How is it February already, right?! Although I am sure we will be commenting about how fast the year is flying by every month and any relaxing holidays we may have had feel like distant memories ;)

In our last newsletter, we shared some important resources to help you feel informed, connected and inspired during the national bushfire crisis. We hope you found them useful - if you missed it and want to check it out, please send us an email and we can forward it to you.

In this newsletter we are bringing you the conversation no one wants to be having, but one we NEED to have if we are going to make keeping children safe everyone's business. Child Safe Disaster Recovery - What does it really mean? We also have a great article to help you feel inspired for the new year about how you can change the culture of an organisation even if you're the only one beating the drum.

Behind the scenes, we have been working on an online training module for 'Child Safe Recruiting". This is for anyone who is involved in recruiting staff or volunteers to work with children and young people. This training will be full of practical examples of HOW to interview and screen candidates beyond asking for the Working With Children's Check. We also are building an online "Community of Practice Leaders" which is for all those middle managers or aspiring leaders out there. We will be launching those in March and we can't wait to tell you more about those.

Until next time, take care and reach out to us if you'd like to find out more!

Hope you enjoy
Hayley and Chelsea
xx

INFORM

As Australia rallies to support communities and the children and families affected by the bushfires, it is important that in our effort to respond quickly, protecting children from harm remains a top priority. This can be a difficult topic to think and talk about and quite the challenge in practice when the pressure is mounting to respond swiftly. Many of you who have worked with children and young people will be aware of how vulnerable children have been and can be following a natural disaster.

So what does it mean to be child safe in disaster recovery efforts?

In this video, Chelsea explains why children are vulnerable to harm after a natural disaster and what steps leaders and front line workers can take to protect children. To watch it on YouTube, click here.

CONNECT

If you haven't already come across these resources then you'll want to check them out. The eSafety Commissioner has a range of resources to help all Australians have safer, more positive experiences online. What is really helpful - is that there is a HEAP of resources for parents, carers, educators and importantly - KIDS! These resources are designed to support young children’s safe use of technologies and build their understanding of online safety as they grow.  There's even the eSafety Early Years program for supporting under 5s!

Online safety is an ever-expanding issue that we will constantly be playing catch up in our efforts to understand what is going on - so these resources are incredibly valuable and you might want to bookmark the page for the next time someone asks you "How are we supposed to keep kids safe online?".

Safer Internet Day 2020 is on 11 February - so click below to find out more about how you can get involved and start the chat about online safety in your community.

Safer Internet Day 2020

eSafety Commissioner resources

INSPIRE

For anyone in middle management wanting to improve organisational culture - this article from the Harvard Business Review is great inspiration for the new decade. Cultural change can and does happen from the middle.

"A single person with a clarity of conscience and a willingness to speak up can make a difference. Contributing to the greater good is a deep and fundamental human need. When a leader, even a mid-level or lower level leader, skillfully brings a voice and a vision, others will follow and surprising things can happen—even culture change on a large scale."

This is a really timely reminder, particularly as we work with vulnerable populations and many of you will be champions of change in your organisations, whether it is for child safe practice, trauma informed care or best practice frameworks. If you dare to lead (thanks Brene Brown) your voice can make a difference and others will follow.

What could be more inspiring than that?