The Northern Territory Prevention Alliance (NTPA) was formed in 2019, and has since been remodelled to maximise opportunities for Territory-wide action. It is made up of executive-level representatives from key agencies with responsibilities across the Northern Territory for the provision of primary prevention, safety and wellbeing services to communities, families, children and young people. The Alliance provides a means of engaging government, corporate and non-government sectors in promoting the value of wellbeing and the prevention of child abuse and neglect in a consistent and effective way to the broader community.
Together, we aim to build on strengths, find and fill gaps and choose the right people for the right tasks – through focusing on the following five anchors.
Core focus areas
The following themes have been identified as priorities:
- Adopting a true primary prevention focus – defining what it looks like
- Avoiding duplication of services/initiatives – being mindful not to replicate through creating a combined strategy by mapping collective strengths
- Moving beyond safety – looking further towards overall wellbeing for children, families and communities
- Valuing and amplifying the voices of children and young people
- Developing and promoting the benefits of a common ‘prevention’ language
- Community campaigns – getting public messaging/awareness right
- Integrating with established community approaches – formal and informal approaches
- Broadening the scope of work – importance of corporate engagement
- Focus on effective community communication and engagement strategies – real stories help real engagement
- Valuing diversity and inclusivity – Importance of culturally inclusive processes
- Being realistic about scale and cost
- Challenging each other and building together
- Child Rights focus – children’s rights always the backbone to all approaches
- Where does the Alliance have value across the continuum?
- Clarity of overall purpose – all children are safe, thriving, valued and with opportunities.