Overview
What is Platforms?
Developed by the Centre for Community Child Health, Platforms is a place-based, community-led approach that seeks to improve the environments and experiences of children in the communities in which they are born, live, learn and grow.
Informed by evidence and over 15 years of experience applying Platforms in Australian communities, the approach provides guidance on how to strengthen community ‘platforms’ including:
- safe and supportive neighbourhoods
- connected families
- high-quality services.
Strengthening these community platforms delivers better health and equity for children and their families.
A Platforms roadmap, guide, resources, training and support are available to help communities plan, implement and evaluate place-based change.
Platforms Roadmap
The Platforms Roadmap outlines a process for implementing Platforms that consists of five phases.
- Phases 1-3 (Engage, Build and Learn) focus on engaging and mobilising people, building relationships and partnerships, and learning about the community.
- Phases 4-5 (Act and Review) focus on the design, testing and implementation of changes, as well as regular reflection and refinement of the approach.
Phases are depicted in a sequence, however the Platforms process is dynamic and iterative. In practice, communities should expect to move back and forth between the phases as they continue to develop, learn and refine their work together.
Platforms Guide
‘Platforms Guide: Improving children’s wellbeing through community-led change’ supports services, community groups and governments to successfully implement the Platforms approach in a community.
The guide outlines:
- The Platforms approach including its rationale, principles and intended impact
- The Platforms Roadmap and how to implement each phase
- Additional resources and support
- Questions to support reflection and monitoring of progress
Platforms training
Whether you’re new to Platforms, or would like to build your understanding in a certain area, we have a workshop to suit your needs.
Customised guidance and support
We have over 15 years of experience in child-focused, place-based reform, and can provide you with the support, tools and resources needed to accelerate your change agenda.
Our specialists are available to provide customised guidance and support for the Platforms approach, including the Platforms Principles, phases and steps.
We offer support in the form of tailored workshops, facilitator training, consulting and coaching.
To find out more about how we can help you, get in touch with our friendly team of specialists at [email protected].
Our team
Partners and funders
Resources
These resources will help you to implement Platforms in your community, no matter what stage you’re at in the Platforms Roadmap.
Using Platforms
- Collective Impact Forum: Resources and online peer support from others undertaking collective impact efforts.
- Tamarak Institute: A library of tools and resources on collective impact, community engagement, collaborative leadership, innovation and evaluation.
- Platform C: Tools, resources, links and case studies from across Australia on how to build and support system change through collaboration.
Engage
- Australian Early Development Census: Nationwide data on early childhood development during the first year of school including what's working well, and what needs to be improved to support children and their families.
- Brain Builders: A video that communicates how children's brains develop and how to support a lifetime of good mental function and health.
Build
- Planning and running an inclusive meeting: A fact sheet that provides strategies for planning and conducting inclusive and effective community meetings.
- The ten year dream – a story for visioning: An activity to help you develop a process for creating a shared vision.
Learn
- Community data: A fact sheet that provides an overview of community data, including types of data and how to gather it.
Act
- Mapping community assets: A factsheet that provides advice for mapping helpful community resources.
- Mapping community services and resources: A toolkit with templates for gathering information and identifying gaps about child and families services and facilities in a community.
- Using evidence in policy and programs: A policy brief that explores the use of evidence in policy and programs to ensure that evidence-based interventions are aligned with the needs and values of clients.
- Implementation in action: A guide to implementing evidence-informed programs and practices by the Australian Institute of Family Studies.
- Towards a model of evidence-informed decision making and service delivery: A working paper that explores the concept of evidence-informed practice.
- Restacking the Odds: Publications and tools from Restacking the Odds exploring best practice and process indicators for antenatal care, sustained nurse home visiting, early childhood education and care, and parenting programs.
- Shaping agricultural practice: A report by Canegrowers Isis and Murdoch Children's Research Institute that shows how Platforms has been applied to develop a decision-making framework to guide work in the Queensland agricultural sector.
Review
- Place-based evaluation toolkit: A toolkit developed by Clear Horizon that provides links and resources for addressing key evaluation questions.
Contact us
Do you have a question about Platforms? For further information, please email [email protected].