CREATE Project Bulletin – August 31, 2018

August 31, 2018

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

From the Director’s Desk – Professor Ross Homel (Co-Director): August has been another busy month for the research team. Greer Johnson and Bev Fluckiger have been travelling to schools in remote Indigenous communities in Far North Queensland, testing all the tools and methods that they wish to offer in CfC schools through the CREATE Project next year. We are eagerly awaiting their first-hand reports on what they have learned about what it takes for schools to engage authentically with the communities that they seek to serve.

Back in Brisbane, those of us concerned with getting Rumble’s Quest out to schools this term have been working flat out to ensure that the Software Agreements with the NSW and Queensland Departments of Education can be signed. These agreements govern not only the arrangements for project schools to access the Rumble’s Quest integrated software system free of charge, but also confirm that all parties – the departments, and Griffith University – are satisfied with the stringent level of security that applies to the storage and use of the children’s data that the software produces.

We are truly delighted that after the third round of penetration testing of the Amazon server in Sydney (which took 36 hours of constant ‘bombardment’ in a simulated hacker attack), the whole system came through with flying colours. So we hope that it’s ‘all systems go’ now to get Rumble’s Quest distributed to schools in both states as soon as other approvals and local arrangements have been finalised.

We have been very encouraged by the stories that we have heard about how some of the schools that have trialled Rumble’s Quest have taken action on the basis of their data reports. One school designed a whole new curriculum for social and emotional learning, while another, concerned about how many children said that they did not feel safe at school, explored what ‘school safety’ actually meant to the children. They then reformed their pastoral care policies and practices so that they dealt more effectively with issues like racism or discrimination.

Converting reliable and relevant data on children’s needs into evidence-based action is the heart and soul of the CREATE Project. We hope that you are as excited as we are by the potential for even more effective action on behalf of children as Rumble’s Quest and other forms of data become available to schools and CfC community coalitions.

Q&A – What you can expect: Many thanks to those who have joined us at the Q&As over the past couple of months. Generally an informal gathering of people who are interested in the CREATE Project (this can include interested departmental staff, CIFs, Program Managers etc.), the Q&A session is designed to answer any questions you may have that either follow on from content in the CREATE RoundUP or if you just have a general question you would like answered. Questions can relate to next steps within the project, what is happening with…, the role of the CIFs, what are we learning, governance… You name it and we will endeavour to answer it. Alternatively if you would like to share something you have learnt or have something to share with the wider project audience please join us.

Questions or comments can be made prior to the Q&A by using the Blog feature in the Project Management Portal (for those who do not have access to the Project Management Portal please contact your organisation’s representative to the Project or your local Collective Impact Facilitator as they have access to the portal). Providing a question in advance assists the project team to prepare and ensure the person who can best answer the question is available at the Q&A (where possible).

We look forward to talking with you at the next Q&A on the 18th of September (details are listed above).

Plenary and CREATE Executive Committee Update: Changes to the governance arrangements proposed by the NGO Facilitating Partner organisations have been resolved with actions arising to be discussed by the CEC when they convene. The first meeting of the newly formed CEC is expected to occur in September.

As highlighted in last month’s RoundUP the Chair and Deputy-Chair for the CEC will need to be appointed at the first meeting of the CEC. The CEC will also consider at this first meeting it’s Terms of Reference, which were reviewed by the Project Secretariat and sent to partner members for comment. Actions arising from the Plenary or the NGO Facilitating Partner discussion will also be discussed at the first meeting.

We are still seeking any comments in relation to the Communications Plan and Program Plan for the CEC to consider. If you have any comments please forward them to Sara Branch (s.branch@griffith.edu.au).

Recruitment of PhD Candidates: As highlighted in last month’s RoundUP we are currently recruiting two PhD candidates (funded by Griffith University). Each PhD scholar will be supported and supervised by members of the Griffith Criminology Institute and the Griffith Institute for Educational Research.

• Preventing youth crime by measuring and responding to child social-emotional wellbeing-PhD Candidate: Information related to the PhD candidate who will focus on the impact of the use of Rumble’s Quest, particularly its role in catalysing action and change within schools and communities is now available by going to the following link: https://www.phdseek.com/phds/1841.

