Behind every number is a story
How the Life Course Data Initiative (LCDI) community team helped Kookaburra Kids make data count
Childhood is often associated with laughter, play, and carefree days, but for many young Australians growing up in families affected by mental illness, there can be additional complexities in daily life. Kookaburra Kids exists to bridge that gap - delivering structured programs that build mental health literacy, establish peer connections, and support help-seeking behaviours for young people aged 8 to 18.
Each year, more than 2,000 young people across Australia take part in Kookaburra Kids activity days, camps, and connect sessions. These initiatives provide safe, supportive environments where children can learn, grow, and experience the joy of simply being kids. Behind each program activity is a critical task: assessing and understanding the true scale of need.
Making Data Count
To plan services effectively and secure funding support, Kookaburra Kids needed answers to a critical question: How many Australian households with children are impacted by mental illness? That’s when they approached the ABS LCDI community team.
Using data from the ABS National Health Survey and the National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing, the LCDI community team helped Kookaburra Kids uncover insights about families living with mental illness and dependent children.
Collaboration That Makes a Difference
“Their support was invaluable,” says Liz Harburg, Senior Manager Marketing and Partnerships at Kookaburra Kids. “They didn’t just provide data; they helped us understand and interpret it. Importantly they also gave us the skills so we could accurately use the ABS tools ourselves.”
With these insights, Kookaburra Kids can better:
- Plan strategically: Direct resources to the communities where they are most needed.
- Advocate effectively: Present evidence-based arguments to influence policy and secure funding.
- Deliver targeted support: Ensure programs reach the right children at the right time.
Thanks to this collaboration, data have become more than numbers, they are a tool for change. Together, Kookaburra Kids and the LCDI community team demonstrate that with accurate information and strong partnerships, it is possible to make a real difference in the lives of young Australians living with the impacts of family mental illness.
Watch the full story in the video below:
Elizabeth Harburg,
Senior Manager Marketing and Fundraising, Kookaburra Kids
Kookaburra Kids is a national youth mental health organisation, and we work particularly with young people who are impacted by family mental illness.
Our programs provide them with the tools to be able to protect their mental health and wellbeing long term.
We run camps, activity days, and online connect sessions, and through those programs we integrate fun recreational activities with evidence‑based mental health education.
When we were connected to the community team, they really took the time to understand who Kookaburra Kids was, what kind of data we needed, and why we needed it.
And then they helped us find the best data sets, and beyond just giving us spreadsheets with numbers, they also helped us to interpret what that meant so that we could confidently speak to those numbers.
They also gave us the skills to be able to find that data.
They taught us how to use some of the ABS tools, like the TableBuilder.
So, we’ve got those skills in‑house now so that we can delve a little bit deeper into data and find that data ourselves. So that’s been incredibly valuable as well.
Being able to know the true size of the challenge, it helps us to be able to know where to plan our services, where to allocate our resources, and where to apply for more funding.
So, it helps us to better support our young people and our families and helps us to better understand those communities as well.