Australian Council of State School Organisations

In making these announcements, both the Prime Minister and the Health Minister have specifically noted the vitally important role of teachers and parents – a role that is as much about building a positive and supportive developmental environment for young people as about supporting those at risk. Prevention from the early stages being much better and more cost-effective than remediation further down the track.

The Australian Government identified the need for an effective parent and family led program drawing on these understandings – and in 2002 commissioned the national parent organisations to develop such a program building upon the learnings from our previous and current additional research – validating every step of the program’s development across a range of school communities.

That program was launched in 2003 as “Families Matter: families & schools working together to ensure the emotional well-being of young people” – and was enthusiastically taken up by some 200 schools and their communities across the country.

The program ran effectively and successfully until 2006: when the then government and department decided – against all the evidence of an overwhelmingly positive external evaluation report and its recommendations for further continuance and embedding of the program – and despite the ongoing protests of those school communities that had proven the value and efficacy of this community partnership-building initiative – not to renew the funding arrangements beyond 2006.

The Australian Council of State School Organisations, and the Australian Parents Council, who jointly developed, ran and validated the effectiveness of “Families Matter” initiative to achieve parents and teachers working together to support young people’s resilience, well-being and engagement in strong sustaining networked communities, are firmly of the view that a renewal of funding for this proven effective program should be a central element in the Government’s strategies for schools and their communities.

Read more: http://www.acsso.org.au/2010/07/young-people%E2%80%99s-mental-health-and-well-being/