Please share this information with anybody you feel would be interested in this position.

More information in relation to the second PhD candidate position will follow in next month’s RoundUP.

The Coalition Wellbeing Survey use within Business as Usual sites: The natural fluctuations that occur in Community Coalitions over time underline the importance of establishing a routine process for all partners to engage together in a regular practice of reflection and self-review about the way everyone is working together. The Coalition Wellbeing Survey and Dashboard (CWBS) was developed for Community Coalitions to take a reading of their collaborative processes in a systematic and replicable way. This will help Community Coalitions to identify opportunities for enhancing their partnership and outline steps they can take to strengthening its functioning. Thus, the CWBS will help Community Coalitions to gather reliable data they can use to examine how it is doing on factors that are known to underpin successful collaborative initiatives.

The project is actively working in 9 Communities for Children (CfC) sites in NSW and Queensland. Within each of these sites a Collective Impact Facilitator (CIF), or ‘critical friend’, have supported each CfC site to use the CWBS and the Coming Together Module (featured in the May RoundUP) to maintain strong partnerships. As part of the research design the remaining 13 CfC sites in NSW and Queensland will shortly be invited to use the Coalition Wellbeing Survey this year and again in 2019. This will offer an opportunity to identify the impact of the work of the Collective Impact Facilitators and the CREATE tools especially in relation to enhancing coalition functioning.

 

FEATURE – PROJECT ELEMENT

Rumble’s Quest
The Research Team

One of the tools being developed and implemented as part of this project is Rumble’s Quest. Rumble’s Quest is both a measure of children’s wellbeing AND a sophisticated system that empowers users (e.g., schools) to collect, report and take action in relation to wellbeing data for the children in their care.

Dr Kate Freiberg is the guiding force behind the development of the measure, the concept of the game, and the integrated Rumble’s Quest user support and implementation system. She works in close collaboration with our multi-media partner InVision Media to develop these resources.

The Rumble’s Quest system was developed to help fill a huge gap in the scientific ‘armoury.’ Schools, parents, researchers, and people working with children all understand the crucial importance of social-emotional wellbeing as a foundation for a successful life. But a decade ago when the idea was first conceived – and still today – there are no other tools like Rumble’s Quest. Indeed, the technology is world-leading and we know of nothing like it anywhere in the world.

Development of the child wellbeing measure that has, over time, evolved into Rumble’s Quest began as part of the Pathways to Prevention project. At the time it was designed to evaluate the impact of family support on the wellbeing of primary school aged children (6 to 12 years old) living in a socially disadvantaged area of Brisbane. As we have used Rumble’s Quest (and its precursor Clowning Around) we have found that children love playing the game, however, more importantly, it gives them a VOICE.

Through a series of implementation trials of the Rumble’s Quest system with about 30 schools in Queensland and Tasmania we have learnt a lot and enhanced the system considerably. The Griffith research team currently has statistical data on approximately 8,000 children from schools across all socioeconomic levels, and has used these data to establish the reliability, validity, and stability of the psychometric structure of the measurement instrument. Because Rumble’s Quest provides psychometrically reliable data that provides a picture of children’s strengths and needs, it can be used to guide school and community action to enhance identified issues that affect children’s wellbeing. Rumble’s Quest data are tailored to use by schools (or agency users), but can be aggregated to community, regional, and broader levels. This means Rumble’s Quest could eventually become a new social indicator for Australia, tracking over time ‘how kids are going.’

Rumble’s Quest software allows schools/users to generate comprehensive data reports that include scores and graphic output. The measure yields an overall wellbeing score, and also provides scores that relate to a number of key dimensions that are fundamental to children’s wellbeing in middle childhood, including: Attachment to school; Social confidence and positive relationships; Supportive home relationships; Behavioural and emotional regulation. It also reports scores that indicate children’s strength in areas of executive function (such as inhibitory control, attention control, and working memory) that are linked to social, emotional and behavioural development.

