e-news Issue two, February 2010

Welcome to the second Closing the Gap Clearinghouse e-newsletter. This e-newsletter aims to keep you up-to-date with Clearinghouse activities.

Issues Paper and Resource Sheet topics announced

Topics and authors for the two Issues papers to be commissioned for 2009-10 have been decided. These are:

  • School attendance and retention — Dr Nola Purdie, Principal Research Fellow and Coordinator of Indigenous Education Research and Development at the Australian Council for Educational Research
  • School readiness, including the health and learning aspects of early child development (to be commissioned).

Topics for the first three of the eight Resource sheets for 2009-10 have also been set. These are:

  • Preventing child abuse and neglect — Dr Daryl Higgins, General Manager, Research at the Australian Institute of Family Studies
  • Pathways for school leavers to undertake training or gain meaningful employment — Associate Professor Boyd Hunter, Senior Fellow at the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at the Australian National University
  • Healthy eating and lifestyle programs for Indigenous communities (to be commissioned).

Topics for the remaining five Resource sheets will be decided by the Clearinghouse Board at their meeting in March 2010.

Experts wanted!

We invite expressions of interest from experts in topics relevant to overcoming Indigenous disadvantage to undertake quality assessments of relevant research and evaluations. In particular, we are seeking specialists with expertise in:

  • school readiness, including the health and learning aspects of early child development
  • early literacy and numeracy
  • school attendance and retention
  • participation in the labour force (urban, regional and remote)
  • community safety
  • Indigenous mortality risk factors, particularly how policies and programs could address these in a culturally appropriate way.

Subject specialists will be asked to conduct formal assessments of relevant material to determine the quality of the evidence using standards, guidelines and a checklist developed by the clearinghouse team. A payment of between $150 and $500 will be provided for each assessment depending on the length of the document. Specialists’ contributions to the development of the evidence will be formally acknowledged on the Clearinghouse website.

To express your interest, please send your curriculum vitae and a short paragraph or dot points outlining your particular research interests via email to: ClearinghouseQA@aihw.gov.au.

Online Research and Evaluation Register

The Research and Evaluation Register is now available! The register is a list of research and evaluations commissioned across Australia, either in progress or completed in the last three years. It aims to improve the coordination of Indigenous-relevant research and evaluation by providing information on what is already being done, encouraging collaboration and preventing duplication of research and evaluation efforts. Records in the register can be searched by key words, year, status, COAG building block and priority topic.

You can also use the register to share information about your research and evaluations relevant to Indigenous outcomes. To contribute to the register, download and complete the proforma (28KB RTF) and email it to closingthegap@aihw.gov.au.

Clearinghouse presentations update

The Clearinghouse team is continuing its visits to state/territory jurisdictions and Australian Government departments that have primary responsibility for the COAG Closing the Gap agenda.

The purpose of the presentation is to promote the Clearinghouse resources and to encourage stakeholders to contribute to the online Research and Evaluation Register and the Clearinghouse Collections.

In 2009, presentations were made to jurisdictions in Perth and Melbourne. The presentation in Tasmania was made in February 2010. In each location there was strong interest from representatives with responsibility for policy and service provision in areas that affect Indigenous individuals, families and communities. There was a general sense of excitement about the possibilities for utilising the Clearinghouse to enhance services, and make sure that policies are informed by relevant research evidence.

The next presentations will be in the Australian Capital Territory, Queensland and South Australia during March.

A presentation was also made in Canberra for the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations in February.

The PowerPoint presentation is available on the website: http://www.aihw.gov.au/closingthegap/documents/cgc_presentation.pdf (1.1MB PDF).

General Collection

You are invited to browse the General Collection which now contains over 5,000 items that broadly relate to the seven COAG building blocks. You can search by key words, COAG building block, priority topic, type of document, year of publication and subject. Please note that items in the General Collection have not been quality-assessed by the Clearinghouse and therefore will vary in the degree to which they may assist with actions overcome Indigenous disadvantage.

News and information

You can keep up-to-date with the Closing the Gap Clearinghouse by visiting the website and subscribing to email news and news feeds.

Events Calendar

To find upcoming conferences, seminars, forums and workshops browse the online Events Calendar.

You can promote your events by emailing closingthegap@aihw.gov.au.

Participatory Planning, Research and Evaluation Panel

FaHCSIA is looking for participatory planners, researchers and evaluators who collaborate with Indigenous people to set up a panel of experts to call upon when needed. For further information about the request for tender visit: https://www.tenders.gov.au...