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Attending the 13^th Aboriginal Children’s Forum in Horsham today, Minister for Child Protection Luke Donnellan announced the new $2 million Aboriginal Kinship Finding Service is now taking referrals.

Its establishment will provide greater stability and more culturally appropriate support for Aboriginal children being placed in kinship care.

Kinship care is provided by relatives of a member of a child’s social network to children at risk who cannot live with their parents.

The new service – part of a package of measures for kinship carers – is supported by a $33.5 million investment and recognises the vital role that kinship carers play in caring for some of Victoria’s most vulnerable children.

The service includes the establishment of a genealogical database to support early kinship carer identification and connections to family, community and culture for Aboriginal children and young people involved with the Victorian child protection system.

The Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency in partnership with the First Nations Legal and Research Services and the Koorie Heritage Trust have been selected to provide the service.

These new measures align with the Andrews Labor Government’s $168 million Roadmap for Reform, specifically improving home-based care and outcomes for children in out of home care.

In the Victorian Budget 2018-19, the Labor Government also committed $53.3 million to help Aboriginal children and families achieve self-determination and self-management for Aboriginal communities.