It's been a busy year for the CFCA information exchange.

In 2017, we produced nine new papers and practitioner resources across a range of key topics, including child protection, family violence, playgroups and program evaluation; we published a number of new resource sheets and updated our existing ones, and we hosted nine webinars with almost 4,000 participants. Our highlights for the year are below.

Thank you for all your support this year. If you would like to provide feedback or offer suggestions for what you’d like us to cover in 2018, please contact us via the CFCA helpdesk now available through the CFCA news. Subscribe here.

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Papers and practitioner resources published in 2017

• Evaluating the outcomes of programs for Indigenous families and communities
• Protection through participation: Involving children in child-safe organisations
• Fathers who use violence: Options for safe practice where there is ongoing contact with children
• Principles for high quality playgroups: Examples from research and practice
• Playgroups evaluation guide
• Understanding safeguarding practices for children with disability when engaging with organisations
• Developments to strengthen systems for child protection across Australia
• Collective impact: Evidence and implications for practice
• Problem sexual behaviours and sexually abusive behaviours in Australian children and young people: A review of available literature

Webinars held in 2017

• Measuring outcomes in programs for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander families and communities
• Supporting young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds: Good practice and measuring settlement outcomes
• Working with gender diverse young people and their families
• Strengthening what works for children: Aligning target group, theory of change and program components to outcomes
• Fathers who use violence: "Whole of family" approaches where there is ongoing contact with children
• Framing messages to engage fathers in the first 1000 days
• Learning from the experiences of parents with children in care
• Children with disability: Inclusive practice and child-safe organisations
• Collective impact: Opportunities and challenges for implementation

Top 5 most-read CFCA papers in 2017

1. Children who bully at school
2. The long-term effects of child sexual abuse
3. Strengths of Australian Aboriginal cultural practices in family life and child rearing
4. Trauma-informed care in child/family welfare services
5. Same-sex parented families in Australia

Top 5 most-read CFCA resource sheets in 2017

1. Age of consent laws 
2. Mandatory reporting of child abuse and neglect
3. Australian child protection legislation
4. Effects of child abuse and neglect for adult survivors 
5. Child abuse and neglect statistics

Top 5 most-read CFCA short articles in 2017

1. Children and young people’s exposure to pornography
2. How does the home environment influence children’s learning?
3. Gender equality, violence against women, and the "Nordic paradox"
4. Long ignored, adolescent family violence needs our attention
5. Why some children are more likely to go back into care than others

Top 5 best-attended CFCA webinars in 2017

1. Fathers who use violence: "Whole of family" approaches where there is ongoing contact with children
2. Learning from the experiences of parents with children in care
3. Working with gender diverse young people and their families
4. Measuring outcomes in programs for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander families and communities
5. Framing messages to engage fathers in the first 1000 days

Feature image by ifreestock, CC0 1.0.