Consultancy

Restorative Yarns provides consultancy services tailored for your organisations vision and needs. With over fifteen year's experience working within the Prevention Against Violence, Abuse and Neglect (PARVAN) specialty area, with a focus on wellbeing and healing.

We love the opportunity to engage in consultancy that increases social impact, particularly with Aboriginal and Queer communities, valuing the expertise of lived experience.

Restorative Yarns has experience delivering:

High level project management
Research
Community engagement and development projects
Facilitation
Training and capability

Current projects:

Community based restorative practices to sexual harm
This project aims to pilot community based restorative practices alongside Transforming Justice Australia by providing services to people harmed by and responsible for, sexual harm, their families and communities in a key region.

Restorative Yarns will engage and consult with identified communities to respond to sexual harm using restorative and transformative approaches to support healing, justice, community accountability, and to prevent future harm. A range of services that support people who are impacted by sexual harm in their justice, healing and recovery will be utilised. We plan to deliver activities under three program/initiative areas:

a. Survivor centred restorative justice in response to sexual harm
b. Community based accountability support services, and
c. Community engagement and development

Delivering a suite of activities under these initiatives services in a key health region enables the opportunity to work closely with organisations in the region in aligned response and recovery roles such as sexual assault services and services supporting adults and children responsible for sexual harm, or at risk of causing harm to access support, receive education and casework services and for professional development, sector capacity building and relationship development.

This is a 2 year project and will run until December 2026.

Past projects:

Sexual Violence Prevention Pilot

This project piloted approaches to build community acceptance, awareness and support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBTQ+SB people at risk of sexual violence. Restorative Yarns will engage with local LGBTQ+SB people through yarning circles to determine community priorities for future development of sexual violence prevention approaches for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Consultations were held through a series of yarning circles and workshops. Restorative Yarns alongside 2-Spirits co-developed resources and tools focusing on sexual violence prevention, creating a framework that can be used in other Aboriginal community settings. This was a 2-year project funded by DSS, managed by LHA which was completed in June 2025.

You can find the projects outcomes and completed resources here

Waterways Project

Waterways is a national training program designed to strengthen culturally responsive, trauma-informed and anti-racist practice within mainstream child and family organisations working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families and communities. The training supports organisations to reflect on their practice, address systemic barriers and build safer, more culturally responsive services.

Between October 2024 and June 2025, Restorative Yarns was part of the partnering project team, working alongside SNAICC, Yamurrah, ABSEC, VACCA & QATSICPP to develop Waterways, which was delivered to 1,032 participants across Australia as part of a pilot project. The training increased participants' understanding of trauma, culture and the impacts of racism, while building confidence to work more effectively with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families. Participants reported positive changes in their practice, greater awareness of organisational responsibilities, and a stronger commitment to culturally safe service delivery.

The project demonstrated the impact of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led training in driving meaningful change across the sector. Through strengthening workforce capability and supporting organisations to review policies, practices and systems, Waterways contributed to broader efforts to improve outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families and advance national Closing the Gap priorities.

Believe Inquire Respond to Disclosures (BIRD Project)

The Believe Inquire Respond to Disclosures (BIRD) Training Pilot and Evaluation Project was developed to strengthen the capacity of health care professionals to respond safely, effectively and compassionately to disclosures of child sexual abuse by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander victim-survivors. Grounded in trauma-aware, healing-informed and culturally appropriate practice, the project recognised the critical role that primary health care services play as a first point of contact for people seeking support, information and referral.

Restorative Yarns was part of the partnering project team (SNAICC and Yamurrah) which contrbuted to the development, piloting and evaluation of the national training package and accompanying resources, the project aimed to improve the cultural safety and responsiveness of health services across Australia. The training supports practitioners to respond to disclosures in ways that minimise further harm, provide culturally informed care and facilitate safe referral pathways. It also addresses the needs of diverse communities, including LGBTIQA+ people and people with disability, while promoting workforce wellbeing through strategies to prevent and respond to vicarious trauma.

The completed project contributes to the broader goals of the National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse 2021–2030 by supporting stronger, safer and more responsive systems for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families and communities.

You can find project outcomes and completed resources here

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