Pool Pilot Initiative Wins Award Read More
Hands Up Mallee is committed to listening and understanding, acting, learning, and adapting alongside our community. By weaving together lived experience, service expertise, and research, we’re shaping a future where every child has the best start; and every young person and family feels supported.
We completed a project on the children's voices for what they wanted for the community. This project gave us an insight into what children see for their community and places they like to visit and play. This information has built the scaffolding for decisions in building or maintaining community spaces.
Government stakeholder
Knowing that they [the HUM Backbone Team] were on board meant that it could happen. Your ideas are not going to fall on deaf ears.
Community member
From October 2016 to June 2017, Hands Up Mallee connected with people across our region to understand what matters most—our passions, aspirations, concerns, and ideas for change. Through more than 1,600 conversations, we discovered a shared vision: “A connected community, where children and young people thrive, and families matter.”
This wasn’t just a statement—it became the foundation for our collective action. And the conversation continues. After the development of Hands Up Mallee’s Measurement, Evaluation and Learning Framework, further community conversations were undertaken with families and children to form the 0-8 Nested MEL Framework, and then with local youth to create the 9-18 Nested MEL.
In 2021–22, Hands Up Mallee partnered with youth, families and services to co-design an approach to hear directly from local young people (ages 9–18) and their families about life in our community, what truly matters to them—and what would make a difference.
Together we:
Young people shared their hopes, dreams, and goals—what they love to do, the challenges they face, and most importantly, what makes a real difference. These insights are shaping our work and have laid the foundations for projects like HomeBase Hoops, Free Pool Access Pilot, and the Youth Cinema Project—because when childish voices lead, communities thrive.
In 2019, Hands Up Mallee partnered with Mildura Rural City Council and early years educators to hear directly from children aged 3–8. Their insights informed the Best Start to Life systems mapping and the Municipal Early Years Plan. The project aimed to hear from at least 375 children aged 3-8 Years, who live in the Mildura LGA. The project reached over 450 children, with 375 giving us their consent to use their thoughts and creative works to help shape our community into a better place for everyone.
These resources make it easy to bring children’s perspectives into everyday planning and help foster their agency in our community.
Hands Up Mallee worked with local families and carers of children aged 0–8, partnering with service providers and the Centre for Child and Community Health at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. Together, we combined community voices, service knowledge, and research expertise to identify priorities that would give every child the best possible start in life.
Community input was essential. Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) data showed that one in five local children began school vulnerable in at least one key developmental domain. By collaborating with families, services, and government, we laid the foundation for coordinated action to create lasting change for children in the Northern Mallee.
Through discovery sessions, we learned about the hopes, dreams, and challenges of parents and carers—insights that continue to shape our work today:
