Report from the Chair

I’m pleased to share our annual report as Chair of the SHINE for Kids board. The past year has brought success with the positive outcomes of our programs and revitalisation through our refreshed leadership team, board, and vision for the future.

Our Programs

Our teams have been delighted to see families returning to visits and Child & Parent Activity Days with loved ones by the thousands at Correctional Centres. Children in our Rise program have benefited from over 8000 hours of mentoring at school and enjoyed holiday events where they have formed lifelong friendships with other children, supported each other, and celebrated their achievements.

The Elders who volunteer for our Belonging To Family program in Kempsey have gone above and beyond this year. Not only have they supported 87 families at the Mid North Coast Correctional Centre to reconnect with each other, culture, and their communities before the parent’s release, but they have also visited other correctional centres across NSW to take part in events and share their insights.

Our Stand As One youth justice mentoring program has launched in Queensland, a significant milestone for the program, which has been running successfully in NSW for over ten years.

This year, we also launched our SFK Mentoring program in NSW, VIC and QLD, which supports young people in the critical yet often overlooked ages of 12-21. This program was made possible by a $1.4 million Federal grant, announced by then Minister for Home Affairs in 2022.

Our Advocacy

We’ve participated in vital research and helped drive projects giving a voice to the 43,000 children in Australia who have a parent in custody. With figures showing that children of prisoners are up to 6x more likely to be imprisoned as adults and that 52% of young people in youth justice have had a parent in prison, the time to address the effects of parental incarceration is now.

The findings from our National Survey for Carers conducted with Monash University and released this year painted a clear picture of the disadvantage our families are facing. This landmark survey, the first conducted in Australia, has quantified, and provided evidence to support our advocacy and gained attention from the media with reports on SBS News, Sunday Telegraph, and Triple M.

You may have also seen SHINE for Kids advocacy regarding youth in custody and the struggles our children face highlighted in stories by 2GB, Townsville Bulletin, Cairns Post and ABC radio.

We are now official members of the #RaiseTheAge in NSW coalition, and SHINE’s CEO Julie Hourigan has joined the Board of INCCIP, an international coalition of organisations and individuals advocating for the rights of children of prisoners. It’s very pleasing to be taking our cause to the world stage.

Our Future

While we have consolidated our programs this year, we are also investing in our reputation. With the engagement of consultants For Purpose Evaluations, we have focussed on creating a framework for collecting and assessing our data and measuring our impact. This step cements our commitment to best practice and evidence-based programming in everything we do and marks a maturing of our work.

We have also partnered with the University of Western Sydney to evaluate our Rise mentoring program. I want to thank our government and philanthropic funders for their ongoing support, and my fellow board members for their dedication to the children we support and for coming together to imagine and focus on all of the exciting opportunities that lie ahead.

I’d also like to thank the SHINE for Kids staff whose work is making a difference in families’ lives every day. We look forward to big things at SHINE for Kids in 2024!

Shane Hamilton
Chair

Read the Annual Report here [PDF]