Funders:
  • Department of Social Services
  • Community for Children
  • Australian Red Cross
  • The Centre also acknowledges the philanthropic support of Mr James Hogben.
Collaborators:
  • Murrupurtiyanuwu Catholic School (MCS)
  • Wurrumiyanga; Red Cross.

Play to Connect was developed in response to the evaluation findings and experiences drawn from the delivery of the Let’s Start program on the Tiwi Islands in the Northern Territory from 2005 to 2016.

It was an ongoing evidence-based action research project which investigated the effective implementation of a parenting program to address what worked best for local Aboriginal staff, families and children in remote Aboriginal communities.

The Menzies multicultural team reconfigured the delivery model with the aim to adapt the program to the cultural needs of local staff and parents through a continuous circle of piloting, observation, reflection and adaptation.

The Play to Connect program incorporated two main objectives:

  1. Active involvement of local Aboriginal facilitators in the setup and delivery of a short term, play based intervention for parents and children,Improvement of parenting and increased capacity of participating families to engage with the school and informal networks.
  2. Play to Connect was a new approach based on international evidence for the effectiveness of early intervention modelled on play therapy principles and was a short-term intervention for families with children 4- 7 years of age, which aimed to improve parenting knowledge and self-efficacy and connected families with other services through collaborative facilitation.

Its intent was to enhance the quality of the parent – child relationship by helping the parents to understand and respond to their children`s experiences and be responsive to parent’s needs, kinship, culture and Aboriginal family values. Play to Connect worked with community schools, childcare centres and family support services to ensure that parents were supported in their community context. The program provided community-based early intervention and prevention and was delivered by trained local Aboriginal early childhood staff from different services and supervised by Menzies.

Chief Investigator:
Senior Project Officer:
  • Carolin Stock
Project dates:
  • The project commenced in July 2018 and concluded in June 2023.
     
  1. Stock, C., Kerinaiua Punguatji, M., Cubillo, C., Robinson, G. (2021), Narratives and Processes – Developing a responsive parent-child program to empower local facilitators in a remote Aboriginal community, Qualitative Social Work.
  2. Stock, C., Mares, S. & Robinson, G. (2017). Working together in a good way: Relationships between local Indigenous and fly-in workers delivering a parent–child programme in remote Aboriginal communities. International Social Work, 62(1), pp.48-61.
  3. Stock, C., Mares, S. & Robinson, G. (2012). Telling and Retelling Stories: The use of narrative and expressive approaches in a group intervention with parents and children in a remote Aboriginal community. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 33(2), pp. 157-170.