Our Theory of Change

Building family capacity through participation

Our Theory of Chance aims to build family capacity through participation. It accomplishes this by running evidence-based programs to increase families’ empowerment, hope, agency and wellbeing.

In peer groups (F2F or online), parents and carers learn to:

  • Formulate and achieve inspiring goals for their children
  • Build novel positive partnerships with professionals
  • Optimise their informal networks

Engage

To reach the outcome of building family capacity through participation, we addressed three audiences so that everyone could work together in partnership and use the same approaches.


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Overview of Now & Next

Now & Next is a unique, peer-led group program for families of young children who have developmental delays or disabilities.
This program has evolved to become a cornerstone of the early childhood intervention (ECI) service delivery at Plumtree. Now & Next is grounded in Positive Psychology and Post post-traumatic growth (PTG) theories, but it also utilises the demonstrated benefits of gamification and mindfulness and builds on best practice research into family-centred practice. Now & Next is the first totally ‘by families, for families’ program of its kind to be offered in Australia and worldwide. By challenging the traditional ‘grief’ mindset often associated with disability and replacing grief with the concept of overwhelm and the promise of growth, Now and Next supports families to engage in authentic, creative visioning for their disabled child and for themselves.

Since its inception in 2015, over 400 families have participated in Now & Next. It was initially led by both peer family facilitators and professionals, but it is now led solely by peer facilitators. Families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds total 48% of the participants. Fathers’ engagement ranges between a quarter to half of participants, depending on the activities organised. Groups have been run in Vietnamese, Korean, Arabic and Chinese. The program begins with a visioning session, followed by an 8-week, 2.5-hour per week, or a 4 full-day protocol. Program elements are aimed at progressing children’s goals by engaging their families. Through interactive group work, the program supports families in envisioning, planning, setting goals, and developing goals into action in the context of a peer-led environment.

Written by Dr. Melanie Heyworth. Please click Centre for Welfare Reform for the full document.


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