Let us share our perspectives on how a meaningful cultural plan, enriches the life and growth of the child/young person in the hope this can lead to creating pathways back to kin and community. 

We know for Aboriginal children and young people to start their healing journey, there needs to be a meaningful connection to culture and identity. This can be achieved through cultural plans that are created for the individual child in collaboration with their own mob and highlighting their rights for relational connections. 

Cultural plans are a requirement for all Aboriginal children in out of home care. These plans are not all the same and we need to ensure that the children’s kinship connections are well researched and documented to reflect their own relational attachments. The impact of not researching a child’s cultural connections through family and community takes away personal cultural connections. This causes disconnection and loss of the child’s Aboriginal identity.

In developing therapeutic cultural support plans, we encourage and support collaboration with everyone who is important in the child’s life. Within the OurSPACE program, we work with the whole care team to gather as much information about the child’s cultural journey, so that we can shape our therapeutic approaches to foster healing within a culturally safe space.