Shifting the conditions in the systems and environments that shape children’s lives requires deep listening, mobilisation of resources and genuine partnerships. For QKP, that means building relationships based on shared goals, learning and a willingness to adapt.
One of the ways we make sure this approach is woven into everything we do is through our annual Partnership Survey – a chance for anyone who's interacted with Queensland Kids Partnership to provide feedback and share reflections, ideas, and suggestions for how we can work better together and stay on track towards our vision of every young Queenslander thriving within one generation.
Thank you to everyone who has already completed our 2026 QKP Partnership Survey and shared your reflections, experiences and insights. Your feedback helps us learn, adapt and strengthen our work and collective impact for children and young people across Queensland.
If you haven't yet had a chance to participate, there is still time and we'd greatly appreciate you taking 10 minutes to complete it: 2026 QKP Partnership Survey.
Together, we are working to lead and drive real change in the systems that affect the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in Queensland, so that every child is empowered to grow up well and thriving within their families and communities, with equal access to life opportunities and culturally safe, supportive environments.
Built on a shared commitment to culturally strong, community-led ways of working, this partnership has been made possible through independent funding from private donors.
The Thriving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Initiative Strategy, launched earlier this year, outlines a vision for strengthening systems that support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the earliest years of life.
Grounded in the voices and experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and organisations, the strategy recognises culture as a critical protective factor for children’s wellbeing, identity and development, and emphasises the importance of culturally strong, community-led approaches to early childhood development.
Bringing the Thriving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children's Strategy to life
The Thriving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Strategy is intended as a tool to help drive change through conversations and advocacy.
Services, community organisations, local councils, and peak bodies can use the strategy to speak up for what matters, push for change in policy and funding, and make sure community voices are heard and respected in the decisions that affect our children, families and communities.
We invite everyone who works with children and families in Queensland to:
Growing Deadly Brains® is a First Nations-led initiative and collaboration between Yiliyapinya Indigenous Corporation and Queensland Kids Partnership that brings together the world's oldest living cultures and contemporary brain science through a two-way learning approach.
We're excited to share that a collection of free resources developed by Yiliyapinya as part of this initiative is now available. These resources are for everyone:
families, caregivers, educators and the practitioners who walk alongside them, and anyone who wants to learn more about how children's brains develop and how neuroscience and indigenous wisdom can help us understand our brains better.
All In for Growing Deadly Brains: How science is catching up with 60,000 years of cultural wisdom
For National Reconciliation Week, QKP teamed up with our host organisation, ARACY, and partner, Yiliyapinya, to present a fascinating webinar exploring the intersections between First Nations cultural wisdom and the growing field of neuroscience.
Watch the recording to hear experts speak about:
what brain science says every child needs to thrive and how culture meets these needs
how culture and science combined create stronger outcomes for children, families and communities
why children in some communities are missing out, and what we can do about it together.
Queensland Hubs Exchange of Expertise and Learning (QHEEL) has launched a new online learning series for Queenslanders interested in learning about hubs and practical applications of the Queensland Child and Family Hubs Framework. Each session will also consider the role of hubs in delivery of the government's Thriving Kids initiative.
Attend these monthly sessions if you want to:
connect with and learn from others working in and alongside Queensland child and family hubs, including funders and researchers
build practical knowledge you can contextualise to apply in your own setting
access evidence, tools and resources to support your work, including those of the National Child and Family Hubs Network
contribute to a Queensland-based network and shared understanding of effective practice.
This online learning series is funded by the Minderoo Foundation.
The next session will be held on Thursday 3 September, 11:30am - 1:00pm.
Australia's first national picture of Child and Family Hubs
The National Child and Family Hubs Network is leading Australia's first national survey of Child and Family Hubs, the National Child and Family Hubs Snapshot.
Gathering contributions from hubs nationwide, the report will help build the first national picture of how Child and Family Hubs operate in practice, including:
how activities and supports are organised
how services work together across systems
what supports the workforce needs to do its job well.
