Message from Adam Blakester, EO		In This Edition
NAPCAN Foundation’s new focus on inspiring and fostering child friendly communities is generating considerable support. Media interest is high, particularly at a local level, where reporting on local child friendly initiatives makes both good news and good sense. There are many more child friendly initiatives being undertaken by communities across Australia than we know about. We want to support these communities and tell their story to inspire others to also take action. If you know of a child friendly initiative in one of your communities, particularly focussed on preventing maltreatment of children, please let us at NAPCAN know. We’d love to be inspired by your work, and in turn tell your story to inspire others. Together, we truly can become a child friendly Australia, preventing abuse and neglect of children before it starts.		National Child Protection Week 2005 Child Friendly Communities – do they exist? Child Friendly Challenge – a call to action! New Prevention Resources – child friendly communities New Website – www.napcan.org.au Donate to NAPCAN's work? Keeping Children Safe on the Internet NAPCAN ACT NAPCAN NSW NAPCAN WA NAPCAN NT NAPCAN VIC NAPCAN QLD

National Child Protection Week 2005

“Child friendly communities prevent abuse and neglect of children”

National Child Protection Week 2005 is fast approaching and will be held from the 4th–10th of September.

There are events planned across Australia, with the week launched nationally on Sunday the 4th of September at the UnitingCare Burnside Minto Family Centre in the Macarthur Region of Sydney, NSW.

This community event will begin a week of events in Macarthur with a focus on children’s wellbeing and self esteem, community history, strengths and resilience. Local service providers will be involved, together with entertainment, food and other activities. Children’s participation will be at the centre of activities on the day.

It is not too late to get involved and there are still plenty of ways that you can participate:

• Organise an event during the week with your community;
• Order a free NCPW promotional pack from www.napcan.org.au including sample resources that you can display during the week
• Play your part in creating communities in which child abuse and neglect has no place.
• Take the child friendly challenge and register your commitment to a Child Friendly Australia by signing the online pledge at www.napcan.org.au.

Child Friendly Communities – do they exist?

Many of us have heard of the term ‘environmentally friendly’, but do we know what it takes for a community to be ‘child-friendly’?

NAPCAN believes it takes a whole community, working to achieve the goal of children’s wellbeing being everyone’s responsibility – a community where child abuse and neglect has no place.

In the same way that an environmentally friendly product is designed to ensure the natural world is sustained, strong, healthy communities ensure that kids are a top priority to ensure they grow up healthy, happy and free from harm.

Whether it is a neighbourhood, school, sporting club or workplace, a ‘child-friendly community’ is one where children are valued, respected, provided for and actively included. Every Australian community can strive to listen carefully to children and support parents and families.

Victoria has examples of real communities undertaking initiatives to become child-friendly communities. One is the program of volunteers who comfort and cuddle babies in instances when their mother’s can’t. Another is the YMCA Walking School Bus of children and parents, which aims to improve the physical, social and mental well being of the children. It probably helps the parents too!

Although we are a long way from reaching NAPCAN’s vision that every Australian community is child-friendly, it is inspiring and heartening to see so many communities undertaking good initiatives.

You can find out more about these and other child-friendly community initiatives at www.napcan.org.au

Child Friendly Challenge – a call to action!

Do you have what it takes to help make your community child friendly? This National Child Protection Week, find out by taking the Child Friendly Challenge! It is as simple as: Smiling at a child Letting a parent with kids ahead of you in a queue Giving a parent a night off – cook them a meal, or entertain their children for a while Donating your clothing, furniture or toys for use by another family Raising valuable funds for NAPCAN To learn more about child-friendly challenges to suit individuals, communities and workplaces log onto www.napcan.org.au

New Prevention Resources – child friendly communities

NAPCAN has developed an exciting new range of resources based on our ‘child friendly community’ approach.

CHILD FRIENDLY COMMUNITIES BROCHURE Our newest brochure, this full-colour booklet provides an inspiring introduction to what child friendly communities are, how they help prevent child abuse and neglect, and how we can begin to build them. Available now in English and soon available in Chinese, Arabic, Vietnamese, Samoan and Tongan. CHILD FRIENDLY COMMUNITIES ACTION KIT To be launched during National Child Protection Week, this online kit is a comprehensive guide to establishing a Child Friendly Communities Action Group with detailed ideas on initiatives for your community to become child friendly. Available for download from www.napcan.org.au from September 4th.

LISTENING BROCHURES Comprising three brochures – Listening to Babies, Listening to Children and Listening to Young People - this new series is designed to help parents and other carers on why listening to children is important and how they can enhance their own listening skills. To order these and other prevention resources go to www.napcan.org.au and follow the links. Unless otherwise stated, NAPCAN resources are free – however, we do pass on costs for postage and handling, with a minimum charge of $10. Please note that while metropolitan deliveries will take less than one week from when payment is received, some rural and remote areas can take up to three weeks. SO PLEASE ORDER EARLY FOR YOUR NATIONAL CHILD PROTECTION WEEK EVENT!

Want to know more about NAPCAN’s history? Need a quick and easy way to order resources? Want to take the child friendly challenge? Then www.napcan.org.au is the place for you. NAPCAN has recently revamped its website to make it more robust, comprehensive and easy to use. Beautifully redesigned, the site contains extensive information about NAPCAN, who we are, why we exist and what we do. All of our prevention tools can be viewed online along with our current television campaign ‘Don’t Just Stand There.’ The website is also an invaluable tool for National Child Protection Week and features regular news and updates, resources, tips and hints to help you plan your event.

Donate to NAPCAN's work?

