CREATE Project Bulletin – April 30, 2019
April 30, 2019
WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING
From the Directors’ Desk – Professors Ross Homel and Greer Johnson (Co-Directors):
This month we saw approval from the Department of Education in NSW to begin the process of inviting public schools to participate in the CREATE Project and use Rumble’s Quest. To get Rumble’s Quest to where it is now within both Departments has been a testimony of the persistence of many over some years now. In particular, we would like to thank Marianne Curtis and Ben Barnes (DoE, NSW), and Angela Ferguson and Rebecca Libke (DoE, QLD) for their continuous support and determination to see Rumble’s Quest rolled out. The current process as agreed with the Department of Education is similar to the process used in Queensland:
- Ross Homel sends out the email to Principals inviting them to participate in the project through their use of Rumble’s Quest
- This email has a link to a landing page that Principals can review information about Rumble’s Quest and access an information sheet.
- If they want to participate in the project the Principal completes the consent process to participate in the project.
- At the same time they also nominate a primary user who will be the school’s Rumble’s Quest “champion” and oversee school-wide implementation of Rumble’s Quest. The Primary User will manage the school’s Rumble’s Quest account via a secure administration and reporting dashboard. They need to take time to go through the user instructions and training guides located on their administration dashboard so they can coordinate the school’s Rumble’s Quest experience.
- The Department is open to discussing sending a follow-up email at a later date
- We are still hoping to arrange a meeting of Departmental personnel in NSW to brief them about Rumble’s Quest and the project as a whole.
We are hoping to enhance this process by drawing on the support of individuals within project sites, building on the good connections Communities for Children staff have with schools within their area, to draw attention to the email and support the uptake of Rumble’s Quest.
We will be taking some time out of the planned 9-10th May workshop with CIFs to brainstorm some of the actions CIFs and/or CfC, supported by Project staff, can take to highlight the usefulness of Rumble’s Quest, not only to the school but also to the wider community in responding to needs of children.
However, as Rumble’s Quest is being rolled out in areas where there are no CIFs the project is also mobilising the support of other partners within the Project including the Australian Primary Principal Association. Within Queensland we are now taking a geographically targeted approach to the roll out of Rumble’s Quest, beginning with schools within Logan CfC. We are doing this through our partnership with Logan Together, building on the fantastic links they have to schools in the area. Getting Rumble’s Quest rolled out to as many schools as possible in CfC communities in Queensland and New South Wales will be a significant achievement, requiring the efforts of many.
CREATE Executive Committee 8th April Meeting:
The CREATE Executive Committee (CEC) met on the 8th of April. At this meeting members discussed the Phase 2 Report and the work that is currently occurring in preparation for the CIF Report (as discussed in last month’s newsletter). The difficulties that surround the Data Linkage component of the CREATE program of research were also discussed.
The CEC also progressed the idea of conducting a CREATE Coalition Health Check. The purpose of the health check is to review the purpose, structure and functioning of the CREATE Coalition and to celebrate what is working well and identify where things could be strengthened. CEC members will review items from the CREATE Coalition Wellbeing Survey and the VicHealth Partnership Tool to identify which questions they would like to keep, adjust, add or remove. At the CEC meeting in May (20th) CEC members will review the purpose and the items for inclusion in the survey, ensuring the questions used are applicable to all who are invited to complete it. It is expected that CREATE Coalition members will be invited to complete the survey mid-year. A collaborative review process (coordinated through the CEC) will occur, between then and the November 1st plenary, to review the data and consider what needs to happen. At the plenary celebration we can undertake action planning based on the results of the survey. The next CEC meeting is on May the 20th. The agenda, attachments and minutes from this meeting are stored in the Project Management Portal.
| Contributions Welcome – Contributions from project partners to the RoundUP are welcome. If you have an idea for a feature, event or just something that made you smile please contact Sara Branch (s.branch@griffith.edu.au) for inclusion in future RoundUPs. |
FEATURE – Long term impacts of inequality: An examination of family poverty, adversity, and later life success
Tara McGee (Griffith University)
In March 2019, one of our CREATE team members, Associate Professor Tara Renae McGee, was invited to Scotland to present research at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh and at the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research at the University of Glasgow.
On Monday 11 March, Professor Susan McVie hosted a symposium at the Scottish Parliament, in Edinburgh titled: The impact of inequalities in the early years on outcomes over the life course: Using international evidence to identify creative policy solutions. As the title suggests the event brought together an international group of world leading scholars, who are actively researching the impact of disadvantage and inequality in the early years, with senior policy makers from different jurisdictions who have a shared interest in developing creative and effective solutions. The participants included academic speakers from the UK, Ireland, US, Australia, New Zealand and Israel and senior policy makers from the UK and the US.
