Introductory events

• Key decision makers invited to a workshop in each state / territory, designed to generate shared commitment.
• Key Aboriginal leaders invited to a yarning circle in each state / territory, designed to guide the implementation and ensure culturally safe and inclusive practice.

Readiness assessment

• Participating organisations complete an assessment that will help in identifying areas where focus of pre-work may be required to impactfully implement Power to Kids.

Pre-training e-learning

• Participants will undertake an introductory one-hour e-learn, inclusive of engaging with the Myths & Misconceptions tool, and an hour of cultural e-learn to build cultural capabilities for implementation.

Workforce training

• 1 day live webinar.
• Residential carers will cover three prevention strategies and model brave conversations.
• Leaders and Champions can attend an additional 2 hours training to support program implementation.

Self-guided implementation

• Online resources available on our learning platform including videos, psychoeducation and cultural capability resources.

Community of practice

• Participants are invited to join us to share learnings and further enhance their practice in this monthly online forum.

Note:

Additional fee for service resources and consultancy services to support organisations are available. These services contextualise and implement Power to Kids to specific local contexts.

The MacKillop Institute* is proud to offer Power to Kids to every residential care provider in Australia. This offering is a result of the generous support of Westpac’s Safer Children, Safer Communities initiative.

* The MacKillop Institute was established by MacKillop Family Services to build the capacity of external organisations to deliver best-practice, trauma-informed services to support children, young people and families who have experienced change, loss and trauma. This means taking the best of MacKillop’s experience and evidence out to the wider sector to help where we can.

From February 2022 through to November 2023 (with multiple training sessions per month).

Power to Kids was designed and implemented by MacKillop Family Services in partnership with the University of Melbourne.

The program was established after a review of prevention strategies used across the world and in consultation with an expert advisory group of researchers, policy makers and practitioners.

Power to Kids has been informed by Dr McKibbin’s PhD research, where young people who had engaged in sexually harmful behaviour were asked “what could have been different in their lives so that they did not develop these behaviours?”

The program has been designed in consultation with an expert advisory group of key researchers, policy makers and practitioners working in the field of child sexual abuse and has been informed by Dr McKibbin’s PhD research, which involved asking young people who had engaged in sexually harmful behaviour about what could have been different in their lives so that they did not develop these behaviours. Research conducted through this project identified three prevention strategies:

Strategy 1: Whole-of-house respectful relationships and sexuality education

Training and coaching workers and carers in a whole-of-house approach, including recognising and responding to harmful sexual behaviour (HSB), child sexual exploitation (CSE) and dating violence (DV); and educating children about respectful relationships and sexual health and safety.

Strategy 2: Missing from home strategy

Establishing practice partnerships between each child or young person and their residential carers to counter grooming; assertively engaging young people using safety planning and social media or phones to stay in touch especially when missing from home; and working collaboratively with external agencies to disrupt CSE.

Strategy 3: Sexual safety response:

Early identification, safety planning, advocacy and therapeutic treatment for HSB and DV; proactively supporting exit strategies for CSE, including strengthening relationships with family of origin; and joining-up of residential care workers with local HSB, DV & CSE professionals and local frontline police.

We’re committed to maximising our impact on children and young people through action research and evaluation.

Power to Kids was piloted in four MacKillop Family Services residential care homes and its effectiveness measured through rigorous evaluation. The overwhelming message from the evaluation was that: “Power to Kids makes a real difference in the safety of children in care.” Our key findings included that:

Children and young people

• experienced increased protection against harmful sexual behaviour, child sexual exploitation and dating violence
• experienced enhanced safe relationships with their carers
• were observed to be missing from home less often
• improved their knowledge, skills and attitudes towards sexual health and safety

• increased their knowledge about harmful sexual behaviour, child sexual exploitation and dating violence
• improved their capabilities to identify harmful sexual behaviour, child sexual exploitation and dating violence and to ensure advocacy, exit and treatment
• increased self-efficacy in having sexual health and safety conversations with children and young people

MacKillop acknowledges the John T Reid Charitable Trust, The Department of Health and Human Human Services and the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare for supporting this research.

Read more about the sexual exploitation of children in care and our evidence base:

Commission for Children and Young People (2021). Out of Sight: Systematic enquiry into children and young people who are absent or missing from residential care. Melbourne: Commission for Children and Young People.

Gemma McKibbin (2017). ‘Preventing Harmful Sexual Behaviour and Child Sexual Exploitation for children & young people living in residential care: A scoping review in the Australian context’, Children and Youth Services Review, 82 (2017) 373–382.

Gemma McKibbin, Nick Halfpenny & Cathy Humphreys (2019). ‘Respecting Sexual Safety: A Program to Prevent Sexual Exploitation and Harmful Sexual Behaviour in Out-of-Home Care’, Australian Social Work, DOI: 10.1080/0312407X.2019.1597910