By investing in NAPCAN you will support us to:

• ensure the operational capacity of NAPCAN and its network of state and territory offices;
• provide critical outreach programs to those communities most at risk ;
• increase public awareness of, and participation in, National Child Protection Week ;
• develop and establish a national network of Child Friendly Community Action Groups providing grass roots strategies and solutions for the prevention of child abuse and neglect;
• fund essential research through the Knowledge Institutes and our key partners;
• reinforce NAPCAN's position as a powerful force in the prevention of child abuse and neglect and as a leader on the path toward a child friendly Australia.

We believe this will improve the wellbeing of children and reduce child abuse and neglect.

To donate visit www.napcan.org.au/donate.htm

Keeping Children Safe on the Internet

How can you contribute to this? There are several things you can do to help children using the Internet safely.

1. Discuss, agree and encourage appropriate Internet for children with known sites and people in cyber-space
2. Use a content filter on computers to block inappropriate content
3. Placed Internet computers in a shared, family or public space
4. Be involved in children’s online activities and communities
5. Ask about what children are doing and who they are meeting on the Internet
6. Ensure children ask permission before giving out any personal information online
7. Make sure children never agree to meet someone they’ve met online alone
8. Choose a child friendly Internet Service Provider
9. Teach children to check all online information and not believe everything they read
10. Find out how to make a complaint about illegal content or inappropriate conduct on the Internet

An aware and informed parent can help keep children safe. For further Information or to order a free Internet Safety Kit visit: www.netalert.net.au or call Netalert on 1800 880 176.

NAPCAN ACT

NAPCAN ACT would like to thank everyone who has offered support through 2005, in particular the following:

• IMB Foundation
• Office for Children, Youth & Family Support
• David Dawes of the Master Builder´s Association
• ACT Community Grants

and everyone who contributed to the planning of National Child Protection Week 2005.

NAPCAN ACT would like to hear from you! We would like to know where you would most like to be able to access NAPCAN? Would you like to us to be a “presence” in schools, community libraries, health centres, Shop fronts? Please either ring the NAPCAN ACT office on phone: 02 6295 2210 or email: napcanact@aol.com.au

Don’t forget the Father’s Day Family Fun Day during National Child Protection Week! Contact the NAPCAN ACT office for more information.

NAPCAN NSW

To celebrate the upcoming National Child Protection Week (NCPW), NAPCAN NSW has joined with the University of Western Sydney to publish a booklet with the views of academics, university, secondary and primary school students and NAPCAN executives on what their views of a child friendly community are. The publication has been generously funded by the University of Western Sydney and Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Prizes will be offered among university students and among secondary and primary students with the winners being announced during National Child Protection Week.

NAPCAN NSW has also been hard at work increasing the reach of NCPW, with some wonderful results. Numerous organisations have agreed to mention NCPW in their e-newsletters and distribute our resources. Particular emphasis has been made to build relationships within the business community in NSW.

NAPCAN WA

NAPCAN WA is working hard towards National Child Protection Week. This year NAPCAN WA is launching a poster competition in primary schools across WA to enter in one of two categories, K-3:“ My favourite place in my neighbourhood” and years 4-7: “ My favourite thing to do at school”. The WA team is looking forward to involving kids throughout WA in thinking about child friendly communities, and what that means to them.

The winners of the competition will be presented with their prizes at the launch of NCPW- a VIP Breakfast at the Parmelia Hilton Hotel on the 5th of September. The breakfast event will feature presentations by Tyrrell, Squirrel& Co, Jane Roberts, Young Media Australia and Jordan Fogarty, a WA student at Scotch College who has been on a fund raising campaign for woman´s refuges in WA. Music will be provided by the students of Hollywood Primary School and the members of their fabulous Big Band.

NAPCAN WA is looking forward to the opportunity to celebrate the amazing and ongoing work in the community by the key agencies and organisations, and will be acknowledging their achievements in the past year, and looking forward to 2005-2006.

NAPCAN NT

NAPCAN NT would like to say well done to the fantastic Yingana Project Team from Oenpelli Community on receiving the VET Training Award for Excellence 2005. The team used a NAPCAN child protection week grant to create parenting resources using traditional stories and paintings in their own Bininj language. Their “Creation Mother” CD-ROM is now available, and the team will be using the sales from the CD to fund future projects and child friendly initiatives.

NAPCAN VIC

Thank you to Parents Victoria for inviting NAPCAN Vic to have a promotional stand at their annual conference “A Healthy Education”, which will be held on August 24th and 25th at the Rydges Hotel in North Melbourne. Parents Victoria is a statewide democratic organization representing parents of students in Victorian Government schools. The organisation provides parents with a voice, presenting an organised parent perspective to State and Federal Government, educational bureaucracies and institutions, community organisations and the media. Parents Victoria supports members by providing advice support and information to parent clubs and parents wishing to establish parent clubs. They also provide advocacy, regular publications, statewide and local seminars and guest speakers.

NAPCAN QLD

NAPCAN Queensland is getting ready once again to host the annual Child Protection Week Breakfast. This year the event will be held on Tuesday 6th September at the Brisbane City Hall, hosted by Kay McGrath and with Frances Whiting as guest speaker. Her weekly column in The Sunday Mail has been a favorite among readers for eight years, and her first book Oh to Be a Marching Girl, a collection of her best columns, was published in 2003 and was a runaway success. Frances is also actively involved in children’s charity work and gives her time to organisations such as Kids Help Line and the Hear And Say centre to promote the important work they do.

Another exciting initiative for the Queensland team is the creation of a humorous calendar of parenting tips and anecdotes, to be launched during NCPW. Rachel Arthur, a successful illustrator, will work closely with NAPCAN to create a series of twelve cartoons based around a community which will provide a light hearted, yet educational, perspective on the challenges of parenting and raising children.