Home / Our work

Our work

Proudly strengthening the sector, building resilience, collaboration and shared success.

Last updated: 02 Dec 2024

Our purpose

We strengthen and guide the sector, building resilience, collaboration and shared success.

As the voice of organisations and individuals dedicated to advancing child and family wellbeing, we set the standards for professional education and practice in child and family services.

Our areas of expertise

Our programs and Projects

Early Start, Bright Future

Improving learning outcomes for vulnerable children.

Child Safe Standards

Ensuring every organisation providing services or facilities for children implements Child Safe Standards.

Switch to Social Work

Creating a contemporary, highly skilled, and diverse child and family services workforce.

Raising Expectations

Creating a pathway to TAFE and university for care-experienced young people.

Education in Out-of-Home Care

Improving attendance, engagement, and educational outcomes for children and young people in care.

Outcomes, Practice and Evidence Network (OPEN)

Building evidence from research, practice and client experience to deliver better outcomes.

Family Preservation Reunification Response (FPRR)

Integrating evidence-informed Practice and Cultural Practice Elements to increase child safety.

Lived Experience Design Project

Bringing together expert birth parents with lived experience of child protection to design policy and reform solutions.

Adolescent Violence in the Home (AVITH)

Increasing the evidence base for addressing adolescent violence in the home.

Carer Kafe

Supporting kinship and foster carers through free training, resources, and events, offering tailored learning opportunities to support them.

The Child Wellbeing Project

Cantering children and young people in practice.

Fostering Connections

Providing prospective foster carers with enhanced support, shaped by industry and driven by sector.

Our values

Policy and Ideas

Develop, influence and advocate for public policies that advance the rights and wellbeing of children, young people and families and address the social, economic and cultural barriers to improving their lives.

Research and Practice

Lead and share research to support innovation and evidence-informed practice.

Capacity Building

Strengthen the capacity of organisations to provide services that best suit the needs of vulnerable families and children.

Resource hub

Enhance your expertise, empower your practice and broaden your understanding.

Find out more

Upcoming Centre events

View all events

Craigieburn – MARAM training for nominated staff in schools and early childhood services

February 11 @ 9:30 am - 1:30 pm

Course outline The Department of Education has partnered with the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare to deliver free and interactive family violence MARAM training to education workforces. […]

MARAM

Swan Hill- MARAM training for nominated staff in schools and early childhood services

February 13 @ 9:30 am - 1:30 pm

MARAM

150+

Members

1,445

participants trained through CSO programs

374

participants trained in sector workforce programs

Introducing Uplift: Strengthening Your Residential Care Workforce

04 Dec 2024

Uplift is an innovative pilot program created to assist residential care organisations in developing a skilled, dedicated, and fully prepared workforce.

Child wellbing

Supporting children with disability in home-based care

03 Dec 2024

As part of the Centre’s continuous work to understand and improve the work of our sector and help agencies better respond to the needs of carers and children in care, we surveyed agencies and interviewed foster carers to produce the Fostering children with a disability in Victoria report.

CEO Updates

Together with Families 2024