Developing Cultural Intelligence in the KFC company1.pptx
SESSION 1_Foundations for Success_
1. Foundations For Success:
a guide for social housing
providers working with Aboriginal
people and communities
Foundations for Success –
Introduction and Overview
Facilitator: Timothy Flynn
Date: Month 2015
WEBINAR SESSION ONE
2. Interactive session - quick virtual room tour
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3. Acknowledgement of Country
• I would firstly like to acknowledge the original owners of the land on
which we all stand
• To elders past and present I acknowledge that it is upon their
ancestral land that we all meet
• As we share our knowledge, teaching and practices may we also
pay respect to the knowledge embedded forever within the
Aboriginal Custodianship of Country
• Always was, always will be Aboriginal land
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4. What we’ll cover in today’s session
• Before the guide
• About the guide
• Ways of working with Aboriginal people
and communities
• Cultural capacity of organisations
• Person and family centered approach
modeling
• Introduction to session 2 – The tenancy
lifecycle
4
5. Intention of the guide
The guide has been developed for
social housing providers to
influence practice when working
with Aboriginal families and
individuals to strengthen social
housing tenancies
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6. The story – Passages
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“To me, Nan’s house was my safe
place and symbolises my sense of
belonging.
Aboriginal people always return
home, to their safe place.
The home is where it all begins.”
Colin Wightman,
the artist of Passages
7. Foundations for Success question
• Please raise your hand if you are
currently working with Aboriginal
people?
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9. Breaking the cycle of Aboriginal homelessness
• Aboriginal people in NSW experience homelessness at a rate more
than 3 times that of non-Aboriginal people
• Overcrowding in Aboriginal households in urban NSW is:
– Double the rate of non-Aboriginal families
– Six times the rate in remote NSW
• In June 2013, one-third of Aboriginal families were living in social
housing
• Two-thirds of Aboriginal families living in private rental experience
affordability stress
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10. What we found?
• Aboriginal households exit public/AHO housing at twice the rate of
non-Aboriginal households and have significantly shorter average
tenancy length
• Over 60 per cent of exiting Aboriginal households exiting in one year
are families with children
• Almost 60 per cent of Aboriginal households who exited in a year
returned for multiple assistances within three years
• This pattern of repeat assistance leads to poor housing outcomes
for clients and significant financial costs to social housing providers
due to property turn over and ongoing assistances
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11. How was the guide developed?
To respond to our findings, the guide was developed over 3 stages:
1. Review of state, national and international research focused on
strengthening tenancies
2. Review of six sustaining tenancy models across public housing,
AHO, ACHPs and CHPs.
3. Develop and test the draft Guidelines with four HNSW teams and
two CHPs from metropolitan and regional NSW.
We also spoke to staff from public housing, community housing and
Aboriginal community housing including a social housing sector forum
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13. About the guide – its launch
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Mychelle Curran, Executive Director, FACS Programs & Service Design and Shane Hamilton,
CEO, Aboriginal Housing Office, co-launching the guide on Monday, 23 March 2015.
14. Links between the guide and other initiatives
• Proposes a flexible client centred approach to improving housing
outcomes for Aboriginal clients.
• Was developed in consultation with public housing, community
housing and Aboriginal community housing staff.
• The guide is aligned to other FACS initiatives
– FACS Statement of Commitment to Aboriginal People the FACS Service Charter
for Aboriginal clients and the Aboriginal Cultural Inclusion Framework 2015-2018
– GHSH reforms implemented across Specialist Homelessness Services
– Focus on vulnerable households under the draft Social Housing Policy
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15. What the guide covers
Part 1 - Principles for working with
Aboriginal people and communities
1. Flexible approach to work with
clients
2. Accessible and culturally
appropriate access and service
points
3. Services need to be responsive and
timely
4. Solutions need to be holistic and
take into account diversity and
complexity of issues and needs
5. Responses need to be participatory
and client focused
Part 2 – How principles apply across
tenancy phases
1. Application and pre-allocation of
social housing
2. Allocation and tenancy start up
3. Managing emerging issues
4. Tenancy exits
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16. What today’s session will cover
Part 1 - Principles for working with
Aboriginal people and communities
1. Flexible approach to work with
clients
2. Accessible and culturally
appropriate access and service
points
3. Services need to be responsive and
timely
4. Solutions need to be holistic and
take into account diversity and
complexity of issues and needs
5. Responses need to be participatory
and client focused
Part 2 – How principles apply across
tenancy phases
1. Application and pre-allocation of
social housing
2. Allocation and tenancy start up
3. Managing emerging issues
4. Tenancy exits
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18. Ways of working with Aboriginal people and
communities
• Please raise your hand if your
office could be considered
welcoming or safe?
