Last week was National Child Protection Week. It aimed to engage, educate, and empower Australians to understand the complexity of child abuse and neglect, and work together to prevent it. The campaign does this through the sharing of events and resources to encourage communities to engage in conversations around children’s safety and wellbeing.

This year, the theme is: ‘Where we start matters’

The Community Jigsaw, shown above, has been used during National Child Protection Week. It is based on research by Dr Sharon Bessell. During the research, a 9-year-old girl pointed out that “A community is like a puzzle, you need to have all the bits to make it work.”  This gave the researchers the idea to use the jigsaw as a way to graphically represent the elements that children identify as central to a positive community. 

When all the pieces are in place, a community is strong and supportive of children. The more pieces that are removed, the less supportive the community is for children.

In some cases, so many pieces are missing that the jigsaw falls apart. At this point, communities have become dysfunctional places from children’s perspective. 

The Community Jigsaw can also be an important tool for policymakers and practitioners. The key question is “how do we ensure as many pieces as possible are in place?”.

In reinforcing and adding pieces of the Community Jigsaw, it is crucial that those pieces that children consider to be in place and working well are not undermined. In some communities, the decision may be taken to focus on strengthening one piece of the Community Jigsaw because that piece is weak or missing. In doing so, it is important that decisions are based on knowledge of the local area, including – crucially – children’s knowledge.

In this representation of the Community Jigsaw, the edges are left unfinished. This shows that this research is not exhaustive or comprehensive, and the Community Jigsaw can be refined and extended based on future research with children.

In 2023, the message that ‘Every child in every community needs a fair go’ will be complemented with the theme ‘Where we start matters’.

Where we start our lives in terms of where we live, the resources available to us, and the opportunities presented to us, make a significant difference to our life outcomes. 

Where we start as decision makers in addressing large complex policy problems such as child abuse and neglect, also has a significant personal, social, and economic outcome.

NAPCAN encourages and supports each member of the community to work together to address child safety in their own homes, organisations and neighbourhoods; to take a stand on behalf of children who are harmed by violence, abuse and neglect. There is a clear emphasis on strong family relationships and an empowered society to enable the best chance to prevent problems before they occur and to intervene as early as possible to stop them from progressing.

  What part can we play?

• work at strong family relationships
  
• address child safety in your own home
• educate yourself and others
• teach children their rights
• know what child abuse is
• know the signs
• talk to your neighbours 
• check in with friends 
• be a good role model 
• offer assistance where possible and
• speak up if you see something that is unsafe

Kathy Uroda - Principal