The findings will directly inform future policy, system improvement and advocacy for greater support and investment in Child and Family Hubs and their workforce.
Queensland Kids Partnership has partnered with the National Child and Family Hubs Network to undertake a deep dive of hubs in Queensland, and to generate a snaphot of data specific to Queensland hubs. This snapshot will be shared to support conversations aimed at enhancing the wellbeing of Queensland’s children, including through implementation of the government's Thriving Kids initiative in Queensland.
Northern Queensland Kids Partnership
Children thrive when they're supported by strong networks of people, places, services and institutions – wherever they live!
That's why we're excited to be strengthening our partnerships with James Cook University and others in northern Queensland to advance regionally-based, systems-shifting initiatives for young North Queenslanders, as part of QKP's 2025–2030 Impact Strategy.
In July, members of Queensland Kids Partnership's leadership team headed to JCU's Townsville campus to explore practical opportunities to work together, including emerging propositions around brain-building, backing community initiatives, building disaster resilience with kids in focus, and supporting new and current workforces.
We're really looking forward to what we can achieve together for kids as the Northern Queensland Kids Partnership takes shape. If you’re working with children and families in northern Queensland and would like to be engaged in this collective work, please reach out to our JCU-based QKP team member Alisha Chand.
Proposal for 16 regional Thriving Kids partnerships
Thriving Kids – an initiative between the Australian and state and territory governments – is an opportunity for governments, families, communities and services to work together so that babies, toddlers and young children with developmental delays or autism and their caregivers can access support early and easily.
This is welcome news, because fairly distributed, localised supports that are easy to access, responsive, and safe lead to better outcomes for children and caregivers wherever they live, learn and play. But implementing Thriving Kids in a way that meets these aims will require an approach that takes into account the specific needs and characteristics of each state.
That's why Queensland Kids Partnership is proposing 16 regional Thriving Kids partnerships to implement Thriving Kids across Queensland.
These partnerships would use local data, lived experience, service mapping, workforce insights and community relationships to strengthen coordination, improve pathways and make the most of existing and new services, supports, networks and community assets – especially across rural, remote and regional Queensland.
Read QKP's Regional Thriving Kids Partnerships proposal below and please reach out if you'd like to chat more about how we can make Thriving Kids work for all Queenslanders.
What if every adult in the life of a child was brain aware and neuro-informed?
This was the question posed by QKP Executive Convenor Michael Hogan, who recently participated in QUT's Real Health Series Panel, ‘Building Brain Capital: Designing Universities for Learning Capability and a Changing World’.
Michael joined other panel members Professor Debbie Long, Professor Selena Bartlett, and David Norris, for an inspiring conversation about what it takes to enable people to think, learn, connect and flourish in an increasingly complex world.
The discussion highlighted an important shift: brain health is much more than mental health. It’s about creating the conditions that enable people to develop the capabilities needed to adapt, participate and thrive.
One of the key takeaways was that this is about the stewardship of systems. As David Norris reflected, supporting individuals to improve brain health and skills is only part of the solution. Our environments, relationships and systems all influence whether people flourish, and these need to change as well.
Lasting change comes not from asking individuals to adapt to fragmented systems, but from working collectively to design systems and environments that better support people. Realising that ambition requires schools, universities and TAFEs to embed brain awareness and neuro-informed practice throughout curricula and teaching, across disciplines, so that graduates enter life and the workforce equipped with foundational capabilities.
QKP and our partners are leading numerous examples of systems change in action, such as ‘Brain Builder’ initiatives like Brain Healthy Schools, curricula reviews led by Sally Staton and Laetitia Coles at The University of Queensland, Yiliyapinya Indigenous Corporation’s Growing Deadly Brains, and Logan Together’s Better Futures.
QKP is a proud member of the Children's Rights Alliance, which brings together organisations from across Queensland who share a commitment to ensuring children and young people are recognised as rights holders and that their voices, experiences and wellbeing remain at the heart of our communities.
