Wednesday, March 18, 2026

2:10 PM - 2:50 PM

Adelaide Oval - William Magarey room

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Overview

Presented by: Matt Millar - Cultural Practice Lead. The Victorian Aboriginal Child and Community Agency (VACCA)

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Details

The Victorian Aboriginal Child and Community Agency (VACCA) are implementing its newly developed Cultural Elements of Practice via an innovative coaching model. The Cultural Elements incorporate Aboriginal Cultural knowledge into workable and effective practice guides (comprised of individual ‘elements’ of practice) for practitioners working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families. Training practitioners in the use of these guides enhances their individual practice by developing key competencies, knowledge, skills, attitudes and values needed to be Culturally respectful and ultimately contribute to improved health and social and emotional wellbeing outcomes for the Community VACCA works for. This presentation will outline the coaching model used to embed Cultural Elements of practice including an overview of its effectiveness. Coaching is an active and guided process that provides support to embed Cultural elements into day-to-day work with Aboriginal children and families with high fidelity. Coaching strategies include content review, reflecting on case examples, role plays, and feedback to support skill-building. The training includes self-directed learning and facilitated training sessions to support translation of what was learned into sustained practice change. The flexible nature of Cultural elements means they can be used by practitioners as needed and in conjunction with other effective existing strategies. Findings from pre and post surveys containing feedback on the training sessions will also be presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the coaching. By attending this session, practitioners, team leaders and managers will gain insights into embedding best practice that is culturally safe, aligned and acknowledged.