Beyond Behaviour Community Services - Empowering Families in Queensland

The BBCS team makes active efforts to ensure participation of our Community Elders, and Community Leaders.  It is our hope that we can offer a culturally safe space for all of our clients, and the communities we serve and partner with.

We acknowledge the wrongs that have devastated First Nations people's; and work towards healing and strength.  We are grateful for our Community Elders, and Community Leaders who hold knowledge, hold language, and hold wisdom.  We are grateful for our ancestors and for those leaders who have worked tirelessly to abolish disadvantage, disparity and adversity.  We acknowledge that there are diverse cultural experiences and perspectives among First Nations people's, and that an individual's or family's cultural identity is not weighted by those different perspectives and experiences.  We acknowledge that First Nations people's have been displaced and experienced loss of language, culture, identity and connection to country; and we acknowledge that our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families have experienced violations, poverty, exclusion, discrimination and removals.  

We are committed to 'Bringing Them Home'; and to walking alongside our clients as they reclaim identity, language, kin, country and connection.

We are committed to child-centred practice, and to prioritising cultural connection at every level of service delivery.

We are committed to advocacy and to holding government systems accountable for the policies that have been shaped by the participation and partnership of our community-led organisations and community leaders.

We are committed to all five elements of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle (ATSICPP).  We make active efforts to reduce the overrepresentation of First Nations children living in out-of-home-care; and to ensuring First Nations children maintain their connection to kin and country, and to the Hierarchy of the Placement Principle.

We are committed to reconciliation and healing.  We highlight the accomplishments, successes and influence of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and are thankful for the advancements and adaptations we enjoy today because of that brilliance, resourcefulness and expertise.

We draw on the wisdom, knowledge, and passion of our Elders and community leaders; and we thank them for guiding us, and sharing their perspectives, and offering connection.

We are committed to a strong stance against lateral violence, and racism, and discrimination and harassment.

Biyal lateral violence. Yuwin lateral love.

Our Community Elders take great care in building safe connections with First Nations clients and their families.

Our team conducts assessments and provides written reports that outline the cultural identity of children and their families.  Cultural identity is very important, and we recognise the identity traumas that have confronted First peoples for many generations.  We acknowledge the stolen generations and the impacts of colonisation and the sometimes difficult journey back to cultural connections, reclamation of language, and acceptance.

We stand by the three part principle for identifying Aboriginal peoples:

1. That a person has descended from Aboriginal bloodline

2. That a person identifies themselves as Aboriginal

3. That a person is accepted by Aboriginal community as being an Aboriginal person (this is also known as community 'vouching').

BBCS can not vouch for people who are not known to be Aboriginal, and who can not show their Aboriginal bloodline through genealogy and/or family trees (genograms).

We do not issue 'Confirmations of Aboriginality' or 'Certificates of Aboriginality'.

We do not accept 'DNA testing' results to evidence Aboriginal descent.

For people who are on a journey to discovery of Aboriginal heritage, we recommend Link Up QLD as a starting point, or a local Aboriginal Medical Service and their Social Health programs.