With the hundreds of people, organisations and government departments from Logan, Queensland and Australia where it became evident that the vibrant community of Logan QLD is at the leading edge of the place-based movement in Australia.
Logan Together is a 10 year community campaign to ensure Logan kids grow up as healthy and as full of potential as any other group of Australian children. Many kids in Logan are thriving but research is showing that, on average, there are still some gaps to close.
Logan Together is for every kid, from birth through to age 8. These first 8 years of life are really important. They are critical for brain development, for building language and literacy skills and for learning how to regulate emotions and get on with people.
To help kids arrive full of potential at age 8, the best place to start is early. Logan Together’s strategy is to get kids born well and then do the things that make a big difference for kids as they grow through each age and stage of early childhood.
They know there is no one silver bullet and that there’s lots of different things that go into producing a healthy, happy 8 year old. That’s why they need everyone involved: community and health organisations, Government partners, schools and early learning centres, charities, local business, community leaders, families and kids. Over 100 organisations and several thousand people are working as one to achieve Logan Together’s goal, as part of the Logan Together movement.
“If it’s not already, it’s certainly the start of a movement.”
Logan Together are using the internationally recognised Collective Impact methodology to coordinate action and a small backbone team, hosted by Griffith University, powers the collaboration. The people of Logan are helping lead the work through co-design and co-leadership which is leading to real insights into how to support change and make much better decisions. They are taking a holistic view so they’re also looking at how social investment and service systems could better support change at the community level.
Right now, they are focused on six major projects that will make a big difference for Logan’s kids:
- Community maternity and child health hubs strategy
- Engagement and early development strategies for kids 0-4
- High quality early education networks with health and social supports
- A community education and mobilisation campaign
- Employment projects for families
- Social investment and service integration reforms
Logan Together’s first goal is to achieve parity with the Queensland benchmark in AEDC and NAPLAN over 10 years. This would reduce the number of children 0-8 with developmental vulnerability from 14,000 to 9,000 making a fundamental difference in the lives of around 5,000 children.
And they already have some wins on the board with a 100% increase in the attendance of Indigenous children in kindergarten between 2014-2017.
Two years into a ten year project, the Logan Get Together event provided a fantastic opportunity to check in with the achievements so far, see where the project is heading and to discuss the challenges faced along the way. The event highlighted engaged government at all levels, responsive services and genuine community leadership.
It is a very exciting time to be working with this nation leading community. For more information visit: www.logantogether.org.au
