This year's Child Protection Week (September 6-12) theme, Every Conversation Matters: Shifting Conversation to Action, is an important one.

Because when it comes to Aboriginal* children and families, we do not have a shortage of conversations.

What matters now is whether we are prepared to act on what we already know.

Across Victoria, Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs) are supporting families, keeping children connected to culture, and proving every day that Aboriginal-led solutions work.

These outcomes have not happened by accident. They reflect decades of Aboriginal community advocacy, strong ACCO leadership and investment in Aboriginal-led reform.

Over recent years, we have seen significant progress: growth in Aboriginal-led organisations and services, greater recognition of culture as a protective factor, stronger partnerships across the sector and reforms that place Aboriginal children, families and communities closer to decisions that affect their lives.

Programs such as Aboriginal Children in Aboriginal Care (ACAC) demonstrate what becomes possible when governments trust Aboriginal communities to lead. What began in 2017 as a small pilot has grown into a statewide reform, with 17 ACAC teams across four ACCOs now supporting more than 500 children and young people.

The results speak for themselves. An evaluation of ACAC found the program achieved family reunification outcomes at 120 per cent of the rate of the comparable state-delivered child protection program. Families also reported stronger connections to culture and community, two of the most important protective factors for Aboriginal children and young people.

Behind these reforms are children who have been able to remain connected to family, culture and community, and parents who have received support before challenges escalated to the point of child protection involvement.

ACAC is no longer a pilot. It is a proven Aboriginal-led model and an increasingly important part of Victoria's child and family services system.

That is progress worth protecting.

But Child Protection Week should also prompt us to ask a difficult question: What happens if we fail to follow through?

After years of building Aboriginal-led family services, strengthening community capability and demonstrating better outcomes for children and families, the risk is not that we do not know what works. The risk is that we fail to sustain it.

Family preservation, early intervention and community-led family services help keep families together, strengthen parenting, support healing and address challenges before they escalate. They reduce the need for intervention while ensuring children remain safely connected to their family, culture and community.

This is where sustained investment makes the biggest difference.

Yet despite clear evidence supporting Aboriginal-led services, $72 million in Victorian Government funding for ACCO-led child and family services is scheduled to expire in June 2027 unless renewed. This funding supports a range of Aboriginal-led programs, including family services, family preservation and ACAC.

For Aboriginal communities, this is about much more than funding.

It is about ensuring families receive support early, preventing unnecessary child protection involvement and protecting the progress communities have worked hard to build.

At the recent Aboriginal Children's Forum, leaders reflected on a simple reality: transformational reform takes longer than budget cycles. Strong outcomes depend on capable organisations, and capable organisations require sustainable investment in workforce, leadership, governance and infrastructure.

ACCOs and sector leadership bodies, including the Victorian Aboriginal Children and Young People's Alliance (VACYPA), have been at the forefront of shaping reform and championing self-determination. Sustaining this leadership is essential if progress is to continue.

When funding becomes uncertain, organisations are forced to focus on short-term survival instead of long-term impact. Recruiting and retaining skilled staff becomes harder, planning becomes more difficult, and years of community trust and capability can be placed at risk.

Ultimately, the people most affected are not organisations.

They are children, young people and families. Funding instability can mean disrupted support, lost relationships and uncertainty at the very time families need consistency.

Funding certainty is also critical to sustaining reform. Self-determination cannot be achieved through policy commitments alone. It requires long-term investment in Aboriginal-led organisations delivering services on the ground, as well as peak bodies and sector leadership organisations that help shape policy, build capability and keep reform moving forward.

Without both service delivery and strong sector leadership, reform risks losing momentum.

If Victoria is serious about improving outcomes for Aboriginal children, it must sustain the community-controlled sector that has delivered them. Reform cannot be switched on and off according to funding cycles. It requires long-term commitment, partnership and trust.

This year's Child Protection Week calls on all of us to move from conversation to action.

As Victoria approaches the next election, political leaders have an opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to Aboriginal children and families. That means backing the reforms that are already working and providing the certainty communities need to continue leading them.

It means recognising that self-determination is reflected not only in consultation and engagement, but in investment decisions.

Funding is not separate from reform.

Funding is critical to reform.

If we believe Aboriginal communities are best placed to support Aboriginal children and families, we must provide the certainty that allows that work to continue.

This Child Protection Week, we should celebrate what has been achieved.

But more importantly, we should commit to protecting the Aboriginal family services, ACCOs, sector leadership and reforms that keep children safe, connected and thriving.

Because we know what works.

Now we need to back it.

*Throughout this article, the term 'Aboriginal' is used to refer to both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

Jason Kanoa is a proud Gunditjmara, Boandik and Iwaidja man and serves as Chief Executive Officer of the Victorian Aboriginal Children and Young People's Alliance.