Strategic Vision

Connecting Home acknowledges the traditional owners of the lands and waters across southeastern Australia and throughout this continent. We recognise their continuing connection to country, community, culture and family. We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders, past and present. We honour Stolen Generation survivors and their families, including those who were taken, those who were left behind and those who did not make it home.

Dear friends, partners and community, welcome. My name is Kyle Van Der Kyp. I’m a proud descendant of the Yuin and Woromi clans of New South Wales and Chair of Connecting Home. It is my honour to introduce Connecting Home’s Strategic Vision for 2026-2029. A roadmap shaped by survivors, families, elders, staff and partners that sets a clear direction for our work over the coming years.

This plan is grounded in the lived experience of the Stolen Generation and guided by cultural principles, values and long-term commitment that defines who we are as an Aboriginal community-controlled organisation.

Established in 2010, for more than 15 years, Connecting Home has walked alongside hundreds of survivors and their families on their healing journey. And providing culturally safe, wraparound support for Stolen Generation survivors and their families, at the heart of this work is a commitment to healing, reconnection and dignity.

Our vision is a future. where Stolen Generation survivors and their families are supported to heal, reconnect and thrive, and their voices recognised and celebrated nationally.

Connecting Home’s purpose is to deliver a national network of culturally grounded support, spaces and pathways that strengthen connection to family, community, culture, while contributing to systemic change. This work is guided by cultural strength and identity, respect and dignity, trust and safety, accountability to community and long-term commitment.

The plan recognises the support is lifelong, healing is individual and self-determined, and services must be culturally grounded, not simply have culture added afterwards.

Lived experience must shape the services, policies and funding decisions that affect survivors.

Underpinning our vision are four connected horizons:

• First, developing a national footprint, strengthening the Victorian model and building a culturally grounded approach that can grow responsibly across Australia. 

• Second, Survivors and their families supported and heard, with healing, voice and connection as a central thread throughout all that we do.

• Third, funding, sustainability and investment. Building stable, diverse and long-term funding so healing programs and community-led support can continue and expand.

• Fourth, workforce and organisational care. supporting A capable, culturally strong, and sustainable workforce, including pathways for First Nations leadership.

Connecting Home’s strategic horizons move through three phases. Foundation, growth, and national maturity. The plan is intended to remain responsive as community priorities and operational needs change. This vision was not written in isolation. It was shaped through respectful conversations with survivors, elders, staff, families and partners. Using the First Nations-led Be Brave, Feel Safe approach, the process created space for honest conversations, cultural authority, confidentiality and care before, during and after each discussion.

This strategic vision is a commitment to listen first, act with cultural integrity, and remain accountable to survivors, families, and community. At Connecting Home, we invite survivors, families, elders, partners, and supporters to walk together on their healing journey.

Connecting Home would like to thank Taungurung, Boonwurrung, Bunuron artist Stacey Edwards, whose artwork, Manna Gum Dreaming, we have embraced to carry the spirit of Connecting Home’s strategic plan.

Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.