By
The Australian Centre of Social Innovation
Carolyn Curtis
Sarah Schulman
Chris Vanstone
Families in Marion
Designed in
Australia
Description
Family by Family is a new network of families helping families. It enables families to set and achieve their own goals with the support of families who have 'been there, done that'. Goals like improving kids behaviour, making better friends, getting out more, or learning about Australia. The service finds and trains families (kids included) who have made it through tough times, matches them with families who want things to change, and coaches family pairs through a 10-30 week link-up. The aim is to enable families to thrive, not just survive.
Key Features
and/or Benefits
Family by Family is a new response to the problem of families in crisis. Since 2005 there has been a 51% increase in children removed from their families and placed in out-of-home care in Australia. Family services are overwhelmed, whilst child protection services are only able to respond to the most extreme cases. The costs are significant. Every year in Australia about $1,944m is spent addressing the long-term impact of child abuse and neglect. The cost of setting up and running Family by Family in an area is equivalent to preventing a family of three from entering long term care.
Over 12-months, a design team with expertise in service design, behaviour change, and family services worked with families, policymakers, service providers and academics to develop the model. We started by spending 100s of hours hanging out with families to understand family life before co-designing solutions, running a prototype service with 20 families over 12 weeks, and developing the business case for scale. From the prototype, we secured investment to start Family by Family in Marion and in a second location in Playford. We expect to reach 160 families in our first full year of operation. See the process here http://vimeo.com/23628633
Core to the model are two new roles: the Sharing Family role and the Family Coach, each requiring the design of new recruitment materials, training experiences, support systems, and incentives.
The roles play out over 5 service stages:
1. Finding - how we attract families with family friendly language, messages and visual identity
2. Training - how we build capacity of 'sharing family' adults and kids
3. Linking-up - how families work together over 10 to 30 weeks
4. Coaching - how families are supported during a link-up
5. Measuring - how progress is made visible to families and funders.
The roles play out over 5 service stages:
1. Finding - how we attract families with family friendly language, messages and visual identity
2. Training - how we build capacity of 'sharing family' adults and kids
3. Linking-up - how families work together over 10 to 30 weeks
4. Coaching - how families are supported during a link-up
5. Measuring - how progress is made visible to families and funders.
Family by Family harnesses an untapped community resource - families who have come out the other side of crisis and want to help others do the same. Uniquely, it works whole family to whole family - kids included, differentiating it from services that focus only on kids or parents - like parenting groups or mentoring. Because support comes from families rather than professionals, the service has proven attractive to families turned off by the typically punitive approach of family services. Whilst most services aim to reduce risk, Family by Family enables families to see, and then, adopt thriving.
Family by Family exists to create change with and between families. We are currently collecting evaluation data from our two sites, but evidence from the prototype suggests that both 'sharing' and 'seeking' families experience positive changes in their goals, social connectedness, future orientation, and behaviour. We know from extensive quantitative research that these are 'protective factors' which buffer families against risk. In addition, Family by Family improves job readiness and financial security for Sharing families who are paid to participate in training and coaching. Often, the 'Sharing family' role is a significant stepping stone into full employment.