Marly Wells (she/her) is a Warlpiri woman from Central Australia, who has personal and professional experience with the OOHC system. Marly has worked in both government and NGO’s with a myriad of focuses on bettering the lives of First Nations (and all) young people across communities. Marly’s work has been supported by and contributed to various SEWB frameworks, including the ARACY Wellbeing nest, and she believes that kids thrive when they are encouraged to be who they want to be – mentally, physically and emotionally. Marly’s role at headspace was established to help support the design, delivery and development and evaluation of culturally inclusive participation programs that empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people and family engage at all levels of the organisation. She also supports the development and distribution of culturally responsive resources across headspace national and the centre network to encourage and support best practice, place-based participation. She is interested in developing and improving initiatives to help support First Nations involvement, participation and understanding across both her work and in the world.

Presentation title
Highlighting the impact of practice on First Nations children and how we can holistically support children in out-of-home care