Professional development, education, coaching & support for the provision of regionalised family-led, aspirations focused interventions to improve the early life and cultural experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families. Despite Australia’s prosperity, early intervention supports for families and babies are not always available or accessible to families who are experi
encing vulnerability. As a result, infants born to these families can be subject to poorer health and cognitive development than those born to empowered and resilient families, with life-long health and well-being implications that impact at individual, family, community and societal levels. The First 1000 Days Australia model, developed over the course of 2015 and with ongoing engagement processes, uses an ecological framework of social and family-based interventions targeting multiple levels and data collection methods to provide a comprehensive, rigorous and consistent empirical evidence base. It provides a strong foundation in supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families through:
• being an Indigenous-led, holistic initiative with interventions designed and implemented under Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community direction and knowledge returned to the community
• engaging with young people, families and carers of infants and strengthening their extended family and community networks
• involving health care workers, community organisations and all levels of government to address local and systemic-level issues contributing to the growing gap in infant and parental health
• supporting service providers to act on evidence and build service and regional level capacity to respond to stated need
• combining population-level approaches, political and advocacy experience, capacity building and knowledge exchange
• enhancing stability and resilience using family-based enterprise. Thus, it seeks to support families during periods of vulnerability through empowerment and other engagement strategies across different domains. Further, it restricts its focus to vulnerable versus resilient and/or thriving families rather than comparing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families to non-Indigenous families. Consequently, the Australian Model could also be applicable to, and a benchmark for, all people in Australia experiencing vulnerability and disadvantage.
