Project name |
Thriving Kids in Disasters (TKiD) |
Grantee |
ARACY - Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (TQKP) |
Grant amount |
$65,000 |
Year/s of funding |
2023/24 - six-month project |
Thriving Kids in Disasters (TKiD) is a systemic review of the capabilities of Queensland disaster management and community recovery arrangements to assess how well they support child well-being, development, and resilience.
Overall, Queensland is extraordinarily good – through plenty of practice and learnings over decades – at disaster prevention, preparedness, response and recovery.
Putting a greater focus on child wellbeing and resilience is a chance and priority for us to be even better.
That’s why The John Villiers Trust (JVT) committed $65,000 to help the Thriving Queensland Kids Partnership (TQKP) identify strengths and opportunities for improvement in Queensland’s disaster management, preparedness, and recovery arrangements to support child well-being, development and resilience.
JVT is here to support work and ideas that seed long-term meaningful change. We love country Queensland and we believe the future of its communities is in the hands of young people.
We know children and young people are disproportionately impacted by, but often invisible in, disaster management settings, despite the best efforts of those involved.
The challenge is even more pressing for children living in rural, regional, and remote communities which are frequently impacted by disasters, and harder to reach with disaster support due to Queensland’s vast geography and decentralisation.
Accordingly, this project focuses attention on the impact of disasters on child and youth wellbeing, development, and resilience in regional, rural, and remote Queensland – something JVT is passionate about.
JVT’s funding is targeted to enable the project to:
The TKiD review aligns with our mission and goals and meets our five criteria for support.
In this project, ARACY and TQKP are collaborating with multiple agencies and partners in government, communities, not-for-profits, peak and industry bodies, and academic and research institutes.
It is an opportunity to delve deeper into how we can thoughtfully and strategically support our communities and our children before disasters strike.
The systemic capability review will include the voices and experiences of children, young people, and families; the expertise of community recovery partners and practitioners; and learnings from current community recovery activations, for example The Royal Far West.
The project is looking to improve the entire system of disaster management, preparedness, and recovery arrangements for children and young people. It will have long-term impacts for them in terms of all aspects of their wellbeing and disaster resilience. It will also guide the agencies and communities involved in disaster arrangements.
TKiD will connect key players and service providers and facilitate collaborative action and shared understanding about the best ways to improve Queensland’s disaster management, preparedness, and recovery arrangements for children.
The project will contribute to state and national policy, practice and capability improvement. The report will be shared with relevant authorities and other jurisdictions administering and providing support during natural disasters.
The report will be delivered in early June 2024. A second phase of the project to implement recommendations/findings will be considered then.
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