Find & Connect launched to assist Forgotten Australians

For many people who grew up in ’care’, the search for records and information - so vital to identity and to the process of reconnecting with family - can be frustrating, complicated, time-consuming, expensive and traumatic. A new website launched recently, will now make this search easier for Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants.

The Find & Connect web resource is a gateway to connect Forgotten Australians, Former Child Migrants and their families to information and resources that help make sense of the past, and to see where their story fits into the broader historical context. The website contains historical information about past and present providers of out-of-home ’care’, including photographs and digitised newspaper articles, links to support services and other resources. One such person, Mr Frank Golding has welcomed a resource that will help assist reconnection and discovery. "The Find & Connect project is helping people make sense of the many records and documents that were once hidden away. For some of us, it has helped to find pieces to puzzles about our childhood and create more complete pictures of our family," said Mr Golding.

The website can also help Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants to locate and get access to their own personal records, which may be kept by government departments or other past providers. The project was jointly administered by the University of Melbourne and the Australian Catholic University.

"The Find & Connect project is a positive result of the Who Am I? project which was established in 2009 to investigate the role played by archiving and recordkeeping practices in the construction of identity for people who experienced out of home ’care’ as children" said project director Cathy Humphreys from the Department of Social Work, University of Melbourne.

"We have consulted widely through this process; with Forgotten Australians, agencies and with The Privacy Commissioner’s Office for Victoria who supported the work of Who Am I? by providing updated guidelines on personal file access. We believe that this work has led to a critical re-thinking of processes, especially around issues of current record keeping for young people in out-of-home-care in Victoria and nationally. A submission has been made to the Victorian Vulnerable Children’s Inquiry with further recommendations for change relating to access of information."

Thanks to funding from the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA), the team will be working for the next three years to update and add to the information on the website. Input and feedback from the community will be an important part of the project as it develops. The Find & Connect web resources have been designed in a way that makes it easy for users to get in touch with co-ordinators by email ¬- whether to give a suggestion to contribute information or to ask a question.

Find & Connect web resource: www.findandconnect.gov.au