Cultural safety and security
Mainstream systems lack cultural safety. We are walking alongside Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations and First Nations communities to support self-determination and strengthen culturally responsive practice.
In short
Collaborating with First Nations communities begins with self-determination, cultural security, and partnership. Culture is a profound strength that must be embedded in the way systems and services are designed and delivered. This year, we continued our cultural learning journey, strengthened partnerships with Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations like Ngwala Willumbong, launched Yuruwan — our Cultural Impact Framework — and progressed our Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan. Cultural security is not something we can claim as 'achieved'. These are modest but meaningful steps forward in the journey of learning and accountability.
What's next
We will continue to learn, listen, and walk alongside Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations and First Nations communities. Guided by Mana-na woorn-tyeen maar-takoort, Yoorrook, and Treaty, we remain committed to supporting First Nations-led solutions, strengthening First Nations workforce representation, and advocating for increased resourcing of Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation-led homelessness responses.
We know cultural safety is not something we can claim, but a responsibility we must keep working towards.
This is why cultural safety and security is a key focus area of our impact story.
Our work ahead is about walking alongside First Nations communities to address the systemic causes of homelessness, embedding what we’ve learned and continue to learn, and ensuring our programs not only provide safe housing but also strengthen cultural identity and connection to Country and community.
People: Culture remains a profound source of strength
Connection to community, culture and Country is both a strength and a protective factor for First Nations peoples, yet too often missing in mainstream homelessness responses. At Launch Housing, we recognise that culture is the foundation of wellbeing and housing security — and that our role is to walk alongside Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations to support culturally safe, community-led responses.
Since Ngwala Willumbong established its entry point, referrals from Ngwala to Launch Housing programs have increased sevenfold between 2022 and 2025. This reflects the power of Aboriginal-led approaches and the importance of mainstream providers partnering to build culturally responsive services.
We are continuing to strengthen our foundations for First Nations cultural safety. This year, we deepened our organisational commitment to reconciliation, truth-telling, and cultural safety, which is a journey of reflection, growth, and action. Our First Nations Cultural Safety Working Group has guided this work, helping us celebrate cultural events, strengthen culturally safe practices and embed cultural responsiveness across everything we do.
We’ve also created opportunities for reflection and connection through cleansing ceremonies led by Traditional Custodians, honouring community, culture and Country. Over the next 12 months, our goal is to extend cleansing across all Launch Housing sites, recognising Country and culture as central to creating homes and communities.
This year we launched Yuruwan, our Cultural Impact Framework. Yuruwan is a Ngarrindjeri word meaning to become strong in spirit again, which reminds us that reconciliation and cultural safety are lived through intentional actions that, over time, create lasting change. It guides us from awareness to embodiment, ensuring cultural learning translates into how we work, connect and make decisions.
Yuruwan represents a shared commitment that ripples across our organisation and into the communities we serve — positioning cultural safety as a collective responsibility and a fundamental expectation for all staff.
Systems: Aboriginal-led partnerships are critical
The mainstream housing and homelessness system is designed around Western concepts of a ‘home,’ often excluding cultural connection and multi-generational living.
The current system does not reflect First Nations perspectives of housing as connection, nor does it properly resource Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations to lead housing solutions. This imbalance reinforces the importance of Aboriginal-led partnerships.
That is why Aboriginal-led partnerships are critical. Through relationships with Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations, we are beginning to co-create priority referral pathways. This represents a first step towards supporting the Aboriginal-specific homelessness system and providing cultural security within our services. This journey map shows how we are learning from Aboriginal-led organisations to better support client-led, culturally informed pathways into secure housing. Our work shows the potential of integrated, person-centred care when cultural security is embedded, yet also highlights the gaps and the need for systemic reform.
In 2024–25, the percentage of First Nations clients starting new tenancies with Launch Housing owned or managed properties increased from 7% to 10%. This aligns with our commitment to increase First Nations tenancies managed or owned by Launch Housing to 10%. We know this work is important and that it is critical we work with our Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation partners to ensure our services and supports are culturally responsive and safe, recognising that how we foster support and connection is extremely important.
We are collaborating to create better outcomes for First Nations young people
Launch Housing is committed to supporting First Nations young people at risk of homelessness, many of whom face systemic barriers to housing and education and disconnection from culture. With funding from the City of Yarra, we have co-created and facilitated the First Nations Youth Homelessness Matters Network which brings together Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations and youth services to strengthen collaboration, support young voices, and build culturally grounded practice across the sector. Through this network, we are working alongside partners to support better referral pathways and ensure that First Nations young people can access culturally safe and connected support when and where they need it.
By creating culturally safe, community-led spaces, we are working towards better housing, wellbeing, and life outcomes for First Nations young people.
Our strategy is to progress the system from awareness to action
Our strategy is to move our organisation, and the systems we influence, from awareness to action. Our goal is to shape housing and support models that embrace cultural connection, recognising that a home is more than a dwelling — it is connection to culture, community, and Country.
To achieve this, we are strengthening both our community partnerships and our internal systems. We are ensuring that our organisational structures reflect and embed cultural safety at every level, through:
- Rolling out Yuruwan across our governance structures, services, and workforce ensures cultural security becomes a shared responsibility
- Launching our Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) 2026–2028 with clear, measurable commitments to embed reconciliation in our everyday work
- Strengthening partnerships with Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations, including co-designing priority pathways and supporting Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation-led entry points that connect community with culturally safe housing and support
- Supporting self-determination through engagement with system-wide reform agencies, including the Aboriginal Housing Victoria Blueprint, Yoorrook and Treaty processes
Advocacy: From awareness to action
Our approach is grounded in recognising where we are, what we have learnt, and the work still ahead to build genuine cultural safety and security for First Nations communities.
The next phase of our journey focuses on cultural security across all levels of our organisation while advocating for systemic reform that empowers Aboriginal leadership and self-determination. Looking ahead, we are advocating for:
- Fully funding the Aboriginal Housing Victoria Blueprint: To deliver on the Blueprint’s roadmap, designed by and for community, closing the housing gap for First Nations people
- Scaling Aboriginal-led initiatives: That embrace culturally grounded models of connection to culture, community, and Country as core to ending homelessness
- Increasing resourcing for Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations: Ensuring they are equipped to provide the holistic, culturally safe support that delivers better trust, engagement, and impact
- Strengthening youth-focused, Aboriginal-led responses: Including laying the groundwork to set up a First Nations Youth Foyer
We know our role is not to lead but to support. As a mainstream service provider, our responsibility is to listen, learn and create the space for Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations to lead.
That is why we have pledged to become a Friend of Treaty recognising that self-determination and cultural security must sit at the centre of housing and homelessness reform.