More information about Rumble’s Quest, including a flyer, a video that frames the importance of child wellbeing and its measurement, and game sampler (under ‘Format’ in the FAQs), is available at the following site: https://www.realwell.org.au/tools/rumbles-quest/

 

FEATURE – COLLECTIVE IMPACT FACILITATOR

Clare Barclay

Clare is the Collective Impact Facilitator for Fairfield in South West Sydney, and Raymond Terrace and Karuah in the NSW Hunter region.

Clare studied a Bachelor of International Studies, with a focus on international development policy and practice. She completed a Masters of International Public Health in 2017. Prior to The Smith Family, Clare worked at NSW Parliament and State Government for five years in various roles including research assistant, parliamentary liaison, and most recently policy adviser for child protection and out of home care to the Minister for Family and Community Services.

It is from this experience that her motivation to work to shift the systemic conditions holding problems in place for families comes. The CIF role continues to appeal to Clare because it connects practice, policy, research and advocacy. The ability to inquire alongside the community coalition and Facilitating Partner teams and contest the assumption that this ‘is the best we can do’ are motivating factors for her work.

 

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.

Rumble’s Quest on Channel 7 News: This month the following news report about Rumble’s Quest made the research team at Griffith University smile. Recording the segment was hectic, what with 7 children playing Rumble’s

Quest, the news crew and of course the team at Griffith. To view the segment click on the link below: https://mobile.twitter.com/7NewsBrisbane/status/1032552337447956480/video/1

 

UPCOMING MEETINGS AND EVENTS

September 13th, Melbourne: Academy of Social Sciences 2018 Hancock Lecturer

Earlier this year you may remember that Ross Homel gave the first of two Lecturers as part of 2018 Sir Keith Hancock Lectures. The Hancock lecture series, hosted by the Academy of Social Sciences, aims to communicate cutting edge social science research to the general community. Ross delivered the first version of the lecture in Brisbane on March 8, focusing on the urgent need in Australia to build a human and technological infrastructure for applying the fruits of prevention science research. This infrastructure will help to ‘shift the dial’ for disadvantaged children at the whole-of-population level. He used the methods and tools being developed for the CREATE Project as illustration.

The first lecture can viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP_7LoEOntw&feature=youtu.be with a second lecture delivered at the University of Melbourne at 6pm on September 13, during Social Science Week, in the Prest Theatre – Ground Floor, FBE Building, 111 Barry Street Carlton VIC.

For more information about this lecture and to RSVP please go to the following site: https://www.assa.edu.au/event/2018-keith-hancock-lecture-2/

November 19-23, Logan: ChangeFest

“If you’re involved in improving the lives of people and places and you recognise that more can be achieved together, than alone, then you need to be in Logan, Queensland between 19-23 November 2018” to attend the ‘Changefest’. Keynotes already announced include: Dr. Michael McAfee, President and CEO of PolicyLink, and Liz Weaver, Co-CEO of the Tamarack Institute.
More information about this exciting program can be found at the following site: http://www.changefest.com.au/

WHAT’S NEW IN THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT PORTAL

(Items added in August)

Project Summaries
 CREATE-ing Pathways to Child Wellbeing – Program Summary – UPDATED – posted 17-8-18
 CREATE Model – Summary – UPDATED – posted 31-8-18
 CREATE-ing Pathways to Child Wellbeing – Project Vision Summary – UPDATED – posted 31-8-18

Project Governance

• CREATE Project Plenary Sydney 28 June 2018 – Summary (Amended August 2018) – posted 24-8-18
• CREATE Project Contact List – UPDATED – posted 31-8-18

CIF Role – Updates to CIFs

• Update to CIFs – Weeks from 30-7-18 to the 10-8-18 – posted 13-8-18
• Update to CIFs – Weeks from 13-8-18 to the 24-8-18 – posted 27-8-18

Project Updates – CIF Reports

• 2018 June – July CIF REFLECTION REPORT – posted 2-8-18

Working Groups

• DRAFT Questionnaire – Economic Efficiency Analysis Component as of August 2018 – posted August, 2018

Working Groups – Data & Analysis Work Group

• Logan Data Linkage Working Paper – posted 22-8-18

Communications

• CREATE Project Bulletin – July 31, 2018 – posted 3-8-18

 

Category: Project Newsletter, Rumbles Quest

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