18
19. Aboriginal people felt welcome and supported
when they apply for housing assistance
• FACS housing office, Parramatta
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20. Organisational ways of working
• Flexible and responsive policies and
procedures
• Team structures designed for
working with vulnerable households
• Importance of Aboriginal staff and
specialists
• Culturally competent workforce –
senior management to client service
staff
• Participation – engagement with
community and a person/family
centred approach
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21. Flexible and responsive policies/procedures
• Strong focus on
policies/procedures and KPIs can
result in client outcomes being
lost
• Balance between client outcomes
and business outcomes
• Flexible and responsive ways of
working enable staff to make the
best decision for clients/business
objectives
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22. Team structures for working with vulnerable
households
22
Flexible client
centred
Time
demands
Team structure
change?
Best fit
solution?
23. Personal and financial cost of housing instability
• What do you think it costs, for just
one client who exits and returns
for multiple assistances?
23
24. Personal and financial cost of housing instability
• Shelley, Aboriginal
woman with two young
children, ‘vacated
without notice’ after a
13-month tenancy
• Sent letters about rent
arrears of over $1,000
• 42 instances of TA over
3 years + bond/rent
• Shelley gave birth to
her third child during
this time
• Rehoused in social
housing
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25. Flexible and responsive thinking
• Taking a holistic &
flexible approach
• Understanding the
broader housing
need
• Taking a pragmatic
approach to policy
implementation,
need to be policy
compliant and still
deliver an effective
outcome
• What were we trying
to achieve?
25
26. Importance of Aboriginal staff and specialists
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1. Critical to services
delivery to Aboriginal
clients / communities
4. High demand –
specialist referral
form
3. May need additional
support
2. Understanding of
culture and
connection to
community
27. Importance of Aboriginal staff and specialists
• Aboriginal Tenants Advice and
Advocacy Services (ATAAS), if a
specialist is not available
• ATAAS provides proactive and
culturally sensitive services
• Contact ATAAS on Tenants NSW
website
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28. Ways of working that develop organisational
cultural capacity
32. What does it mean to be culturally aware versus
culturally competent?
• What does it mean to be a
culturally aware staff member?
32
33. What does it mean to be culturally aware?
• Cultural awareness is having knowledge; but not yet having the
ability to use it
• You need to be culturally aware before you can be culturally
competent
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1. Don’t know what you don’t know
2. Have an awareness
3. Learn how to use the new knowledge
4. Have the ability to use it
34. What does it mean to be culturally aware versus
culturally competent?
• What does it mean to be a
culturally competent staff member?
34
35. What does it mean to be culturally competent?
• Cultural competence aims to foster constructive interactions
between members of different cultures.
• Cultural competence requires that organisations have clearly
defined, congruent set of values and principles, and demonstrate
behaviours, attitudes, policies, structures and practices that enable
them to work effectively cross-culturally.
• Cultural competence is best viewed as an ongoing process and an
ideal to strive towards.
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Reference: Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria Inc.
37. Culturally competent workforce
37
All staff must be
culturally competent.
Cultural competency can be
developed over time.
Contextually relevant.
Formal training
Learning from
local Aboriginal
staff
Engaging with
community
Elders
38. Cultural Participation – engagement with community
• Engage the local community and Elders
• Establish a process for ongoing advice and relationship building
• Support community based activities, i.e. NAIDOC or hosting tenant
events = build trust
• Attend community hubs – e.g. community, medical or art centres
• Senior management needs to engage with Elders and community
• Careful not to over consult, and over promise
• Diverse views are often held within a community
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39. Senior Management’s role
• Senior management needs to engage with Elders and community
• Lead by example, and see that working within your local community is
important
• Set the Organisational culture priorities & cultural standards
39
Standard 5: Service delivery and practice
Standard 6: Governance
Standard 7: Feedback, issues resolution and complaints
40. Extent you meet the standard as a Manager
40
Non-
compliance
(below 50%)
Medium
compliance
(51%-70%)
High
compliance
(71%-90%)
Leading
practice
(91% above)
Standard 1 Key principles:
Privacy, confidentiality, Dignity, Self-determination.
