Sector Capacity Building Initiative
Rio Tinto Gladstone Operations have partnered with community to improve outcomes for families and children through a new training initiative for the human service sector. The three-year community-designed initiative through Gladstone Region engaging in action Together (GRT) aims to deliver sector-identified priority training needs as a mitigation for skills shortages impacting our human service sector and to grow equitable service access for community.
Collaborative capacity building is identified locally as a key enabler of continuous improvement and service system integration and is a priority action of the community-designed and owned Gladstone Region Wellbeing Action Plan.
The initiative outlines plans to deliver a suite of training for sector-wide frontline workers to confidently and efficiently support our community. In March 2023, human services sector organisations expressed their support for GRT to source funding for a collective approach to training to enable:
Sector-wide participation in priority training at an affordable, co-contribution price
Upskilling of service sector staff
Improved retention
Readiness for role succession
Shared practice, language and resources between referring services
Continuity of support for clients, across the services supporting them
Improved service system integration
The project acknowledges the challenges of equitable access to training in the Gladstone Region, where specialised human service training may not be available locally, requiring either:
travel outside the region - impacting on costs and time away from case management that impacts existing clients and may have waitlist consequences, or
contracting a trainer to come to the region – impacting on cost due to trainer travel and accommodation on top of training costs (and may be unviable for training relative to small numbers of specialised staff).
Rio Tinto has made a significant contribution to support the three-year initiative through their partnership in the project. 100% of these funds will be used for direct payment of training costs (trainer, travel, accommodation).
GRT’s partnership contribution (funded by the Stronger Places, Stronger People initiative) will support a collection of sector feedback, training coordination, venue provision, model evaluation, and sharing outcomes to address skills and training gaps and access challenges faced in regional Queensland.
During the three years, evaluation will assess regional costs to access training and the gap associated with the ‘capacity to pay’ of providers. Feedback from providers engaging in training, provided via the initiative, will be a key element of the project’s success.
This is a wonderful opportunity to work collectively, to support workforce and sector development, to improve early supports and opportunities for Gladstone children and families.
Training Opportunity – Gladstone Region Childhood Builders
The first training opportunity through the Sector Capacity Building Initiative is now open for expressions of interest. In aligned interest of the Gladstone Region to improve wellbeing outcomes for families and children, ‘Childhood Builders’ aims to address the important question: How do we support conversations with our parents and families about wellbeing?
Participants will learn how to operationalise an integrated suite of neuro-informed evidence-based wellbeing, family engagement, brain building, resilience and trauma-informed systems frames and tools, to enhance professional practice and contribute to systems change to ‘build thriving childhoods’.
Childhood Builders is a four-part training series delivered between April and August 2024, through a blend of online and in-person learning.
Training is suited to child-family focused organisational leads, practitioners, educators and client support roles who work with children, parents and families living in the Gladstone Region.
To read more about Gladstone Region Childhood Builders, please see the training overview below.
If you would like more information please contact GRT.
P: 07 4970 7382