Aboriginal Children’s Forum

The ACF aims to:

• Acknowledge and celebrate the survival, resilience and success of Aboriginal families and communities in the face of the devastating impacts of colonisation, dispossession and assimilation
• Eliminate the over-representation of Aboriginal children in child protection, out of home care and reduce the number of those that progress to the youth justice system
• Successfully transition the authority and services for all Aboriginal children to Aboriginal organisations
• Ensure Aboriginal children and young people leaving statutory systems are supported to reconnect with family and community
• Provide a sustained Aboriginal community-based prevention and early intervention system to respond to vulnerability as and when it arises
• Apply Aboriginal ways of responding to child and family issues including family violence
• Reform the child and family services system to address systemic racism and individual and institutional bias and build culturally sensitive practice within mainstream services.

ACF standing membership is restricted to:

1. Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs) meeting the following criteria:

• Registered and funded to provide services under the Children, Youth and Families (CYF) Act (2005) (the Act), and;
• Primarily focused on service delivery, policy development and/or funding of services for Aboriginal children and families experiencing vulnerability, or;
• Preparing for registration, with the support of the ACF ACCO Caucus.

Other organisations and government departments whose primary focus is on service delivery, policy development and/or funding of services for Aboriginal children and families experiencing vulnerability under the Act, inclusive of the Children’s Court where their decisions impact Aboriginal children and families under the Act.

Based on these criteria, the agreed standing members are:

Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations

• 15 ACCOs registered and funded under the Act (two representatives per ACCO)
• The Victorian Aboriginal Children and Young People’s Alliance (two representatives)
• The Victorian Aboriginal Child and Community Agency (eight representatives)
• Koorie Youth Council (and one support person).

Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

• Secretary
• Deputy Secretaries of operational divisions
• Deputy Secretary, Community Operations and Practice Leadership (COPL)
• Deputy Secretary, Aboriginal Self-Determination & Outcomes (and one support person)
• Deputy Secretary, Children and Families
• Chief Practitioner, Office of Professional Practice
• Executive Director, Aboriginal Initiatives, Children and Families
• Director, Aboriginal Initiatives, Children and Families
• Aboriginal Statewide Principal Practitioner Child Protection
• Director, Aboriginal Initiatives, Family and Sexual Violence Programs Branch, Family Safety Victoria Division
• Area Executive Director and Director, Aboriginal Outcomes for the Area/Division the ACF is held.

Community Service Organisations

• CEO, Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare (CFECFW) (and one support person)
• CEOs, Community Service Organisations (CSOs) registered and funded under the Act (five).

Other

• Minister for Children (and one support person)
• Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People (and one support person)
• Director, First Peoples State Relations, Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC) (one
  representative)
• Director, Strategic Policy and Planning, Childrens Court of Victoria (and one support person).

ACF standing membership decision-making process

The ACF is an ACCO-led and culturally safe space, where members acknowledge their responsibility to create and uphold a self-determined authorising environment. ACF members are committed to enabling the voices of Aboriginal communities to be heard, listened to and acted upon. On this basis, it is essential that ACF membership comprises of ACCO member majority and that all applications for membership are considered in alignment with this.

All requests for ongoing ACF membership (including requests directed to the Minister) are to be re-directed to the ACF ACCO Caucus according to the following process:

• The caucus will assess the application against the ACF’s purpose and membership criteria, then make a recommendation at the next ACF
• If the caucus decides that the application meets the ACF purpose and membership criteria, the membership application will be voted at the next ACF for endorsement
• If the ACF ACCO caucus decides the application does not meet the criteria, the ACF membership will be advised of the assessment outcome via a pre-read at the next ACF which enables opportunity for members to provide feedback should they feel the application requires further assessment.

Attendance requests for individual specific forums will also be assessed by the ACF ACCO Caucus who can extend invitations as required.