Annual Review – create.org.au

Annual
Annual
Review
Review
20202020

Contents

Chairman’s Foreword

Change

From the CEO

Vision, Mission and Core Principles

CREATE’s Role

Child Protection Landscape

The Year That Was

Awards

Connect

National Child Safe Standards

clubCREATE

E-Marketing

Connection Events

CREATE’s Cultural Work

Empower

Youth Advisory Groups

Speak Up

CREATE Your Future

Northern Territory Sortli Launch

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Policy and Advocacy

Achieving Change

Submissions

Position Papers

Consultations

Advocacy in Action Workshops

Child-centred Complaints

Handling Best Practice Guide

Events

Fundraising Events

World Care Day 2020

CREATE’s 20th Birthday

Voices in Action Conference 2019

CREATE in the Media

Financial Overview 2020

Statement of Financial Performance 53

Statement of Financial Position

Statement of Cash Flows

Year Ahead

Our Volunteers

CREATE Corporate Supporters

Government Funding Bodies

VIA Conference 2019 Sponsors

Board of Directors

Leadership Committee

Locations and Staff List

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CREATE acknowledges the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples of this nation. We acknowledge the traditional
custodians of the lands on which our company is located and where
we conduct our business. We pay our respects to ancestors and Elders,
past, present, and emerging.

Cover Pictures top to bottom:

CREATE Young Consultants Sonja Brown and Nick Davies at the 2019
CREATE Voices in Action: Nothing About Us, Without Us Conference.
Young people at a CREATE connection event in the Northern Territory.
Gus, CREATE Young Consultant Wade Blake with Lakeisha Cummings
and Briarley Birch from VOYCE Whakarongo Mai (NZ).

Annual Review 2020 Chairman’s
Foreword

CREATE had an excellent conclusion to its birthday year. It
culminated in a birthday celebration at the fourth Voices in Action
conference in Melbourne. Celebrating this great milestone at our
biggest conference ever was a memorable experience for everyone
who attended. Our Founder Jan Owen provided a fitting overview
of CREATE’s achievements over the years and was excited about
the future for children and young people.

We’ve seen a new way of operating emerge during the COVID-19
pandemic, and our teams have risen to the challenge of engaging
with children and young people in creative ways that have kept
their interest and increased participation. We remain concerned
for children and young people during these uncertain times, and

remain committed to implementing innovative new ways
of operating to ensure that we are doing all we can to continue
to provide quality services.

We saw Queensland embrace our need to secure an Information
Sharing Agreement and this year was the first year that it has been
in place, and what a difference it has made to children and young
people! Our focus now is on the remaining states without an
agreement in place!

Another outstanding year for the Leadership Committee, and
dedicated CREATE staff, congratulations to each and every
member of the team!

Chairman
CREATE Foundation

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…our teams have risen to
the challenge of engaging
with children and young
people in creative ways that
have kept their interest and
increased participation…

CREATE Foundation From
the CEO

This year was extremely eventful for CREATE Foundation and
during the later part of our 20th birthday year we hosted our
fourth Voices in Action Conference; Nothing About Us, Without
Us at the Melbourne Zoo. It was an unequalled success and
the venue really aided us to make the event special. It was our
largest gathering of young people and sector partners, and the
atmosphere was electric with anticipation! We had young people
from all eight jurisdictions across Australia, and our international
guests included young people from the UK, Scotland, New Zealand
and Hong Kong! Events of this magnitude take a lot of organising
and work, and the CREATE team were outstanding in their
commitment to making the event a success. Our sincere thanks to
conference Project Manager Stef Coles, and to Hannah Peacock
for her support across all aspects of the conference, and to all the
Conference Committee Members for their hard work.

Stemming from the Advocacy in Action conference sessions, we
created a Best Practices Guide for Child-Centred Complaints
Handling and developed resources to aid the process for young
people. A second Best Practice Guide on Participation is due to be
published in the next year. We also developed tools to promote
the need for young people to have the option of remaining in
their current placement, should this be appropriate and desirable
to them and their carer, till the age of 21. We joined with our
colleagues at Anglicare Victoria and the Homestretch campaign
to highlight this ever present need to have options for young
care leavers that include remaining in a stable and supportive
placement.

I had the good fortune to speak at an international JAPSCAN
conference in Kobe, Japan, to support the sector to advocate
for a service to promote the rights of children and young people in
care as currently they do not have a dedicated service to do this.
The opportunity to meet with international agencies selected to
speak allowed us to extend our global network. It seems the issues
faced by young care leavers are very similar
in many countries.

Our sector relationships have strengthened over the years and
our partnerships have yielded improved outcomes for children
and young people. Our partnership with Key Assets has gone

Innovative ways of engaging and supporting children and young
people have been implemented in short time frames with pleasing
results. It is a credit to our teams on the ground that they have been
able to mobilise their resources and change their delivery methods to
remote delivery in such a short space of time, and with such success.

from strength to strength and the CREATE Your Future program
is now rolled out to Key Assets staff to assist young care leavers
to gain valuable life skills. This year saw us secure several new
partnerships; in Queensland, the Next Step Plus program saw
us confirm new licences for the CREATE Your Future Program
at Churches of Christ Care, Life Without Barriers, YFS and Gold
Coast Youth Services. We also confirmed the Department of Child
Protection in South Australia as a licence holder. This is an exciting
time as we start to mobilise this program as it allows us to reach
and equip more young people to move to independence with
improved life skills and confidence in their abilities.

