The Home Stretch WA Community of Practice (CoP) is a group of service providers working together with young consultants and practice experts to roll out the Home Stretch WA Model across WA.
‘Communities of Practice are groups of peers who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.’
A CoP is primarily established to enable and promote social learning and thinking together. It occurs when people collaborate to share ideas, strategies and develop solutions regarding a similar issue over an extended period. This promotes innovation, knowledge sharing and process improvement.
There are three essential elements to a successful CoP:
- Members share a common area of interest
- Members regularly interact and learn together
- Members are practitioners who develop a shared repertoire of resources.
A CoP is primarily established to enable and promote social learning and thinking together.
Young people and Aboriginal Community have been at the centre of the design and
development of the Home Stretch WA model. They have entrusted us with their hopes and
vision for a better system for transitioning from Out of Home Care. The agreement to expand
Home Stretch WA across the state, includes a commitment to ensure the expansion remains
true to the model of practice that young people helped create.
System reform is challenging. The introduction of a new way of working across a system requires
support and resourcing to achieve the intended outcomes. Evaluations of similar reforms in the
United Kingdom, Canada and the United States recommend an approach that invests in
workforce development, program monitoring, accountability, and a focus on embedding a
cultural change in leadership to overcome the challenges of wide scale reform.
In May to July 2021, a review of the learnings and insights from the Home Stretch WA Trial was undertaken by all involved stakeholders. This review recommended a CoP as a critical foundation for the effective scaling of Home Stretch across WA. Now that the funded backbone has come to an end, the self-sustaining CoP provides a sharing, learning and support resource for all providers, ensuring young people have access to a high-quality Home Stretch service wherever they are in WA.
For more information on the history and impact of the Home Stretch WA CoP check out the CoP FAQ and CoP Impact report and Our History Page
As leads of the Home Stretch WA Trial, Anglicare WA and Yorganop were contracted by the Department of Communities for a fixed term period to establish and maintain the CoP backbone. That funded period has now ended, and Home Stretch WA providers self-sustain the CoP functions.
The purpose of the CoP is to ensure young people have access to a high-quality Home Stretch service wherever they are in WA. The CoP established, and now maintains, a knowledge hub centred on workforce development and the sharing of practice resources and information about what works.
The Home Stretch WA model was a highly collaborative project driven by the voices and expressed needs of young people, and in particular their experiences of ‘ageing out’ of the state care system at 18 and being forced into independence with significantly less support and resources than their peers. Commissioned as a developmental platform rather than a ‘pilot before roll-out’, the Home Stretch WA Trial has brought together stakeholders from within and outside the child protection system to co-create the practice, policy and system adaptations that are needed to effectively extend supports from 18 to the age of 21 in the WA context. The Trial final report is accessible here.
The members of the CoP is staff employed by organisations delivering the Home Stretch WA service to young people e.g. Transition Coaches, Staying on Facilitators, Home Stretch WA Coordinators. Child Protection workers, Department of Communities Staff, Foster Carer support services, CreateWA, Peak Bodies, and other stakeholders also have a space to join in CoP activities.
Home Stretch WA providers self-sustain the CoP function and ongoing working groups and practice forums. There are also joint working groups with Department of Communities for shared practice and policy decisions.
For more information on Home Stretch WA or to join a CoP working group please reach out to Department of Communities on homestretchwa@communities.wa.gov.au.
For more information on Home Stretch WA Eligibility and referral process visit the WA Government Home Stretch WA webpage .
View the Home Stretch WA FAQ here.
Website: www.communities.wa.gov.au/homestretchwa
Email: homestretchwa@communities.wa.gov.au
For more information on the Home Stretch WA model and eligibility or to make a referral visit the Department of Communities Home Stretch WA webpage or email homestretchwa@communities.wa.gov.au.
