Building Confidence, Compassion and Connection: Responding to Children in Substance-Using Families Training
- Oct 7
- 2 min read
Giving our children the best start in life means ensuring children feel safe, happy and loved, growing up at home with their families.
Building confidence, compassion and connection within and across local services who care for and support children and walk alongside families in all of life’s circumstances, improves the quality of early conversation and helps strengthen the foundation for safe and nurturing homes.
Recently, fourteen local professionals from child safety, Aboriginal health services, early childhood education, and family support services – came together for Drug and Alcohol First Aid – Responding to Children in Substance-Using Families, a full day collective learning opportunity.
Lives Lived Well expert clinician facilitated tailored training in response to the sector-identified training need. Participants were equipped with real-world context to recognise alcohol and other drug issues, practical tools and age-appropriate language to respond to the unique needs of children while supporting families.
Participants reflected on the immediate impact of participating in training:
“I learned useful questions – what to ask and what not to ask – and gained relevant statistics about alcohol and other drugs that will guide my conversations with children and families.”
“The training improved my knowledge of how to have meaningful conversations with children.”
“I gained new ideas to use in my conversations with families.”
“I left with greater empathy for those struggling with addiction and a deeper understanding of how others may perceive them.”
Participant feedback also reflected the improved benefits of learning together and opportunity to build cross-sector connections to strengthen collective impact.
“I found the information sharing between services incredibly helpful. All attendees came from similar backgrounds, which made the experience truly collaborative.”
The training forms part of the Sector Capacity Building Initiative, informed by our local Human Service Sector on priority collective training needs, to enable improved outcomes for our families and children.
To learn more about the Sector Capacity Building Initiative and the community partnership with Rio Tinto, Here for Gladstone, read Collective Buying Power and Community Partnership Enabling Improved Outcomes for Families and Children, or contact GRT:
P: 07 4970 7382
