Tell Someone: Child Safety Small Grants Program 2026-27

The Tell Someone: Child Safety Small Grants Program 2026–27 (the Grant Program) builds on the Tell Someone Initiative and supports the Tasmanian Government’s Change for Children Strategy by recognising the important role that community-based organisations play in keeping children and young people safe.

The Grant Program will contribute funding for eligible community-based organisations that deliver projects that align with shared objectives and contribute to the following improved child safety outcomes:

• safer environments for children and young people,
• reduced risk of child sexual abuse, grooming and harmful sexual behaviours, and
• stronger organisational and community capacity to prevent, identify and respond to concerns.

Funded projects should go beyond organisations’ minimum legal compliance requirements and align to one or more of these objectives:

1. Organisational capability uplift - Strengthening the skills and knowledge needed to prevent, identify, and respond to concerns.
2. Sustainable child-safe practice - Embedding lasting improvements in systems, policies, and behaviours that support safe environments.
3. Community awareness and protective behaviours- Increasing awareness and encouraging proactive protective behaviours in organisations and communities.
4. Leadership and collaboration - Supporting organisations to share learning and participate in the Tell Someone Network.
5. Long-term harm reduction - Contributing to reduced risk and improved safety outcomes for children and young people over time.

We encourage you to consider how your project aligns to the Tasmania Government commitments under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap. This could include ensuring your project is culturally respectful, or captures data on the experiences of Aboriginal children and young people.

If you have any questions about this program, please contact keepingchildrensafer@dpac.tas.gov.au or call us on 1300 13 55 13.

Tell Someone is a Tasmanian Government initiative (the initiative) developed in response to national and state inquiries into child sexual abuse, including the Tasmanian Commission of Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings. This inquiry found that children and young people were often not listened to, believed or supported when they told someone that something was wrong, they felt unsafe, or that someone was harming them.

The initiative addresses silence and harmful social attitudes by encouraging adults to recognise warning signs, have conversations about safety, and listen, believe, and act when children and young people raise concerns. It also supports children and young people to tell a trusted adult when something doesn’t feel right.

The Tell Someone Network brings organisations across Tasmania together to help keep children and young people safe. It supports organisations to raise awareness and take practical action so that adults know how to recognise and respond to concerns, children and young people feel safe to speak up, and communities play an active role in keeping children and young people safe.

The Network focuses on achievable actions, strengthens everyday child-safe practices, and complements the Child and Youth Safe Organisations Framework. Participation involves ongoing commitment to building a culture where children and young people are listened to, believed and supported.