Rights to quality service provision, kinship principles and cultural safety.
Standard 2 Key principles:
Historical policies and practices are understood and addressed. Social impacts and family dynamics are
incorporated in service design.
Standard 3 Key principles:
Individual, family, community needs are the focus of decision-making. Individual and family dynamics are
respected and addressed through policies and strategies.
Standard 4 Key principles:
Aboriginal people are able to access appropriate services for their tenancy needs. Services use and promote
referral networks to Aboriginal tenants.
Standard 5 Key principles:
Aboriginal cultural and family requirements drive service delivery. Knowledge-based and relationship-based
service delivery is valued and promoted.
Standard 6 Key principles:
Governance roles lead change and inclusion of Aboriginal issues. Strategic leadership is responsible for
driving change throughout the service
Standard 7 Key principles:
Feedback, comment and advice are integral to improved service quality and capacity. The diverse viewpoints
and feedback of Aboriginal tenants, client and agencies require culturally appropriate and sensitive
mechanisms and communication skills at all levels.
44. Participation - a person/family centred approach
44
Person and Family-Centred Practice Model
Practice that builds relationships Practice that supports choice and
participation
Technical
quality
Staff values,
attitudes and
beliefs
Staff
interpersonal
skills and
behaviours
Decision-
making and
action
Flexible and
responsive
services and
supports
Staff expertise,
applied to
benefit the
client and
family
Developing co-designed pathways (shared decision making) with individuals
and families ensures preferences and decisions are understood and
respected and those decisions deliver improved social housing outcomes.
45. Participation - a person/family centred approach
• Mother with 2 adult
children (both low level
mental and health
issues)
• Mother passes away.
Father’s housing
application denied. All
advised to leave
property
• Very difficult outcome
for this family. Further
discussion took place
and ……
45
46. Solutions - a person/family centred approach
• Taking a holistic &
flexible approach
• Understanding the
broader housing
need
• Taking a pragmatic
approach to policy
implementation,
need to be policy
compliant and still
deliver an effective
outcome
• What were we trying
to achieve?
46
47. Participation - a person/family centred approach
47
1. Strengths, risks,
wants and needs
2. Strengths based
planning, long term
solutions
3. Empowers people
to make choices
affecting their lives
4. Enables people to
exercise choice in
service delivery and
life decisions
49. What we’ve covered in today’s session
• Before the guide
• About the guide
• Ways of working with Aboriginal people
and communities
• Cultural capacity of organisations
• Person and family centered approach
modeling
49
51. Session Two
Foundations For Success:
a guide for social housing
providers working with Aboriginal
people and communities
Tenancy lifecycle
application – tenancy ends
51
Host: Milka Trifunovic
Facilitator: Tim Flynn
Date: 2015
52. What session two covers
• Application and pre-allocation
• Allocation and tenancy start up
• Managing emerging issues during the tenancy
• Organisational building blocks
• Exits from social housing
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Good morning and welcome to today’s session: Foundations for Success –Introduction and overview
My name is Tim Flynn and I am:
Senior Policy Officer, working with the Foundations for Success team for almost 2 years
I have had a key role in developing the guide
I am a Murri man from the Yagera mob which for those that are unfamiliar is the Brisbane area.
Today I am assisted by Milka Trifunovic (Tra-Fun-A-Vic) who will be working behind the scenes to assist anyone who may have technical or other issues/concerns
Housekeeping rules.
Please shut down all other software programs
Including Outlook/email/explorer
It can be a distraction for you and we would like your full attention and
Having programs open has been known to cause bandwidth issues for users
The aim of this session is to be interactive as possible.
You will be asked to participate a various times throughout today’s session either by raising your hand (Dot point 2) or typing your thoughts or ideas into the Chat room box (Dot point 3).
