Building stronger foundations for young people and families in the East Kimberley
Foundations 4 Change is a developing youth justice, family support and community wellbeing initiative being explored by Wunan Foundation in partnership with government, community leaders and service providers.
The initiative has emerged from a growing recognition that many of the challenges facing young people in the East Kimberley cannot be solved through short-term programs or crisis responses alone. Evidence gathered through community consultation, frontline service discussions and research into successful national and international models points to the need for a more coordinated, family-centred and long-term approach.
While the program is still in the development phase, its purpose is clear: to help create stronger family foundations, improve outcomes for young people, and break cycles of intergenerational disadvantage before they become entrenched.
The challenge
Across the East Kimberley, a relatively small number of families experience complex and ongoing challenges that can place young people at greater risk of disengagement from education, contact with the justice system, homelessness, substance misuse and poor health outcomes.
Discovery session involving frontline youth justice representatives highlighted several recurring themes:
- The same families often reappear across multiple generations.
- Many parents and carers are dealing with significant life challenges and are struggling to access support.
- Young people often enter contact with justice systems after years of unmet need.
- Services can be fragmented, making it difficult for families to navigate support.
- Interventions frequently focus on responding to crises rather than addressing underlying causes.
While many existing services are working hard to support young people and families, structural barriers can limit their ability to deliver lasting change.
What will Foundations 4 Change do differently?
Foundations 4 Change is being developed around a simple idea: lasting outcomes for young people start with stronger families.
Rather than focusing on a single service or facility, the initiative is exploring a coordinated, whole-of-family approach that:
- Provides consistent support over time.
- Works with families, not just individual young people.
- Strengthens cultural connection and community leadership.
- Improves coordination between services.
- Creates pathways to better education, wellbeing and life outcomes.
A key principle emerging from the work to date is that the model should lead the infrastructure, not the other way around. The focus is on developing an approach that works for families first, while progressing on-country assets and future facilities in parallel.
Building on what already exists
Foundations 4 Change is not intended to replace existing organisations, programs or community-led initiatives.
Instead, it is building on lessons from previous Kimberley proposals, Aboriginal-led justice initiatives and successful family-centred models from Australia and overseas.
The aim is to strengthen what is already working, improve coordination between services, and help fill gaps where they exist.
As the project progresses, Wunan Foundation will continue working with community, government and sector partners to ensure the initiative is informed by evidence, grounded in local realities and designed to deliver long-term outcomes for young people and families across the East Kimberley.