Family Readiness
Empowering families to be confident, feel supported and be ready for the unique demands of Defence life beside strong and ready service members – strong families, strong Defence:
- Ready for service life
- Ready for postings
- Ready for absences
- Ready for conflict
- Ready for transition
Contemporary Families
Supporting all Australian Defence Force Families:
- Acknowledging different family structures
- Embracing cultural and societal variation
- Ensuring non-discriminatory family engagement
- Ensuring flexibility and adaptability of family policies
Family Wellbeing
Fostering a connected and empowered Defence community that supports the unique physical, mental and social wellbeing needs of families:
- Promoting the social and mental wellbeing of children and youth
- The impacts of Defence life on relationships
- Community and connection
Our strategic pillars
Advocacy
Purposefully engaging with Defence Families and stakeholders to ensure strong and effective advocacy, used to inform policy and influence decision-making that positively impacts Defence Families.
- Objective 1 - Build and maintain strong engagement and working relationships with Defence Families and stakeholders.
- Objective 2 - Focus on the most significant advocacy issues.
- Objective 3 - Maintain DFA’s role as an independent voice that speaks to the interests of ADF families.
Collaboration
Undertaking intentional, diverse, and inclusive collaborative working, strengthening DFA’s advocacy work by bringing together research, expertise, and ideas to accomplish shared objectives.
- Objective 1 - Amplify the voice of Defence families through partnership with like-minded organisations.
- Objective 2 - Broaden DFA’s stakeholder network to capture a diverse range of perspectives, research, and expertise.
- Objective 3 - Lead from the front in advocacy matters relating to ADF families, engaging like-minded stakeholders in our work.
Communication
Strengthening our reputation and expanding our reach to increase the impact of DFA’s work through transparent conversations and outcomes-driven interactions.
- Objective 1 - Bolster the credibility of our communications to ensure DFA’s voice is effectively heard.
- Objective 2 - Expand our communications reach by improving current engagement channels and creating new ones.
- Objective 3 - Adopt a transparent and results-oriented communications approach.
Excellence
Adopting a systematic approach to advocacy and fostering a continuous improvement culture to ensure DFA operates efficiently and enhances its overall value.
- Objective 1 - Implement a structured, strategic approach to our work that clearly demonstrates value to our stakeholders.
- Objective 2 - Foster a culture that prioritises teamwork and empowers individuals to contribute toward achieving excellence.
- Objective 3 - Embrace a mindset of continuous learning and adaptability to ensure sustained success and ongoing relevance.
Outcomes
Approaching our work with strategic intent and targeting key decision-makers, ensuring our actions are focused, outcomes-driven, and influence decision-making in the best interests of Defence families.
- Objective 1 - Define short-to-medium term advocacy goals that are time-bound and make efficient use of DFA’s resources.
- Objective 2 - Identify our longer-term advocacy ambitions and understand the required steps to achieve large scale success on the systemic advocacy matters.
- Objective 3 - Enhance and empower DFA’s network of advocates and influencers.