REMEMBER:
The webinar has been designed to be a safe space for all attendees. Only myself and Milka can see your comments.
There are NO wrong answers, ideas or comments.
I would encourage everyone to participate in the most comfortable method that they find suitable for them.
Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement of Country
There is often some confusion about the difference between a Welcome to Country and an Acknowledgement of Country. What is the difference between a Welcome to Country and an Acknowledgement of Country?
A Welcome to Country is a formal welcome onto Aboriginal Land given by an elder or person of that land. An Acknowledgement of Country is a statement of recognition of the traditional owners of the land. An Acknowledgement of Country can be given by any person, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander or non-Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.
Bring to life the key concepts and best practice tools offered through guide
Have participants ask questions as we go through the presentation through Chat Box
Think about ideas - insights, into ways of working with Aboriginal people and communities
The purpose of the Guide is to influence practice. The ideas and principles contained within the guide are met to provoke thinking, increase understanding and lead to better decision making for organisations and Aboriginal people and communities.
The guide recognises the need to balance the ideas and concepts against your organisation’s policies and procedures.
Using the guide in your day to day business will allow your organisation to strengthen social housing outcomes for all social housing tenancies, including Aboriginal people and communities.
This is Colin’s legacy to his people, community and to us here at FACS.
Through Colin’s artwork and word’s he is best able to describe the importance of Home to Aboriginal people and communities.
This why we do what we do to be safe. Home means many different things -it is about belonging, safety and beginnings.
Question: Please raise your hand if you are currently working with Aboriginal people?
Pause: We have ?? People in the virtual room with their hand up indicating ??% on the call are currently dealing with Aboriginal people.
For those of you who aren’t currently working with Aboriginal people – this session will provide you with an introduction to some foundational ideas and concepts.
For those of you who are working with Aboriginal clients, the Guide will provide you with principles to assist you in your day to day decision making.
Does anyone have any questions before we move on?
Cultural differences around mobility and the shared ownership of resources may not fit with mainstream approaches.
Ongoing affects of dispossession and social dislocation are associated with higher rates of complex needs and client vulnerabilities.
These issues directly impact on some Aboriginal families ability to maintain their tenancy.
QUESTION: Why do social housing providers need a guide?
In 2013, we analysed all tenancy exits from public housing and AHO and found that:
Aboriginal households exit at twice the rate of non-Aboriginal households.
And that Aboriginal households have around half the average tenancy length.
We also found that almost two thirds of Aboriginal households who exited in a year returned for a range of housing assistances. This indicates housing instability and homelessness following an exit from social housing.
Families with children are over represented among all exiting households.
Our research findings have made the argument that the need for change is clear.
The guide is our response to that need for change and aims to contribute to knowledge and practice for those that work with Aboriginal people and communities.
Today’s session provides an overview of the Guide and discusses the foundations for success in working with Aboriginal clients living in social housing
Extensive consultations on the guide has occurred over the last twelve months including with staff from across the social housing sector;
Housing NSW (HNSW) staff (including Client Service Operations and Community & Private Market Housing)
Aboriginal Housing Office staff (AHO),
Community housing providers (CHPs) and Aboriginal community housing providers (ACHPs).
Client service staff and key operational staff were invited to participate in the Sustaining Tenancies forum and were also involved in each of the six sustaining tenancy model reviews.
All stakeholders have been closely engaged in the development the Guide.
Does anyone have any questions before we move on?
On 23 March 2015, Foundations for Success guide was launched in partnership with the Aboriginal Housing Office (AHO) at the Indigenous Housing Seminar, Sydney.
Practitioners from Community and Aboriginal Community housing organisations were present.
This seminar gave us an opportunity to promote the guide across the social housing sector.
ACTIVITY 2:
Please raise your hand if you have seen the guide
Thank you for your response. It is good to see that a number of people have seen copies of the guide. The Foundations for Success team is working extremely hard to get the message out across the social housing sector.
We have all been to training including cultural awareness but feedback from staff is about ‘how do I actually do this’ in the real world.
The purpose of the guide then is to give you some practical suggestions as to how can you put into practice ideas and theories into real world experiences in your role as a housing practitioner.
