Levant partners with Berry Street in their journey to change the Home Based Care system.
Levant partners with Berry Street in their journey to change the Home Based Care system.
Having a safe place to call home is something so many of us take for granted. Yet for thousands of vulnerable children in our community, having protection and support is vital to ensure they have the best possible chance in life.
Across Australia around 174,700 children received child protection services in 2019-20, as a result of safety issues at home - an increase of 3.8 per cent from 2017.
Nationally 46,000 children who received protection services in 2020 were in out-of-home care (a 7 per cent increase from 2017). Sadly, around 30,600 children were in this situation for two years or more.
Berry Street, one of Australia’s largest independent family services organisations, has been supporting children, young people and families for close to 150 years. Today, they offer a diverse range of programs including out-of-home care, education, housing, family violence support and trauma services.
Foster care offered by Berry Street, provides children and young people under the age of 17 with a safe and nurturing home. Children are placed in foster care when there isn’t a family member or person in their social network to care for them. Foster care can be for just a few days or much longer depending on the situation.
In July 2022, Berry Street launched a 3 year ‘Home Based Care Strategy’, with a mission to elevate and advocate for improvements in the Foster Care system, both within Berry Street and across the sector.
Part of laying the foundations for this strategy meant ensuring program leaders were equipped to effectively action and lead change. Levant partnered with Berry Street to develop and deliver a tailored, change leadership program, ‘Lead the Way’.
Levant Director, Jo Corvetti, and Senior Associate Kubeni Rajkumar, worked closely with Berry Street leaders to design a change program that considered the unique challenges experienced by Home Based Care staff.
Berry Street Director, Kate Percy, says
“Levant made it their mission to deeply understand the context and environment in which we, as an organisation and a sector, operate. This genuine understanding meant they delivered a tailored program that upskilled our people with what they truly needed and readied us for the journey ahead. Levant’s engagement has empowered us to build on what we started in ‘Lead the Way’, and will continue to guide the way we approach change…”
In needing to deliver the program remotely, due to geographical spread, Levant utilised technology to craft an intimate, enriching participant experience, despite the digital setting.
“The ‘Lead the Way’ program gave our leaders tools and techniques to mature their approach to change, for themselves and their teams. We now have a group of leaders who are better equipped to lead and support their teams through our Home Based Care strategy and adopt better ways of working together”,
says Berry Street Senior Manager, Andrea Harris.
“Here at Levant, we aim to do interesting work with purposeful organisations and people, that lead to positive social impact. Having supported many organisations with their transformation and change initiatives, we know that change leadership is an increasing capability challenge for most, if not all, organisations. Berry Street were proactive in identifying and prioritising their attention in positioning their leaders to effectively lead the changes required to create improvements in the Foster Care system. We are privileged to have had the opportunity to support Berry Street with a change leadership development journey in service of their strategic goal of providing children and young people under the age of 17 with a safe and nurturing home. This engagement was truly rewarding for our team, thank you Berry Street.”
says Levant Managing Director and Principal, Fadi Zeitoune.
To find out more about becoming a Foster Carer, reach out to Berry Street. You might be just the person a child needs, today.
Engagement snapshot
Duration
3 months
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Resourcing
2 Consultants, part-time
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Outcome
The development and delivery of a tailored, change leadership program, ‘Lead the Way’.