This year also saw us focusing on reviewing our commitment
to the National Child Safe Standards and Principles. A massive
body of work occurred across the organisation to strengthen our
policies, processes and practice. Lucas Moore was instrumental
in driving the review in the early stages, and developed online
resources to promote our work in this space to ensure that we
were able to publicly demonstrate our commitment. Beck Ketton
took over the reins when she came on board and has ensured
that the standards are implemented across the organisation. Our
Leadership Committee Members have been essential in facilitating
us reaching our goals. A huge thank you to Jecelyn Anjani,

Beck Ketton, Elisabeth Kobierscki and Noelle Hudson for their
dedication to the organisation and improving the lives of children
and young people.

The COVID-19 environment burst into our lives and has wreaked
havoc for our teams across the country. Innovative ways of
engaging and supporting children and young people have been
implemented in short time frames with pleasing results. It is
a credit to our teams on the ground that they have been able
to mobilise their resources and change their delivery methods
to remote delivery in such a short space of time, and with
such success. Our marketing team, led by Lucas, have moved
mountains and reacted to this new environment quickly and with
flair. Our new delivery mode saw podcasts, webinars, animated
videos (featuring “Gus”, our mascot), blogs, YouTube videos, and
Instagram sessions with Gus, all developed in a matter of weeks!
CREATE is proud to have such a dedicated staff and thanks each
and every member of the team for their continued efforts to
deliver quality service and activities for young people during this
challenging time.

Our Board worked hard this year and tried new ideas in the
fundraising space and we saw our first Industry Event held at Ernst

and Young with our Board Member Andy Parton hosting the event.
We are ever thankful for the support from our corporate partners
AMPC whose continued dedication makes a huge difference to
how we are able to support children and young people. We saw
some new philanthropic support through grants this year that has
enabled us to think outside of the box and create new resources
and activities while increasing the participant numbers for
programmatic activities.

Overall a fruitful year that improved the lives of children and young
people, progressed our advocacy agenda and solidified our sector
partnerships!

Jacqui Reed
Chief Executive Officer
CREATE Foundation

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Annual Review 2020CREATE Foundation Vision,
Mission
and Core
Principles

Vision
(what we hope for)

All children and young people with a care
experience reach their full potential.

Core Principles
(what we value)

• Children and young people are
the centre of the work we do

• Our practice is inclusive and respectful
of culture and diversity

• Our advocacy is independent, non-
partisan, evidence based and driven by
the voices of children and young people

• We believe that meaningful participation
is essential for engaging children
and young people

• Partnerships with government, NGOs
and individuals are pivotal to success

• We are enthused by creativity and fun

• We invest in our people

• We provide a safe and inclusive
environment for children and young
people where they are safe, respected
and have opportunities to have a say
free of judgment and prejudice.

Mission
(what we do)

Creating a better life for children and
young people in care. To do this we;

Connect children and young people to each other,
CREATE and their community to

Empower children and young people to build self-
confidence, self-esteem, and skills that enable them to
have a voice and be heard to

Change the care system, in consultation with children
and young people, through advocacy to improve
policies, practices, and services, and increase
community awareness.

CREATE’s Role

CREATE Foundation is the national consumer
body for children and young people with an
out-of-home care experience.

CREATE represents the voices of over 44,000
children and young people who are in statutory
care and those who have transitioned from
care, up to the age of 25.

To achieve our mission of improving the lives of children
and young people in statutory care, we facilitate a
variety of programs and services and develop policy,
research, and reports to advocate for a better care
system. CREATE is the only independent, national
advocacy body whose policy positions are directly
informed by children and young people with
a care experience.

Our work is underpinned by our deep and abiding
commitment to improving the lives of vulnerable
groups of children and young people, and as part of
this, we also need to address the over-representation
of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and
young people within the care system. Our Strategic
Plan for 2018 – 2021 drives forward our commitment to
improving the lives of children and young people with a
care experience. We continue to strengthen our working
relationships with a wide range of organisations,
including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander agencies

to ensure our work remains culturally relevant and
to amplify the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander children and young people who are over-
represented in the out-of-home care system. Our plan
clearly expresses our commitment to ensure that
children and young people are at the centre of what we
do, and that their voices inform our advocacy through
evidence-based consultation and research. Over the
past few years since the launch of our Strategic Plan
we’ve made incredible progress towards our strategic
plan goals including:

• Reaching and surpassing a 10 percent increase in new

clubCREATE members

• New information sharing agreements with

governments in South Australia, Queensland and
Western Australia

• Growing and diversifying income streams with an

emphasis on unattached funding through roll out of
the CYF Licensing program

• A number of states making commitments and

introducing trials re: our goal for young people to
have the right to have a placement supported within
the care system until 21 years

• Developing and distributing a Best Practices Guide for
Complaints Handling to ensure complaints processes
are designed to ensure the safety of children and
young people, and are accessible and responsive

Our Mission

Connect
children and young people
to each other, CREATE and their
community to

Empower
children and young people to build
self-confidence, self-esteem, and
skills that enable them to have a
voice and be heard to

Change
the care system, in consultation with
children and young people, through
advocacy to improve policies,
practices and services, and increase
community awareness

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