Every Child is Valuable campaign brings awareness to children’s wellbeing

The Valuing Children Initiative (VCI) has launched a national call to action to ensure every Australian child is valued, prioritised and heard through a new campaign ‘Every Child is Valuable’.

The campaign has been designed to bring awareness to the “horrifying statistics” around children’s wellbeing in Australia.

VCI Founder Adjunct Professor, Tony Pietropiccolo AM said improved child wellbeing can only be achieved when individuals, businesses and the government have children at the forefront of their minds in all aspects of decision-making.

“Government policies directly affect children and young people and it is essential that their voices and needs are represented at all levels of government,” Mr Pietropiccolo said.

“Children’s interests are broader than child protection and education; around 774,000 children live in poverty in Australia and we know that growing up in poverty negatively impacts kids.

“All 4.7 million of Australia’s children are valuable and deserve the best start to life,” VCI Development Executive Maddie McLeod agreed.

“Unfortunately, far too many children are falling through the cracks, but there are solutions and we can do better.”

Ms McLeod said it was time for Australia to “get really serious about working towards the betterment of children’s wellbeing,” starting with changing the current behaviours and attitudes that society has towards children and young people.

The campaign promotes children as important, contributing members of society while also highlighting the need for greater consideration to be given to children at a political level.

Australians can pledge their support by signing a VCI led petition advocating for the introduction of mandatory Child Impact Assessments.

VCI has also drafted an email that supporters can send politicians calling for a Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy and Minister for Children’s Interests in every Australian state, territory and federally.

The campaign is funded by Centrecare and supported by industry leaders WACOSS and The Children’s Collective.