The Alliance delivers initiatives that support children’s rights education across Queensland. These include distribution of resources, awareness days and activities, an ambassador program, and a new grants program to support ECEC services to deliver events or projects that promote awareness of children’s rights.
Alliance membership is open to organisations committed to promoting education and awareness of children’s rights. Visit the link to view current members and see how you can get involved.
New online course: Supporting infants, children and families during disaster response
QKP partner Emerging Minds has developed a new online course: Supporting infants, children and families during disaster response.
Designed for organisations, services, volunteers and other workers involved in disaster response, this free course aims to provide a foundational understanding of how disasters impact children and how they may respond at different ages and developmental stages. It also offers guidance on using tools such as psychological first aid and tailoring support to children’s specific needs.
If you are working or volunteering on the front line of disasters, this short course will provide you with the foundational skills and knowledge you need to support families through evacuation and reunification.
Creating the conditions for children and young people to thrive takes people who are willing to learn together, strengthen relationships and support change from within their communities.
That's why we're looking for motivated applicants from across Queensland to take part in a fully funded 3-year program which will support you to develop the skills, confidence and intergenerational networks to become an effective Change Facilitator, working to shift the conditions that shape the lives of children and young people in Queensland.
Free First Nations training for child and family hubs
Cairns | 15-17 September 2026
Queensland hubs are invited to participate in a 3-day immersive learning program to learn more about First Nations ways of knowing, being and doing. The package includes 2-days of Waterways culturally grounded professional learning and 1-day of site visits to two local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled Organisations (ATSICCOs) to deepen participants' cultural understanding and build meaningful, place-based relationships.
This training is offered free of charge to a limited number of participants by QKP in partnership with the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Protection Peak (QATSICPP), as part of the Queensland Hubs Exchange of Expertise and Learning (QHEEL) initiative.
Applications for Cairns close on Friday 14 August 2026.
Free Resilience Scale Masterclass
Online | 18 August 2026
Sharing the Resilience Scale as a simple, shared way to think and talk about resilience, is an important part of our work at Queensland Kids Partnership.
The Resilience Scale reminds us that resilience isn’t something children simply have or don’t have. It’s shaped by what surrounds them – and it’s something we can all help to build.
We’re excited to be offering a FREE online Resilience Scale Masterclass (including Australian examples and case studies) alongside our partners at Alberta Family Wellness Initiative (AFWI).
This 3-hour training reviews the key metaphors of the Brain Story with a focus on how the Resilience Scale Metaphor can be used as a practical tool to assess and monitor resilience in individuals.
Schools are supporting an increasing number of children with developmental delays, learning challenges and additional needs.
Join this free webinar to learn how bringing education, health and community organisations together in and around the local school can provide earlier, more coordinated support for children and families, while easing pressure on school staff.
As a Children’s Rights Queensland partner, we are looking forward to supporting Children’s Week in October.
This year's theme is ‘Children have the right to use their own language, celebrate their culture and practice their religion’ and isbased on Article 30 from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The Queensland Government's Speak OUT is a space for young Queenslanders aged 12–25 to have their say about issues, projects, programs and policies which are important to them. Visit and share the link below to take the Speak OUT survey and explore other opportunities for young Queenslanders to help shape the future on issues that matter.
Trusted tips and ideas from the Raising Children Network and beloved Play School moments to help parents understand children’s development in the toddler and preschool years. These resources are great examples of framing in practice.
Learn what the latest research shows about why a child’s earliest years are so important for health and development, and find practical, actionable strategies to support children and caregivers in your community.
This fortnightly newsletter collates youth advocacy opportunities including advisory roles, project grants, surveys, upskilling workshops, conferences, and events, from a range of sources.
QKP Executive Convenor Michael Hogans in conversation about systems change, place-based practice, the role of philanthropy, and the shift from competitive advantage to collaborative advantage.
The emerging science of collective intelligence (CI) offers a powerful framework for improving multistakeholder collaboration, managing interdependencies, and scaling sustainable solutions.
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