Coordinating a movement for kids and families

In 2024, we partnered with Queensland Council of Social Service (QCOSS), the peak body for Queensland’s community services sector, to better understand how policy and services could support stronger outcomes for Queensland children and families.

Raising Queensland: Child and Youth Policy Priorities, undertaken by The University of Queensland between July 2024 and February 2025, set out to identify the policy priorities for supporting children, young people and families across the State.

Most notably, the report found that more Queensland children are not meeting their childhood development goals by the time they start school than in any other state. It also highlighted gaps in access to housing, health and mental health support, alternative education and culturally safe place-based care, and the need for families to have a greater role in shaping the systems intended to support them.

QCOSS used this evidence to launch the Raising Queensland campaign in March 2026 with 26 founding partners, calling for a whole-of-government Families Strategy and the policy and investment settings needed to support it. Our role has been to fund both the convening and the underlying policy work behind that coordinated push.

Support for the campaign has grown to more than 30 community organisations since launch, and 10 of our own partners are part of it, pooling their advocacy efforts.

QCOSS has also joined the Queensland Kids Partnership’s Framing Initiative, drawing on research into how narratives and language around children and families shape public mindsets and influence policy support to drive systemic change.

We’re also working with QCOSS to strengthen how the campaign measures progress, looking beyond reach to changes in cross-sector relationships, capability and coordination.

Photo caption: QCOSS CEO Aimee McVeigh speaks at the launch of the Raising Queensland campaign, advocating for better outcomes for children and families across Queensland