Our Impact
With support from the Healing Foundation, Think Impact were engaged to study and evaluate Connecting Home and the impact that it has in servicing and supporting Stolen Generations survivors and their families. The summary report outlining our impact can be viewed via the link below.
Purpose of this report
This document provides a snapshot of the activity and impact being created by Connecting Home. The report draws on existing Connecting Home data aligned with the outcomes framework developed in 2025.
Why Connecting Home is needed
Government policies of forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families existed from the mid-1800’s to the 1970’s. In 1860, Victoria became the first state to pass these laws, with similar policies adopted by other states and territories soon after. The Federal Government enacted policies in the 1900’s.
As a result of these government policies, Stolen Generation survivors and their families are living with complex trauma. These stories are not well understood in the community and mainstream systems do not talk about this history. Current Government policies and practices continue to overlook Stolen Generation survivors and their families.
Stolen Generation survivors’ wellbeing is significantly lower than that of non-Indigenous Australians with survivors 4.7 times more likely to have kidney disease, 3.1 times more likely to have diabetes and 2.7 times more likely to have poor mental health (AIHW 2021).
Some reparation and redress schemes exist to recognise the trauma caused by Government policies as one pathway towards healing. They may include financial, legal and wellbeing support, however, they do not exist in all jurisdictions (WA announced a scheme on 26 May 2025 and Queensland do not have a scheme) and the National Redress Scheme is due to finish in 2027.
Many people impacted by these policies had already passed away before the schemes existed. And these schemes and timelines do not acknowledge that healing from trauma requires diverse healing pathways and is a lifetime of work, and being ready and deciding to apply for these schemes can occur at any time in someone’s lifetime.
In 1997 the landmark Bringing them home report was published highlighting the impacts of these policies and provided 83 recommendations. Every Indigenous person in Australia has been impacted by the Stolen Generations, either directly in the case of survivors, or indirectly because of the intergenerational trauma that the removals caused (Bringing them home report 1997).
In 2025, only 5 of the 83 recommendations have been clearly implemented and 45 have been categorised as failed to be implemented (Are you waiting for us to die report 2025).
How Connecting Home is creating impact
Connecting Home is driving change in two ways:
- Providing a dedicated, culturally safe support service for Stolen Generations across South-Eastern Australia that supports healing and builds resilience from a place of cultural strength and safety.
- Raising the voices of Stolen Generation survivors and their families on the issues affecting them to engage society and influence change.
They do this by working collaboratively with partner agencies and related services to deliver the best model of care for clients and working with others to influence change.
Figure 1 below illustrates how Connecting home is creating impact.
Services provided
Connecting Home’s services include:
- Case management
- Support with Stolen Generations reparations
- National Stolen Generations Redress Scheme support
- Disability services and support
- Stolen Generations Funeral Fund
- Support with needs related to ageing
- Support with redress for Historical Institutional Abuse.
The needs of Stolen Generation survivors and their families are varied and complex. Clients can engage with Connecting Home at any time, for as long as they need support. Key aspects of delivering support are:
- support is grounded in cultural strength and safety
- support must be available, responsive, ongoing and holistic
- support must be generational, available to Stolen Generation survivors and their descendants.
- long-term support means that survivors are more stable and therefore better able to support other members of their family.
Partnerships and resources are needed to provide care that is holistic and can respond to the complex needs of Stolen Generation survivors and their families.
Our Impact
How the impact has been described by clients
We are all stolen … there is a connection and trauma that no-one else understands.
Someone has to pick up our lost ends.
It is such an ordeal to focus on us … ageing as a Stolen Generation not as healthy … need to concentrate on us a lot.
Connecting Home … got me back on track, on my feet.
I don’t have to be ashamed anymore.
[What Connecting Home means] … a future for my children – they will always have help.
Understanding our impact going forward
References
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), (2021), Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Stolen Generations aged 50 and over: updated analyses for 2018-2019. Cat. no. IHW 257. Canberra: AIHW.
Commonwealth of Australia, Bringing them home, 1997, Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their families available at https://humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/content/pdf/social_justice/bringing_them_home_report. pdf
The Healing Foundation, Are you waiting for us to die report, 2025, available here https://healingfoundation.org.au/are-you-waiting-for-us-to-die-the-unfinished-business-of-bringing- them-home/