Associate Professor McGee presented research from a Brisbane based study called the Mater University Study of Pregnancy <https://social-science.uq.edu.au/mater-university-queensland-study-pregnancy>. She and her co-authors[1] looked at family histories of both poverty and other family adversities[2], and the impact that these have on the subsequent life success[3] of offspring in adulthood (age 30). Their research showed that family experiences of poverty and adversity predict lower levels of life success in offspring when they’re adults. This research demonstrates that poverty and adversity in early childhood have long-term effects into adulthood. One way to ameliorate this is to ensure parents have access to a universal basic income.
The following day, Professor McVie, Professor Abigail Fagan (University of Florida), and Associate Professor McGee took a train to Glasgow where the three of them along with a Glasgow local, Sarah Anderson, presented their research at the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research. The event was hosted by Dr Sarah Armstrong. Led by the discussant Gary Walsh, participants engaged in robust discussions about the scientific challenges involved in examining the long-term impact of adverse childhood experiences.
| Professor Susan McVie and Associate Professor Tara Renae McGee |
THINGS THAT MADE US SMILE THIS MONTH
This is where we share great things to read, listen to, attend and more! Let us know if you discover anything you would like us to share in our next newsletter.
Visit from Logan Together: The project team were all smiles when we were visited by Belinda Brown (Projects and Reporting Coordinator) from our partner organisation Logan Together. Logan Together are generously assisting us in getting the word out there about Rumble’s Quest to schools in the Logan area.
New Police Commissioner in Queensland: We smiled this week when we heard the first female Queensland Police Commissioner talk about her focus on prevention and place-based collaborative initiatives. “Certainly I do have plans that I’d like to unveil with my organisation … and a lot of that sits around prevention — together working with community and other agencies at a local level, place-based — but also to take that tough stance on serious crime,” Ms Katarina Carroll said.
UPCOMING MEETINGS AND EVENTS
CREATE Q&A Teleconference: Members of the project team are available at a Q&A teleconference for anyone interested in continuing the conversation. Each month we will be discussing a specific topic. This time we will focus our discussion around the topic of Rolling out Rumble’s Quest. May’s Q&A details are:
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2pm (Brisbane; Sydney) Tuesday May 21st Call: 1 800 896 323 and enter Participant Code: 96583305# |
CIF Workshop 9-10th May: In May the CIFs and project personnel will meet in Brisbane to review their journeys over the past couple of years and discuss contributions to a CIF Report. This workshop will be facilitated by Karen Russell who facilitated the previous two project plenary meetings.
Mark the Following Dates:
30th October – Community Based Prevention and Implementation: Achievements and Challenges (open to all) – South Bank Campus, Brisbane
31st October – Implementation Science and Practice: Introduction to Key Concepts (open to all) – South Bank Campus, Brisbane
1st November – Project Plenary Meeting (invited project partners only) – South Bank Campus, Brisbane
WHAT’S NEW IN THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT PORTAL
(Items added in March)
Project Governance – CREATE Executive Committee
- 2019 April 8th – CEC Minutes – posed 17-4-19
- 2019 April 8th – CEC Agenda and Attachments – posted 8-4-19
CIF Role – Updates to CIFs
- Update to CIFs – 1-4-19 to 12-4-19 – posted 15-4-19
- Update to CIFs – 19-3-19 to 29-3-19 – posted 2-4-19
Project Updates – CIF Reports
- 2019 March CIF REFLECTION REPORT – posted 2-4-19
Please go to the Project Management Portal to view these and other project documents. All project partner representatives and CIFs have access to view these documents. To access the portal: http://www.creatingpathways.org.au/project-management/project-management-portal
[1] Co-authors on the paper are Dr Li Eriksson (Griffith University), Dr James Scott (University of Queensland), Dr William Bor (Children’s Health Queensland), Professor David Farrington (University of Cambridge), and Professor Jake Najman (University of Queensland).
[2] Family adversities included: mother or partner major change in job, mother or partner problem with police/law, serious problems with housing, death or illness somebody close (partner/friend), serious disagreements/problems with partner, serious financial problems, big problems with own health, mother or partner treated for mental problems, serious troubles at work, and marital breakdown
[3] Life success was assessed by creating a composite of whether the young adult had completed high school, was employed, owned their accommodation, had residential stability, was in a relationship, was satisfied with their relationship, was satisfied with life and generally happy, had no police contact, did not engage in physical violence, and had their activities unaffected by alcohol.
Category: Project Newsletter
Posted by Creating Pathways Support