The Child
FIRST Liaison role is jointly funded through Child FIRST and
the NCVFS Alliance in order to:
-
Provide culturally responsive services
to Indigenouspeople within
mainstream Family Services programs across the
catchment
-
Increase access of Indigenous
families to mainstream services
-
Develop co-operative/co-coordinated
service system responses to meet the needs of Indigenous children
and families in catchment within the Alliance.
-
Facilitate access and linkages to
Indigenous agencies and services for Indigenous
families.
The Child FIRST
Indigenous liaison role is supported by a Project Steering
group for the NCVFS Alliance Executive Group (chaired by
BDAC)
Aboriginal Cultural
Awareness training remains a priority across the catchment for all
mainstream Family Services.
Child FIRST
Indigenous Worker
The Child
FIRST Indigenous Worker is a full time position, which is
based within the Child FIRST team. The worker is employed by BDAC
with day to day supervision and support provided by the Child FIRST
Team Leader and Program Manager (see MOU for
details)
The role includes
the following responsibilities:
Engagement with
Indigenous families and consultation to Child FIRST
-
The Indigenous worker is co-located
with Child FIRST in order to provide Intake and response services
and/or consultations about all referrals for Indigenous
families.
-
Wherever possible the Indigenous
worker will be the first point of contact for Indigenous families
and for referrals of Indigenous families by a third party of CPU.
If the Indigenous worker is not immediately available
families are to be informed of this role by the Child FIRST
worker who takes the initial request. Before proceeding with
the Request For Service the Child FIRST worker will explain the
role of the Indigenous worker (see script) and facilitate
connection to this worker to complete the Request for Service
process.
The Child
FIRST Indigenous worker will be consulted for all referrals
for Indigenous families
The Child FIRST
Indigenous worker is to attend LGA Allocation meetings, where
referrals for Indigenous families are presented.
In cases referred to
Child FIRST that require home visits, the Indigenous will
conduct an initial assessment of the family's needs and begin the
development of a support plan for the family. In cases where there
has been a self referral to a mainstream agency the Indigenous
worker will participate in initial contacts/visits with families
and the local agency to explore and advocate for cultural issues,
especially cultural safety and access to Indigenous services.
I
Consultations
with North Central Child & Family Services
The Indigenous
worker also provides input to service responses and is available
for consultations with any of the mainstream Family Services at any
stage of the work with an Indigenous family.
The Indigenous
worker is available for consultation about any ongoing Indigenous
family who is working with one of the non-Indigenous services. The
primary role of this worker in this consultation process is
to facilitate linkages between the mainstream agency and Indigenous
agency. The Indigenous agency will then provide the secondary
consultation and advice to workers within mainstream
agencies.
