What is cultural safety?

Cultural safety is about providing quality service that fits within the cultural values and norms of the person accessing the service that may differ from your own and/or the dominant culture.

How is cultural safety different to cultural awareness?

Cultural awareness focuses on raising individuals knowledge about cultural experiences that are different from their own. Cultural awareness training maintains an ‘other’ rather than clear self-focus for participants. Cultural awareness also tends to have an individual rather than systemic focus.

VACCHO's Aboriginal Cultural Safety training encompasses some of the information that is often included in cultural awareness training. We do, however, build on cultural awareness training and provide practical tips and skills that can be utilised to improve practice and behaviour, which assist in making Aboriginal peoples feel safe. Participants begin to learn how to strengthen relationships with Aboriginal people, communities and organisations so that access is improved.  

How was VACCHO's cultural safety training developed?

Our training was developed in accordance with the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (NACCHOs) Cultural Safety Training Standards.

During the design of our training, we consulted and collaborated with various key stakeholders, including:

• the Victorian Aboriginal community
• our Member organisations
• mainstream health organisations
• the Victorian Public Sector and Services

We asked Aboriginal people "what would you like non-Aboriginal people to know about you?" We also asked non-Aboriginal people "what information would help you work more effectively with Aboriginal people?" 

We then trialed and tested our training with the Victorian Aboriginal community, including Elders, employees at VACCHO and our member organisations, health workers and other key stakeholders.

In June 2012, we began to deliver our training. Since then, we have delivered our training to more than 21,000 people across Victoria. We're excited to think of the implications the completion of our training will have in program and policy design and the delivery of culturally safe services to Aboriginal people and communities. 

Victorian Public Sector and Services

VACCHO has been one of three preferred suppliers to the Victorian Public Sector since 2012. 

How is VACCHO's cultural safety training delivered?

Due to the unpredictable nature of COVID-19, our training is currently being conducted online via Zoom.

Each participant is provided with relevant learning materials and at the end of the training, each participant will complete an evaluation.

Post-training: during this stage, we will provide each participant who successfully completes our training with a certificate of participation. Where we deliver to a group, we will also provide the booking agency with an evaluation summary (this summary is the collated responses of each individual evaluation).

To book in a group session for your organisation, please fill in our Expression of Interest form here.

Open Sessions

VACCHO regularly run Open Sessions of our Cultural Safety training. These sessions are suitable for all professionals and ideal for individual or small group bookings where numbers are less than 10 people.

The upcoming open sessions are listed below:

• Thursday 10th February 2022
• Monday 7th March 2022
• Tuesday 5th April 2022
• Wednesday 11th May 2022
• Thursday 9th June 2022
• Monday 8th August 2022
• Tuesday 6th September 2022
• Wednesday 12th October 2022
• Thursday 10th November 2022
• Monday 5th December 2022

All our Open Sessions are run from 10am - 3pm, inclusive of breaks.

For more information, or to register for a session, please email us.

Details

Location:

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, our sessions are currently delivered online, via Zoom.

What to bring:

A pen and paper for taking notes. Training resources will be provided. 

Cancellations, rescheduling and payments:

We know life happens and unexpected events can take us by surprise. In the event that you are unable to attend the session, we request a minimum of 24hrs notice where possible.

Should you wish to reschedule your booking, please email us with a new date 

Payments can be made via one of the following options:

Bank Transfer

Credit Card payment via phone or email with our Accounts Team

Please note: invoicing for open sessions will occur post-training 

For more information, please contact our Cultural Safety Team on 03 9411 9411.