Reality checks:
every workplace is different
resources are scare
demands on providers are high, growing and becoming more complex
The guide is about understanding what works. What is possible and what isn’t possible at the local level -using your local knowledge to resolve local issues.
It is a recommended approach rather than operational policies or procedures.
Part 1
When we developed the Guide it became clear that there were a number of principles for working with Aboriginal clients that are broadly recognised across all forms of service delivery.
These are:
Flexible approaches to working with clients
Accessible and culturally appropriate service delivery
Responsive and timely service delivery and support to address issues before escalation
Holistic service delivery responding to diverse issues and needs
Participatory and client focused approaches
These principles ensure a focus on family and client centred outcomes. Cultural competency from senior management to frontline staff. And engagement with community to build trust and develop effective local solutions.
Part 2 is about how to use the service delivery principles in a social housing context
Today’s webinar session focusses on Part 1
Does anyone have any questions before we move on?
Question: Please raise your hand if your office could be considered welcoming or safe?
Hint: Does it display artwork, flags, pictures, staff wear name tags, have Aboriginal staff at the counter?
Pause: We have ?? People in the virtual room with their hand up indicating ??% on the call are currently dealing with Aboriginal people.
Aboriginal people who feel safe and welcomed are more likely to engage, trust and ask for help from organisations.
What people told us made a difference:
How sensitive staff were in addressing social/cultural needs
Where offices displayed artworks, flags or posters these were identified as welcoming and more likely to be culturally sensitive to Aboriginal needs
Staff capacity to treat Aboriginal people with respect and dignity and willingness to ‘listen to their stories’
Orgainsational cultural is led from senior managers (top down).
If valued by executives then this method of working becomes part of ‘business as usual’ at the operational level
Ability to have issues raised away from formal office settings such as Outreach or local service center allowed Aboriginal people to feel ‘culturally safe’
The aim when dealing with Aboriginal people is to overcome historical barriers
and REMEMBER: If they are unsure give them the confidence to ‘ASK’
Without these fundamental ways of working it is very difficult to apply the principles discussed previously to the tenancy management process.
The next few slides go through each of these ways of working and talks about what they mean in practice.
As a housing worker what we do everyday is determined by policies and procedures. Housing providers need to closely monitor business KPIs such as arrears and void turn around times to ensure a viable business operating model.
However, an over emphasis on KPIs or a strict application of policies/procedures - can overwhelm outcomes for the client.
The challenge for social housing providers is learning to balance business outcomes and client outcomes. Balancing these outcomes, relies on frontline staff being able to make decisions based on their best understanding of the situation and have flexibility to apply policies/procedures accordingly.
Research shows that a negative exit can lead to significant costs for housing providers if tenants who exit then return for multiple assistances. As a result, the economic cost of negative tenancy exit and return for assistance needs to be considered and balanced with immediate cost drivers such as arrears management or void turn around time.
For example, it may be much cheaper to work slowly with a vulnerable household to bring down their arrears debt than if the household were evicted and had to return for temporary accommodation, private rental and rehousing. Or alternatively end up in the Specialist Homelessness Service system.
REALITY CHECK:
Applying a flexible, client centred way of working requires time.
Many teams/organisations are stretched for time.
Can the structure of a team/organisation be changed to enable staff to work more effectively with vulnerable households?
Structural change v’s short term redirection of resources.
A smaller CHP may be able to redirect resources from one service stream to another when there are significant tenancy management issues
Larger providers may need to restructure teams and establish streams for complex clients.
What is the best fit for your organisation/team and your clients?
During our consultations we talked to teams and organisations that had focused on how they could restructure or redirect resources when necessary to work more effectively with vulnerable households.
Example1: One team undertook an organisational restructure that established three tenancy management streams. A primary stream that included larger portfolios of less complex tenants. And a Secondary stream that included smaller portfolios of more complex clients to enable CSO’s to effectively manage more time consuming clients. The third stream did not include tenancy management but focused on building support partnerships and improving practice.
Example 2: CHP that redirected resources as required when a tenant required more intensive management and support. This may be an effective model for a smaller organisation but a challenge for a big provider with a lot of clients and staff.
