FAST (Families and Schools Together)

Early childhood (0-5 years)
Middle childhood (6-12 years)
Teen (13-17)
Parents
At-risk or vulnerable

Supporting Families and Parents
Create Strong Child-Friendly Communities
School Transition and Engagement

FAST Australia Alliance

School-based; home-based; community based

Early intervention and prevention program that helps children succeed by empowering parents, connecting families, improving the school climate and strengthening community engagement.

FAST delivery has been successful in the remotest of Indigenous communities in Australia through to schools and families in our capital cities.

Children aged 0-17 and their parents/primary caregivers.

At the local level, FAST is run by trained 4-8 person FAST Teams comprised of parents, teachers and school representatives, and community-based professionals. Each FAST Team is representative of the population served, that is, consistent with the gender, ethnicity and culture of the participating families.

Each team is trained by a certified National trainer

Initially a consultative process in conducted together with FAST trainers and key stakeholders.

There are three phases in FAST:

• An outreach process in which trained FAST parent and professional facilitators invite families to participate in FAST through face-to-face visits at the family home and at their convenience.
• An 8-week (2½ hour school/ communities based meeting) multi-family group process for 10-15 families facilitated by a collaborative, community based team (parent and professional facilitators).
• An ongoing two-year follow-up program, FASTWORKS, consisting of monthly multi-family meetings of FAST graduates, which is run by the parents with the support of the FAST team.

The accredited trainer oversees an action reflection model of program delivery.

Learn: FAST begins with learning. Prior to the first FAST Cycle, a Certified FAST Trainer conducts a comprehensive two-day program orientation to prepare FAST Team Members to run the program accurately and efficiently.

Plan: Occurs on site in the local community.

Do: Always occurs on site, with Certified FAST Trainer offering on-going weekly monitoring and support to ensure program integrity and consistent implementation.

Review: Occurs throughout the FAST process. Post program online and face to face evaluations are conducted with the team and families.

The cost varies according to mode of delivery, the location (urban, regional or remote) and a range of local factors. Contact FAST Australia to get an indication of costs. www.fastaustralia.com.au

Phone:
Mal Galbraith (08) 8920 4355 - FAST NT Darwin
Mark Boonstra (03) 6262 5400 - Impact Communities Hobart
Fiona Lee (08) 9250 6335 – Clan Midland WA
Website:
http://www.fastnt.org.au/
http://www.impactcommunities.org.au/families-and-schools-together/
https://clanmidland.org/

Multiple studies including RCTS document positive behavioural outcomes at post-test, with at least one study indicating positive behavioural impacts at follow-up at least one year after the intervention ended.

Further information on research and RCTs can be found here: http://familiesandschools.org/why-fast-works/