Berry Street Web Docs Berry Street Strategic Directions 2027

The story so far: 2010 - 2013 We are proud of our achievements in the first three years: • We established the Berry Street Childhood Institute • We led service innovation in: foster care; education; therapeutic responses for children and young people harmed by abuse and serious neglect, the 2009 Victorian Bushfires and unaccompanied minor asylum seekers; support for young people leaving care; family violence; and the use of recreational experiences to help children heal • We committed 1% of our salary budget for evaluation and developed an organisational evaluation framework and outcome indicators for Out of Home Care and Education • We developed an ambitious public policy and advocacy agenda based on five themes – childhood belongs to children; safety is not enough; fairness and equity for families; no place for violence; and two ways together - supporting Aboriginal children, families and communities • We hosted international colleagues including Dr Bruce Perry, Richard Rose, Clark Baim, Cindy Blackstock, Dr Kristie Brandt, who shared their knowledge and experience with us, government departments, our colleagues and foster carers • And we exercised our leadership role through numerous forums, inquiries, conferences etc The next three years: 2013 - 2016 The next three years are likely to be characterised by: a tight fiscal environment; a continued drive for reform and better integration of services; increasing pressures on smaller community service organisations; changes in the contracting environment; increased competition; and the need for new collaborations and partnerships. These changes will be imposed on a service system that is already struggling to meet demand. Recognising these challenges, our key focus will be: • Strengthening the quality, consistency and integration of our services, and our capacity to demonstrate outcomes • Achieving policy and system change in our eight identified areas of innovation – education, foster care, therapeutic care, early years, leaving care, family violence, keeping siblings together and place-based community strengthening • Building the influence of the Berry Street Childhood Institute • Working with our Aboriginal colleagues and others to grow the authority and resources of Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations • Growing our ability to achieve our strategic goals, through better defining our distinctiveness and increasing our independent income

Berry Street Web Docs Berry Street Strategic Directions 2027 | Page 3