Sandpit to Seed
The TNQ Drought Hub is excited to be working with James Cook University researchers to help them move their research ideas that could improve agricultural adaption, sustainability and resilience towar...
During the COVID lockdown period (April-June 2020) The Cairns Institute, as part of the Cairns South Collective Impact project, brought service providers together through informal online meetings. This provided opportunity to share information on updated service provision, challenges and areas of need arising in the context of COVID. Professor Allan Dale has said that “One of the most powerful outcomes from a collective impact framework is the sharing of knowledge and ideas. It can provide a form of ‘brains trust’ to solve what can sometimes seem like complex problems.”
Under reporting of and potential increases in domestic and family violence during COVID and associated long term impacts of trauma on children were amongst issues discussed at the informal meetings.
One of the services attending talked about a Tablelands project initiated by the Mareeba Early Childhood Community Network called ‘Backseat Books”. This involves placing books in police vehicles attending households in stress to respond to vulnerability and distress children face in such situations. These books can be used by police officers to connect with a child, and to help them feel safer and calmer.
This has led to QPS (Queensland Police Service), an active member of the Cairns South Collective Impact Project, now trialing Backseat Books in Yarrabah, Edmonton, Smithfield, Cooktown, Atherton, Mareeba and the Youth Co-responder Team. Cairns Libraries has stepped in to support this trial, donating 200 children’s books. Though seemingly a small thing, it is hoped that connecting with a child in a vulnerable situation through books will make an important difference.
As Detective Senior Sergeant Marty Ots of the QPS states, “Hopefully the availability of the books will calm the children quicker, reduce the impact the event has on the child through distraction, build better relations with QPS, and increase their enjoyment of reading".
Children will be allowed to keep the books and the trial will be monitored to better understand its potential impact.
The TNQ Drought Hub is excited to be working with James Cook University researchers to help them move their research ideas that could improve agricultural adaption, sustainability and resilience towar...
The TNQ Drought Hub recently hosted the National Soils Advocate, the Honourable Penelope Wensley AC for a whirlwind 2-day field trip visiting numerous soils restoration and rehabilitation sites to lea...
On 1 August, The Cairns Institute hosted a small, informal symposium for HDR students working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Far North Queensland. It brought together Indigenous...
The Cairns Institute Fellow Dr Kearrin Sims coordinates the JCU Research Ethical Development Symposium, now in its second year. It will be held 27-29 September at The Cairns Institute. This year will ...
The Developing Northern Australia Conference returned to Darwin this year in 2023. In 2021, the conference converted to an online event an hour before the program was due to begin due to a sudden NT C...
The Cairns Institute will host an informal symposium for HDR students working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Far North Queensland. This symposium will explore if and how post-gr...
TNQ Drought Hub’s Professor Allan Dale, Doctor Jane Oorschot and Ms Kara Worth were invited to speak at the Science to Practice Forum and share their experience on innovative tools and practices...
Congratulations to the TNQ Drought Hub drought resilience scholarship recipients. The hub recently offered scholarship opportunities to JCU students who were interested in undertaking an Honours or Ma...
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