Submission to Inquiry into the Thriving Kids Initiative
3 October 2025
Submitted by: Gayle Smith
Position: Chief Executive Jewish Care Victoria
Introduction
Jewish Care Victoria (JCV) is the oldest and largest Aged, Disability and Community Services provider to the Victorian Jewish Community. Founded in 1848, Jewish Care Victoria’s purpose - Together, building and supporting a healthy, resilient and inclusive Jewish community - is underpinned by four core values of respect, community, inclusion and social responsibility.
JCV welcomes the Government’s commitment to improving access and equity to assessments and supports for children under the age of 8 years, known as the Thriving Kids Initiative. JCV recognises the importance of foundational supports for children with developmental delay or autism and is grateful for the opportunity to offer this submission
In reviewing the Terms of Reference, JCV wishes to make specific comments on the third reference point, that being:
- Identify equity and intersectional issues, in particular, children who identify as First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse.
Jewish Care Victoria’s Purpose and Role
As an ethno-specific service provider JCV understands the needs of a multicultural consumer base with services designed for Jews who are Australian born as well as those from South Africa, Russia, other Eastern European countries, Argentina, Brazil, Israel, and other Middle Eastern countries. In parallel we also understand service delivery requirements for a minority faith community that includes insular, ultra-orthodox segments. This duality is an important and specific requirement in providing services for the Jewish community.
Experience working with multicultural and minority faith communities provides our organisation with unique insight into some of the issues that these populations face in engaging with mainstream service providers. This experience has nurtured deep knowledge and understanding, coupled with cultural anchoring and humility, that provides our communities with reassurance that, in approaching JCV they will not be rejected, misrepresented or misunderstood. Recent international events, and the ensuing growth of antisemitism, has further compounded fear and distrust which has negatively impacting help seeking.
Jewish Care Victoria’s Proposal to ensure equity and appropriately address intersectional issues, in particular, for children who identify as First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse.
Recommendation
For equity to be achieved for multicultural and multifaith communities (especially minority faith communities) there must be clear expectations of partnerships between mainstream secular services and ethno-specific services are essential and these must be appropriately resourced.
These partnerships should be tailored to meet specific circumstances and may be in the form of direct service provision, creating pathways into the community, developing staff capacity and/or offering professional consultation and advice.
When language, culture and religion intersect, additional barriers to access and equity are created. For the Jewish Community, historic and more recent trauma ripples throughout the community. Victoria is the second largest home in the world to Holocaust survivors. As evidenced through significant research into second and third generation trauma, the Victorian Jewish Community is significantly impacted by these historic events, which is often demonstrated in displays of fear and distrust of other communities including service providers. More recent events locally and internationally has made it increasingly difficult for the Jewish Community. Incidents of antisemitism are higher than the community has seen before, challenging the communities sense of safety and stability.
Additionally JCV has seen a large group of Israelis arrive in Melbourne, many of whom have symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Their fresh trauma further impacts on the trauma of migration, particularly for those lacking family or other connections. The intersection of the experiences of migration, trauma, and antisemitism, coupled with cultural and religious differences, need to be considered when establishing expectations of service provision as part of the Thriving Kids initiative.
We are well aware of the challenges mainstream service providers experience in providing services to our ethno-specific communities. By way of example, we know that maternal child health nurses struggle to engage some of the Jewish Communities more ultra-orthodox segments. JCV partners with maternal child health nurses to build their capacity to understand community, culture and religion. This enables the maternal child health nurses to create pathways that enable their entry into families’ homes and into their lives. These issues and needs are replicated across other primary health services for children with developmental delay and autism.
In the provision of our services, we know that there are members of the Jewish community who will only seek services from Jewish organisations, which would no doubt be true of other communities and minority religions. That is because these services are aligned to these communities and understand their needs, often being embedded in community. This knowledge is not surface knowledge — it’s not
just about knowing a custom, knowing when a religious holy day falls, knowing the food or the language, it’s about knowing the people, and knowing who the community leaders and change agents are.
It is for this reason that we would strongly recommend not only creating further opportunities to consult with organisations such as JCV but to consider a framework that dictates the requirement of supports being provided in partnership with ethno-specific providers. This partnership can be in the form of direct service provision, creating pathways into the community, developing staff capacity and/or offering professional consultation and advice. If these relationships are resourced adequately and form part of the expectation of service delivery, this deep knowing offers a pathway to ensure that foundational services and the Thriving Kids initiative can provide equity of access.
Conclusion
JCV welcomes and is supportive of the Thriving Kids Initiative and we look forward to working with government and other agencies to ensure equity of access for all communities to these services.
We are well aware of the inter-sectional issues that impact equity of access and have highlighted these through our submission. We would be pleased to continue further dialogue about these issues to achieve our shared commitment for equitable access for all.
Gayle Smith
Chief Executive