Australian Child and Youth Wellbeing Atlas (ACYWA)

A freely accessible nationwide platform featuring geospatial and temporal visualisation of comprehensive child health and wellbeing indicators at local and national levels
Kids training hip hop in dance studio
Who will benefit
Research organisations, researchers, government agencies, non-government organisations, service providers, advocacy groups, community members

The Challenge

Child health and development is complex and is impacted by many environmental, social, and genetic factors. It is also captured across disciplines (medical, social and educational) with varying metrics for each. The challenge is to bring this information together into a single, accessible resource for the benefit of children and families.

The Response

The Australian Child and Youth Wellbeing Atlas (ACYWA) brings together the creators of novel tools for data collation, visualisation and analysis, used for research, service planning, and policy development on child health and wellbeing. 

The atlas maps data on children and youth across Australia, enabling the visualisation, analysis, and monitoring of health and wellbeing metrics for children. 

The project delivered:

  • a national child health and development data asset incorporating Commonwealth, state and non-government organisation data on the health and wellbeing of Australian children
  • a national interactive platform enabling the geospatial and temporal visualisation of child health and wellbeing indicators locally and nationally
  • alignment (as far as possible) with the National Children’s Headline Indicators published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) and the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY).

Outcomes

You can now access the ACYWA. User guides are also available.

This project provides visibility of the health, development and wellbeing needs of children across the country. This visibility will provide more specificity and utility of the data available for public policy investment and commissioning decisions enabling maximum impact on the lives of children and families.

Who Will Benefit

Research organisations, researchers, government agencies, non-government organisations, service providers, advocacy groups and community members can now benefit from:

  • harmonised data management, sharing, privacy and governance processes across child health and wellbeing data providers and users
  • improved access and discoverability of key child health and wellbeing data collections at an area level across Australia in a visualisation platform.

The Partners

Our partners are:

  • University of Western Australia
  • Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth
  • Australian Human Rights Commission
  • Commissioner for Children and Young People Western Australia
  • Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
  • Western Australia Department of Premier and Cabinet
  • Children’s Health Queensland
  • Child UnLimited
  • Deakin University
  • Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
  • NeuroPower
  • The Ian Potter Foundation
  • QUT
  • University of Sydney
  • UNSW.

Contact the ARDC

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Timeframe

January 2021 to June 2023

Current Phase

Complete

ARDC Co-investment

$495,998

Project lead

University of Western Australia