Whatever the option, it is worth considering how your structure supports effective engagement with vulnerable households, particularly Aboriginal households.
What I would like you to consider is the total cost associated with a failed tenancy or a tenancy that exists early.
Business costs such as:
Staff hours
Legal costs
Repairs Costs
Loss rent revenue
Housing assessment returns TA Rentstarts etc.
Tenancy debt prior to exiting
Likelihood of an agreed repayment over time
Can all have a impact on our business bottom line, orgainsational sustainability and long-term growth.
The importance of a flexible, client focused way of working is demonstrated by the experience of Shelley. Shelley is not her actual name.
Shelley is an Aboriginal women and had two young children when she ‘vacated without notice’ after a 13-month tenancy in regional NSW. Unanswered contact letters had been sent to her regarding rent arrears of over $1,000, and her next of kin contacted the week prior to the tenancy being ended.
Immediately after exit she received over two weeks of TA. Additional TA was required in 2009, 2010 and 2011, with 42 counts of assistance in total. In September 2009, Shelley was also given bond and advance rent, and again in September 2010. Shelley gave birth to her third child in 2010. Case notes acknowledge that she requires intensive case management.
The total cost of this assistance is estimated at $19,000.
Shelley has been in a new tenancy in another regional town since Jan 2012.
Thinking back to the case study. The question for social housing providers is really about problem solving.
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER AS PART OF A PERSON AND FAMILY CENTRED APPROACH:
What were we trying to achieve if anything
Did we meet the challenges that the Shelly bought us?
Did we actually achieve a good business outcome in $$$ or
Achieve any real housing outcome from Shelly?
How if we had used a more flexible approach could we of better used our policies and procedures to achieve a better outcome for Shelly and the housing, provider?
CULTURAL AWARENESS AND COMPETENCY THOUGHTS:
Did the staff in Shelly’s case have the skills or supports to use policies and procedures in a flexible way or
Were they under pressure to meet business KPIs?
Aboriginal workers are critical to service delivery to Aboriginal clients/communities,
they staff have a strong understanding of culture and connection to community and the importance of local context.
Workers face significant challenges in frontline roles and require the support and understanding of other staff, including senior management
Aboriginal workers provide a key role in working with vulnerable clients.
Staff and Specialists may be in high demand and tools may be needed to effectively manage workload demands such as a Specialist Referral Form (screen shot of form over page?)
Where an Aboriginal worker or Specialist is not available, housing providers should contact the Aboriginal Tenants Advice and Advocacy Services (ATAAS).
ATAAS provides proactive and culturally sensitive services which help to support Aboriginal families and engage with communities.
ATAAS can be contacted on Tenants NSW website to find local Tenant Advice and Advocacy Services.
Advocate services are NOT the enemy. They can and do help achieve and work with the client for a common goal. If we make mistakes then we need to rectify that error. If the clients needs assistance to ‘tell their story’ then this should be considered an important step in the development of trust with an organisation.
Does anyone have any questions before we move on?
ABORIGINAL FLAG –designed by artist Harold Thomas in 1971
BLACK – Represents the Aboriginal people and culture
RED - Represents the red earth, the red ochre's used in ceremonies and represents Aboriginal peoples spiritual connection to the land
YELLOW – Represents the sun, the giver of life and protector
TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER FLAG –designed by Bernard Namok in 1992
GREEN – The green panels at the top and the bottom of the flag symbolise the land
BLUE - The blue panel in the centre represents the waters of the Torres Strait
BLACK - The thin black stripes between the green and blue panels signify the Torres Strait Islanders themselves
WHITE - The white five-pointed star at the centre of the flag represents the five major island groups, and the white dhari (dancer's headdress) around it also symbolises the Torres Strait Islands people. White symbolises peace, while the star is a symbol for navigation
The Torres Strait islands are situated north of Cape York and South of Papua New Guinea
COULD BE A SUREVY WITH yes/no option
Cultural Awareness What’s it mean?
Cultural awareness is having the knowledge but not the willingness or confidence to put into place these beliefs.
Cultural awareness shapes and influences behaviours, beliefs and values and as an active advocate for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the Indigenous Lead Centre recognises cultural awareness as an essential skill for establishing and maintaining effective relationships.
