About Us
Safeguarding Our Children Support does just that – we support your organisation to create and maintain a culture that protects and supports children and young people.
Schools, Education and Care Services (ELC and OSHC), churches, sports clubs and associations have a duty to create protective cultures and safe environments for children and young people. Families can be complicated and are not always safe places for children and young people.
Children and young people deserve safe places and capable people.
Children and young people deserve to be in organisations with a system that maintains a protective culture.
What’s your
culture?
A culture that focuses on child protection compliance feels heavy, burdened and forced.
A culture that focuses on child protection feels strong, purposeful and worthwhile.
We see the difference during audits and evaluations ...
Which describes your organisation’s culture?
Compliance or protection?
Or perhaps the culture is unclear and loose.
A protective culture is better for everyone in the organisation.
Our Team
Yvette Wright Director
M Education Studies B Business (UQ)
Yvette is an experienced corporate educator, researcher, instructional designer, policy developer, mentor and leader. Yvette has worked in the Queensland Police Service, Child Safety Services (then the Department of Child Safety), Queensland Centre for Mental Health and Learning and Queensland Health before starting a business.
Yvette has been providing student protection and Working with Children (BC) audits and evaluations since 2015. Yvette believes audits are an opportunity to measure and educate. Her still is approachable, confident and supportive in interviews. Her ability to see patterns, gaps and opportunities in data and processes results in a report that is accurate and a road map for future improvements.
Yvette shines in a workshop where she brings the stakeholders to the table: working with the team to make solutions that will work for them in their organisation, meet legislative requirements and reinforce a protective culture.
Yvette’s style is enthusiastic, informative, scenario based and action focused. Your team will walk away with a renewed dedication to wholistic systems for protection, an action plan and a sense of confidence.
We take confidentiality seriously however references can be supplied on request.
Marlene Norris APM
Grad Cert (Applied Management) AIPM
BA Chriminology and Criminal Justice GU
Professional Membership: Child Protection Practitioners Assoc QLD
Marlene retired from the Queensland Police Service as a Detective Inspector with 37 years of experience predominately in child protection, criminal investigation, education and training and professional standards. Marlene brings additional skills and experience in risk management, strategy and policy development and implementation, client services, professional practices and project management.
She was awarded the Australian Police Medal in 2007 recognising her work in the child protection and youth justice field.
Marlene has experience working across and within a range of government and non-government sectors including education and Child Safety Services. More recently for the past three years, Marlene provided child protection support in policy, training and mentoring to the non-state school and Education and Care Services sector. Her recent experience involved undertaking extensive compliance audits, developing and reviewing policy and procedures relating to the protection of children from abuse and harm.
Marlene has a strong and committed passion to assisting organisations and individuals to develop and strengthen their child protection practices. She advocates that successful child protection requires an aim beyond compliance to a culture that supports child protection. Such organisations require a Champion. A leader who influences employees and volunteers to always act in the best interest of the child or young person, provides systems to support this culture and holds people accountable.
Subcontractors
SO Children uses appropriate professionals to provide specialist services such as investigations and mediation, advice, workshops and other support as required.
All sub-contractors are required to sign a non-disclosure agreement and undertake appropriate induction and supervision. Subcontractors are chosen through our experience of their professional practice and a shared vision for the protection of children and young people.