Are children and young people stakeholders in your organisation or business?
Does your organisation or business engage with children and young people by:
- Providing services to them directly, i.e. child-focused organisations such as schools, early childhood, out-of-home care services, health and medical services;
- providing employment or volunteering opportunities to them, most commonly in retail stores and the fast-food industry; and/or
- providing sports, recreational and cultural events and activities where children may be present as visitors or participants?
If so, you have a responsibility to ensure their safety and wellbeing. This includes empowering children and young people to be active, vocal and confident participants in your organisation or business.
Why should you invest in seeking and understanding children’s views?
Making sure that children and young people who come into contact with your organisation or business are informed about their rights, participate in decisions that affect them, and are taken seriously, is required under Australian and international child safe standards and principles. It is also morally and ethically the right thing to do.
Children have a different perception and understanding of being safe and feeling safe to that of adults. Who they trust to communicate key messages to them may also be different to what you think. It is critical that they have opportunities to share their views about what makes your organisation or business safe, and that their voices are heard.
Child Wise can work with you to facilitate the engagement of children and young people, create opportunities for them to participate in your organisation, and develop age-appropriate mechanisms for providing feedback.
Bespoke services for your business type and level of contact with children and young people
Child Wise provides a range of services that can be tailored to respond to your specific needs based on your industry and level of contact with children and young people.
Child Wise Coaching for Your Staff
Through our coaching offering, we can support you or your nominated staff member(s) to strengthen skills and knowledge in empowering children and young people as active participants and stakeholders in your organisation. Our Coaching offering is agile and flexible, designed to provide customised solutions based on your needs, build capacity and ensure high-quality, child-focused practice.
Child Safeguarding Review to Identify Strengths and Areas of Improvement
A Child Safeguarding Review can help you develop a comprehensive picture of child safeguarding in your organisation, including strengths and areas for improvement. To enable a complete and balanced assessment of child safeguarding in your organisation, Child Wise engages with a broad range of stakeholders – children, young people, parents, carers, staff and volunteers. This approach also ensures those who are most impacted by child safeguarding practice – children and young people - have an opportunity to influence the review.
Child Wise Accreditation Program
Our accreditation program aims to promote outstanding practice in the way that organisations listen and respond to the voices of children and young people. Child Wise Accreditation will serve as credible, visible evidence of your organisation’s commitment to child safety. We have introduced three levels of Accreditation to provide a roadmap for organisations wishing to continuously improve. Each progressive level recognises the sustained changes that organisations are making in their efforts to safeguard children and young people and empower them as active participants in their communities.
Child Safety Training: Face-to-Face & Virtual
If you are looking to build practical skills to help you facilitate the engagement and participation of children and young people in your day-to-day operations, we offer a variety of face-to-face and virtual training programs that can be customised to suit your needs and context.
Meaningful engagement with children and young people is a 2-hour virtual classroom training program specifically designed to help participants improve their skills in engaging with children and young people, as well as developing meaningful strategies for planning, facilitating and evaluating consultation with children and young people.
Kids Speak Conferencing: Interactive Sessions Tailored to Your Organisation
Kids Speak Conferencing is a world-first method of engaging and empowering children and young people to voice their opinion and provide feedback about how organisational policies, practices and culture impacts them. The program involves the facilitation of a series of interactive sessions tailored to your organisation. Child Wise will then collate the feedback and insights gathered during the Kids Speak program in a user-friendly report, making recommendations for the continued improvement of the organisation’s child safety infrastructure, including policies and procedures, risk management frameworks and complaints and feedback processes.
Speak to Us About Child Empowerment and Consultation
Make your organisation safe for children and young people. Our team can help you develop an empowering culture in your organisation by assessing the needs of your staff and industry.
Our child safeguarding experts can help you assess the needs of your staff and your organisation. Contact us to find out more.