Southern Moreton Bay Islands (SMBI) programs
About the SMBI Community Impact Initiative
The Southern Moreton Bay Islands (SMBI) Community Impact Initiative delivers a community-driven, cross-sector, place-based approach to improve the health and development of children residing on the islands.
The Southern Moreton Bay Islands (SMBI) are a group of four islands—Karragarra, Lamb, Macleay, and Russell—located near the southwest point of North Stradbroke Island and 20 minutes by ferry from Redland Bay. The islands are home to around 2,240 families and 8,500 people.
There are numerous challenges associated with delivering health care services to the SMBI area, and health data indicates that children residing on SMBI experience a higher than average percentage of development vulnerabilities. For this reason, Children’s Health Queensland, Metro South Health, Brisbane South PHN and the SMBI community are working together to improve the health and wellbeing of children aged from birth to 8 years old, including improving maternity care, through the SMBI Community Impact Initiative.
Working with communities for health transformation
Since early 2019, over 1,000 community conversations have occurred through the SMBI Initiative. These conversations have informed the development of a collective Action Plan for the initiative that identifies 4 key focus areas:
The 4 focus areas of the initiative are:
health and child development, early childhood support and school readiness
a strong and connected community
healthy family relationships
wellbeing programs and recreational activities for school-aged children.
The ‘place-based’ solutions being trialled on SMBI
Through the SMBI Initiative, several changes are being trialled in local health services to improve maternity care and child health and development systems, including:
a focus on relationship-based maternity and child healthcare, ensuring that families have the same midwife and child health nurse.
having a SMBI-only phone number for families to contact Child Health
providing information about child development and child health services in a way that local families understand
more effective support for families to get GP referrals to access specialist support
allied health support to enable children with developmental concerns to obtain timely services.
Data and information are collected to indicate whether the changes were successful and should be permanently implemented or need to be revised to achieve better health outcomes.
Learning by doing: The SMBI Community Initiative approach
Commissioned by Brisbane South PHN, the Institute for Social Science Research at the University of Queensland investigated the role and value of the learning approach adopted by the SMBI Community Initiative and found that a ‘learning by doing’ approach—investigate, listen, try, test, learn, iterate, and adapt—led the community group to build capability and enhance collaborative ways of working for improved community outcomes.
The SMBI Action, Implementation and Learning (SAIL) group was inspired by the Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA) [1] approach to:
investigate the problem
reflect on the data and the lessons learned by those involved in the initiative; and
determine how to respond differently.
In parallel, as part of a layered governance model, the SMBI Strategic Stewardship group was established to identify and respond to systemic opportunities that address structural barriers to improved outcomes.
Looking ahead, the intent is to scale the approach beyond early childhood into a broader intergenerational focus. This will allow the ecology of practice to support not only young children and families, but also young people and older residents, building a sustainable, long-term wellbeing system for the islands.
Read the summary findings and full report on the links below:
Learning approaches for place-based change: The SMBI story (2024)
The SMBI Community Initiative Learning by Doing Approach: Review report (2024)
Partners and Collaborators
Bay Islands Community Services Inc. . (BICSI) | Metro South Health |
Benevolent Society | Redland City Council |
Children’s Health Queensland | HeadStart Qld |
The Good Shift | Macleay Island Progress Association (MIPA) |
Redlands Integrated Early Years Place (RIEYP) | Russell Island State School |
The Salvation Army | Bay Island Early Learning & Care (BIELC) |
Macleay Island State School |