to develop a project logic and evaluation plan by the end of the two days.
Following the workshop, CFRE provided tailored program support to one of the Community Partners, a local Aboriginal Controlled Community Organisation, Mirima Dawang Woorlab-gerring (MDWg), who deliver the Miriwoong Language Nest program. The aim of the Miriwoong Language Nest is to support the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal children in the Kununurra community by embedding Miriwoong language learning in mainstream educational settings. CFRE worked closely with Save the Children and program staff to develop a comprehensive program logic and highlight the research evidence that underpins the program. Being able to document the program and structure meant we were then able to help prepare the documentation for submission to the ‘evidence-based list’ for CfC programs.
This project provided an opportunity to document the critical work being conducted in the Kimberley to preserve Miriwoong language, which is currently considered critically endangered. CFRE provided culturally sensitive and respectful support to program staff and developers to help document the theory that underpins the program and define and measure program outcomes. The fact that Kununurra is a remote township 4000kms from CFRE’s Melbourne base was overcome by the provision of flexible support, clear expectations and communication and use of technology to bridge the distance.
The Miriwoong Language Nest program received further tailored program support to prepare a submission to the Child Family Community Australia (CFCA) information exchange portal for Emerging Programs category. The submission was reviewed by the Australian Institute of Family Studies and assessed to meet the criteria to be considered an emerging program.