Aboriginal Wellbeing Officer Recruitment and Retention Strategy

Aboriginal Wellbeing Officers (AWO) play a critical and multifaceted role in Victoria’s correctional system. 

AWOs meet every Aboriginal person who enters their prison location. They support Aboriginal people in custody to access cultural supports and programs to encourage successful rehabilitation and reintegration into the community, liaise with numerous prison staff to refer and coordinate supports, and participate in operational management of prison locations. Each prison has its unique profile, meaning the roles and responsibilities of an AWO at each prison will be distinct and will present their own complexities. 

The Aboriginal Wellbeing Officer role was established under the Victorian Aboriginal Justice Agreement, as a response to the findings of the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. AWOs were first introduced to Victorian prisons in 2000 to provide ongoing welfare, advocacy, and case management support to Aboriginal prisoners. As of 2024, there are 27 ongoing AWO roles across the Victorian prison system.

In recognition of the importance of the role for Aboriginal people in prison, and to respond to the cultural load and burnout impacting AWO staff wellbeing and their continued interest in the role, Corrections Victoria via the Aboriginal Justice Caucus consultative mechanisms has developed a recruitment and retention strategy specific to the needs of Aboriginal Wellbeing Officers. It is the responsibility of managers and leaders in Corrections Victoria – particularly those managing Aboriginal Wellbeing Officers – to ensure the initiatives in this strategy are implemented. The strategies outlined below aim to achieve a minimum of 80% AWO coverage at any one time. 

The purpose of this document is to detail a viable strategy based on the Review of the Aboriginal Wellbeing Officer Role and the Cultural Review of the Adult Corrections System to attract, recruit and retain suitable candidates to the position of Aboriginal Wellbeing Officer in Victorian prisons.