We've committed to promoting reconciliation and ensuring the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are realised.

Save the Children's vision for a reconciled Australia is a nation of equity, respect and partnership where every Australian child attains the right to survival, safety, protection, development and participation.

Our Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) is the result of consultation involving Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander staff, external stakeholders and staff across departments of Save the Children Australia. Our teams came together to reflect on relationships, respect and opportunities and develop a shared vision for reconciliation.

For Save the Children, this reconciliation journey is important because of our strong program focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and our commitment to ensuring rights are realised for all children. The plan reflects Save the Children's strong commitment to closing the gap and ensuring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children have every opportunity to thrive.

The RAP commits Save the Children Australia to:

• Support and promote Aboriginal organisations and networks
• Improve our programs and develop guidelines for culturally appropriate engagement
• Promote reconciliation and rights for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
• Celebrate and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures
• Provide professional development opportunities for staff
• Improve employment and recruitment processes.

Download a copy of our Reconciliation Action Plan.

Here's a summary of our progress against the Reconciliation Action Plan so far:

• Our RAP was launched in September with a traditional smoking ceremony to open our new office in Darwin.

• We established a Reconciliation Advisory Committee with staff from around the country, which meets quarterly to steer our work to promote Reconciliation. Two co-chairs were appointed at the inaugural meeting in September. A meeting was also held in December. The Committee met at the National Centre for Indigenous Excellence in Sydney in March 2012.

• Our RAP was distributed to a variety of stakeholders and we have provided advice to four organisations working on their own plans.

• In Brisbane we undertook a cultural audit of our programs and we're working to strengthen the ‘cultural lens' on some of our reporting and evaluation tools. We're planning additional audits at other sites.

• We worked with community partners in Ceduna to stage a Reconciliation event for children, schools and adults at the start of June 2011.

• We partnered with two Aboriginal community organisations to submit a joint proposal for new program work in Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing.

• We were profiled by SNAICC, the peak body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, in a recent newsletter feature on effective partnerships.

• Staff, children and families from our programs took part in more than 18 celebrations during NAIDOC week in July and also celebrated National Aboriginal and Islander Children's Day in August.

• An Acknowledgement of Traditional Owners is now standard at all significant meetings held by Save the Children Australia.

• We were part of a community initiative to produce Reconciliation mural in Kununurra.

• We provided input to more than six different government policy and consultation opportunities.

• Culture awareness training has been conducted in four states, with other sessions planned in the coming months. We also held two sessions for our National Office team in Melbourne.

• We drafted organisation-wide principles for engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and community partners.

• We worked with the Federal Government and other partners to strengthen community-based responses to child protection and school attendance in the Northern Territory.

• Our programs and Reconciliation work featured in several marketing publications and campaigns, including our Christmas Appeal and World's Children.