Formative Evaluation of Bourke and Brewarrina Healing Project for the Healing Foundation: Final Report

Ilse Blignault, Melissa R. Haswell

Research output: Book/Research ReportResearch report

Abstract

The Healing Foundation’s intergenerational trauma initiative is aimed at restoring and reaffirming Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children’s pride in their cultural identity. Following successful pilot projects at Brisbane’s Murri School and Darwin Aboriginal and Islander Women’s Service, the Healing Foundation entered into partnerships with Bourke High School (BHS) and Brewarrina Central School (BCS) in western NSW to develop healing programs in the two remote mainstream schools. Although they are being implemented independently, the two School Healing Programs (SHPs) are similar in overall approach. Both involve school and community partnerships and are intended to promote positive healing pathways for Aboriginal children, young people and their families. They aim to foster a whole-of-school understanding of trauma and the relationship between past policies and practices and the trauma that impacts Aboriginal children and families today, and to identify how the school community can support healing for Aboriginal children and families and the broader community. The formative evaluation covers the period 2015–2016. Primary data were collected through group discussions, interviews, questionnaires, observation and document review. Secondary data were also utilised. Findings were shared with program staff as they became available to support program implementation. This report presents the overarching insights from this work, a proposed evaluation framework and tools, and recommendations for the Healing Foundation. Site-specific findings and recommendations are provided in two stand-alone, supplementary reports. Implementation of a whole-of-school healing program within a mainstream educational facility has challenges at student, program, school and community levels, and takes time. The SHP is a good fit with the overall school strategies and their welfare/wellbeing cultures. Both schools now have a pool of staff with expertise in trauma-informed practice. Weekly yarning circles became a part of the curriculum for Years 7 and 8 but the other two program components—mentoring program and family camps—are still to be realised. Lessons learned involve both structural and relational dynamics. Despite their relatively close location, the many differences in context and capacity and challenges faced means a place-based approach and tailoring for local circumstances is essential. We recognise that the SHP is only one of many programs operating in BHS and BCS, as well as the influence of the broader social and cultural determinants of health on participants’ wellbeing. We also recognise that some students are better able than others to express how they feel about themselves and to talk about in their lives. Such issues pose difficulties for evaluation. In addition to an evaluation framework, which must be practical and meaningful to those involved, simple data collection tools are required that do not place unrealistic demands on the students or staff. Importantly, they should provide data about processes and outcomes, not only numbers of participants. The Bourke and Brewarrina SHPs constitute an innovative and nationally significant project under the Healing Foundation’s intergenerational trauma initiative. The past two years have provided an important foundation for the two schools. Based on our formative evaluation findings and understanding of the literature on intergenerational trauma and healing for Australia’s First Peoples, we make the following recommendations. Recommendations for the project overall: 1. Celebrate the project achievements and share the insights and learnings with national and state stakeholders and others who might be interested. 2. Commit to full implementation and evaluation of the SHPs in Bourke and Brewarrina, bringing in necessary expertise and seeking additional funding as required. Recommendations for program implementation: 1. Support each school to develop, and maintain, a locally-tailored toolkit for yarning circles containing lesson plans, exercises and activity sheets, as well as tools for other program components as they are implemented. 2. Give consideration to a system for regular exchange between the BHS, BCS and the Murri School in Brisbane, including tele/videoconferences and site visits. Recommendations for program evaluation: 1. Adopt BUILD PRIDE, an adult, empowering framework for learning, to guide ways of working. 2. Use the SHP-tailored version of the Growth and Empowerment Measure (GEM) to track change over time at the individual level. 3. Use the effectiveness and sustainability questionnaires from the Critical Success Factors: Program Quality Measurement Toolkit to track change over time at the program level. 4. Together with the schools, formally review the healing programs at the end of each year, seeking input from participants as well as other stakeholders.
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationKensington, N.S.W.
PublisherUniversity of New South Wales
Number of pages45
Publication statusPublished - 2017

Keywords

  • Aboriginal Australians
  • Torres Strait Islanders
  • children
  • group identity
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundation

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