Community Engagement

The Lived Experience Network (LEN) plays an important role in advising how the Child and Family Support System (CFSS) can better support families to keep their children safe and well at home.

LEN is made up of 15 system advisors of diverse ages, cultures and backgrounds who have an experience of significant family stress and the need for support services to keep their children and families safe and well.

Lived experience for the LEN group is defined as experience of:

Significant family stresses that make it harder for children and families to feel safe, secure and valued
Supporting family, community members or friends who have been living with family stresses
Seeking and/or receiving help from child and family support services or helping others to do so
Diverse cultural knowledge about what services need to be and do to be truly helpful.

LEN Alumni

Working alongside LEN is the LEN Alumni. Alumni members are people who have completed their LEN term and are keen to remain connected to LEN and participate in activities that are of interest to them. The role of the Alumni is to increase the diverse voices of lived experience and bring their knowledge and expertise in working within LEN and CFSS.

How LEN was established

LEN was established in 2020 as a direct outcome of the co-design of the CFSS. The establishment of LEN recognises the voices of families with lived experience must be an important part of how we continue to develop and shape CFSS. The catch cry of system advisors ‘nothing about us without us’ reflects their commitment to strengthening the system to support others like them.

To learn more about the establishment of LEN see the Emerging Minds Case Study.

How LEN contribute to CFSS

CFSS is underpinned by a deep respect for families and their voices. LEN meets fortnightly to provide advice about the ongoing development and implementation of the CFSS. LEN members use their lived experience to provide practical advice on how the system can better support children and families.

LEN provides advice by:

contributing to the design of CFSS policy and practice
helping with the design of websites, marketing and communications to reach families going through tough times, such as the ASK website
being part of Communities of Practice forums and speaking on discussion panels
talking with service and training providers about how practitioners can best work with families
sharing the views of their community (for example, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, culturally and linguistically diverse people, LGBTQIA+ people, and families with additional needs).

LEN’s key achievements

LEN helped create the ASK website, where families going through tough times (and anyone with a concern about children's safety and wellbeing) can access information and support.
Aboriginal LEN members worked with an Aboriginal consultant to inform the design of the Trauma Responsive System Framework and training. To support this, LEN produced a series of videos for practitioners on how to be trauma responsive.
Advisors helped inform language and content for practice guides for the CFSS, including assertive engagement, safe home visiting and risk and safety planning.
Aboriginal members of LEN helped inform the design and content of the training package Yaitya Mingkamingka Purrutiapinthi. These advisors were featured in videos about the strengths of culture and trauma-responsive practice, which are now being used in training.
LEN worked with the South Australian Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence to develop an online, anonymous consultation tool ('Share with Us' tool) for families to share their experience of domestic, family and sexual violence.

Join LEN and have your voice heard

We are always seeking people with lived experience to join LEN. If you would like to share your lived experience and be part of the voices of LEN, register your interest (DOCX 151.9 KB).

Find out more about becoming a system advisor (PDF 1.2 MB).