Knowledge makes you culturally aware. Your ACTIONS make you culturally competent.
Here are some ways of trying to describe cultural competency.
We just want to spend a couple of minutes here getting your thoughts on cultural competency.
All staff need to be culturally competent from senior management to front office staff. Cultural competency needs to be a highly valued staff skill. This value is set by the importance senior management place on cultural competency and engagement. Without senior management participation and commitment to cultural competency, messages become mixed and cultural competency risks becoming under-valued.
Culturally competency can be built over time by:
Attending formal training,
Learning from Aboriginal staff and partner organisations, and
Engaging with the local community and Elders.
Cultural Awareness What’s it mean?
Cultural awareness is having the knowledge but not the willingness or confidence to put into place these beliefs.
Cultural awareness shapes and influences behaviours, beliefs and values and as an active advocate for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the Indigenous Lead Centre recognises cultural awareness as an essential skill for establishing and maintaining effective relationships.
You MUST be culturally aware. Your ACTIONS make you culturally competent.
Significant cultural features across Aboriginal communities include:
Diversity in Aboriginal communities, languages and social/cultural practices and dynamics
Importance of kinship obligations
Sorry Business
How we apply our cultural competency is a highly valued skill. It is not just being aware but rather using the knowledge in applying this when working in a challenging policy position such as overcrowding (negotiable and non-negotiable)
Operational judgment calls made between policy & community
Example 1: One Regional District has a gaol in its area. Many Ex-Prisoners wish to return home, meetings held between family, Housing and Probation and Parole can help identify which location gives the returning client the best opportunity to sustain a tenancy and NOT to re-offend.
Participation is a key principle for working with Aboriginal clients and communities and is founded in the right to self determination.
Participation can be exercised in a range of different ways:
Engaging the local community and Elders to develop ways of working to respond to local issues and opportunities
Establishing a process for ongoing advice and relationship building through advisory groups.
Building trust and positive relationships by supporting community based activities, i.e. NAIDOC or hosting tenant events.
Attending community hubs such as outreach, medical or art centres.
Senior management need to take a lead role in engaging with local communities particularly where Elders are involved.
Be conscious of over consulting Aboriginal community members and as much as possible coordinate engagement with other service delivery agencies.
Be conscious of the different views that may be present in a community and try to maximize input from all key stakeholders. For example, Elders may have a view on some youth related issues but it is also critical to engage effected clients in developing solutions, i.e. Aboriginal young people.
This slide outlines some basic principles embedded within a Standard Framework
– each element will have particular relevance and unique meaning to you and they will help you understand where you, your District and organisation is regarding cultural understanding.
Using this framework will help you strive toward leading practice in ways that derive from your service history, local Aboriginal community, existing relationships and tenancy profiles.
The above are some basic principles embedded within the 7 Standard Framework.
Each defines compliance and strive toward leading practice in ways that derive from their service history, local Aboriginal community, existing relationships and tenancy profiles). These include:-
Quality Management Standards are supported by evidence of Aboriginal inclusion and relevant data.
Aboriginal staff, clients and community members are actively engaged in the standards processes.
Specific Aboriginal cultural assessment measures are included in planning processes.
The views and interpretations of Aboriginal staff, clients and services are actively sought and included.
We can provide tools and advice that can assist you in thinking to what extent you and your organisation meet local cultural standards.
Each District and organisation has a unique set of circumstances, experiences, portfolios, skills, relationships and leadership capacity.
The above slide gives you the opportunity to ask yourself just some of the many questions you will have to determine your level of cultural competency.
You can use these questions as a starting point for conversations within your organisation or District, your service partners organisations and with the people with whom you have existing relationships.
Does anyone have any questions before we move on?
Thank you for everyone’s comments and ideas.
A Person and Family Centred Approach (PCFA) puts the role of the individual and wider family in the centre of every decision.
It aims to put the individual and family at the centre of every decision and empowers them to be genuine partners in their housing outcome. It is about building relationships, trust and mutual respect which can then lead to expertise, understanding and commitment.
A PCFA approach is characterised by:
A focus on strengths, risks, wants and needs
Participation in strengths based planning that focuses on long term solutions/goals
Empowers people to make choices affecting their lives
Enables people to exercise choice in service delivery and life decisions.
A PCFA approach can be applied in relation to developing support plans and managing tenancy issues.
Resources are available that focus on developing PCFA support planning.
SHOW ME HOW TO USE POINTER
POLICY CHALLENGES:
Application was denied in accordance with policy on the basis that:
Father hadn’t resided in property for some years
Income was over housing eligibility
Remaining occupants were adults and not children
Private accommodation could be sourced by all 3 if they wanted to remain as a family unit
Father was advised that family would need to vacate property as his application had been declined. Negotiations commenced regarding returning property to Housing NSW. Elder son would be placed in group home. Homelessness would need to be addressed through private rental market.
ACTION TAKEN:
Matter was referred to a Appeal Manager who sought counsel from an experienced Aboriginal Manager.
It was agreed that the original decision was correct however offered no real solutions to the family and in fact separated the family unit with the son going into a group home and the father and dau needing to seek private rental due to income earned. A better and more collaborative outcome needed to be developed
Issues raised, Fathers income –over limit, do either of the adult children have the capacity to sustain a tenancy with or without support in their own right? (Question of housing eligibility)
It was found that adult son could sustain and understand a tenancy if supports were in place
OUTCOME:
It was agreed that the son apply for Succession of tenancy (under RAAT) Father’s original application and appeal was withdrawn
Son was approved and with sister has an additional household compliment
Father was later approved as a additional household member to offer ongoing supports and for a correct rebated rent assessment
All supports would continued as per normal
Family was not broken up and remain in property with support plans and father assisting
Rent was adjusted to correctly identify rebate amount
Everyone happy with result no policies were breached just an alternative view and problem solving approach was taken that included how best we could solve the issue not just use policy process to deny housing services.
Thinking back to the case study. The question for social housing providers is really about problem solving.
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER AS PART OF A PERSON AND FAMILY CENTRED APPROACH:
Decisions taken before the review-
What were we trying to achieve if anything
Did we meet the challenges that the family bought us?
Did we actually achieve a good business outcome in $$$ or
Achieve any real housing outcome ?
How if we had used a more flexible approach could we of better used our policies and procedures to achieve a better outcome for and the housing, provider?
After the matter was reviewed-
What were we trying to achieve if anything
Did we meet the challenges that the family bought us?
Did we actually achieve a good business outcome in $$$ or
Achieve any real housing outcome ?
How if we had used a more flexible approach could we of better used our policies and procedures to achieve a better outcome for and the housing, provider?
CULTURAL AWARENESS AND COMPETENCY THOUGHTS:
Did the staff in this case have the skills or supports to use policies and procedures in a flexible way or
Were they under pressure to meet business KPIs?
A PCFA approach is characterised by:
A focus on strengths, risks, wants and needs
Participation in strengths based planning that focuses on long term solutions/goals
Empowers people to make choices affecting their lives
Enables people to exercise choice in service delivery and life decisions.
A PCFA approach can be applied in relation to developing support plans and managing tenancy issues.
A PCFA aims for a client driven, effective, holistic, individualised and well-coordinated service delivery model.
We can provide additional information on how to develop a PCFA support planning model in your organisation.
Working with vulnerable households to stabilise and sustain tenancies at risk is every human service agency’s business
Social housing providers rely on engaging support for vulnerable tenants from a range of FACS and Health programs
FACS Districts provide a stronger framework for engagement across a broad range of programs
SHS providers have recently been funded to provide support to tenants at risk of homelessness, if their tenancies fail
Collaborative partnerships can be supported through local interagency networks, a focus on building networks and relationships across agencies or through statewide referral mechanisms such as Link2home for SHS providers – Free Call – 1800 152 152.
Bring to life the key concepts and best practice tools offered through guide
Have participants ask questions as we go through the presentation through Chat Box
Think about ideas - insights, into ways of working with Aboriginal people and communities
Are there any questions about the material we’ve just cover before move on to Session 2 overview?
Thank you for you time and I hope that I have given you some ideas that you can take-away and use in your office.
Session 2 from application to tenancy end the first 3o seconds to the last 30 seconds
