Hi Esteem Working model
Demonstration only. Every person in the working model is invented, and nothing tapped there is sent to anyone. This is not a service. If you need help now, call 000. Kids Helpline is on 1800 55 1800, and 1800RESPECT, for family and sexual violence, on 1800 737 732.

The design brief’s rules, running

Hi Esteem is a concept for a daily check-in for children, teenagers and adults. The person answers a few tap-only questions about how other people treated them, and the answers decide whether someone they trust, or for a child or teenager a safeguarding practitioner, is brought in. This page runs the draft rules on four invented people: Alex, 10, and Mia, 13, who set up with a parent; Jordan, 16, who set up alone; and Dani, 36, a parent who checks in on her own phone at the same time as her child. Why it is needed is set out in the theory of change, and the steps from here to a running service in the pathway to implementation.

The phone shows what the person would see. Beside it is what the backend would do with each tap: the rule that fires, who is asked, and what the practitioner sees.

Theory of change

This page sets out why Hi Esteem is needed, what we think will change if it exists, and what has to be true for that to happen.

Much of the harm done to children, young people and adults in Australia happens out of sight, at home, in relationships and online, and people are seldom asked how they are being treated. Hi Esteem would give each person a short, private moment each day to say how people treated them, and would connect what they say to someone who can help.

How we think change happens

  1. What Hi Esteem does

    A daily check-in of a few taps, at every age, with help on every screen

  2. What follows

    Worrying answers reach someone trusted, and serious answers from children and teenagers reach a qualified person the same day

  3. Early change

    People speak up sooner, to someone outside the problem, and are heard calmly

  4. Later change

    Harm is interrupted earlier, and help comes sooner

  5. The change we want

    Everyone, from childhood on, knows that how they are treated matters, and that telling works

The chain in full

What Hi Esteem does

  • A daily check-in that takes seconds on a fine day, at every age
  • Questions about kindness and pride, and about how people treated them
  • Safety questions in words people already know
  • Trusted people the person chooses, outside the home for children
  • A practitioner behind every serious answer from a child or teenager
  • Help on every screen, and Leave quickly for adults

What follows

  • People check in on most days, parents beside their children
  • Worrying patterns are noticed early
  • Someone they trust is asked, or offered, to talk with them
  • A child’s or teenager’s serious answers reach a qualified person the same day
  • Adults reach 000 and 1800RESPECT at the moment they need them

Early change

  • People have words for what is happening, and know telling is normal
  • They tell sooner, and to someone outside the problem
  • The people they tell respond calmly, without questioning or blaming

Later change

  • Harm is interrupted earlier
  • People get help and support sooner
  • Fewer children carry harm alone into adult life, and fewer adults stay in it alone

The change we want

  • Everyone in Australia, from childhood on, knows that how they are treated matters, and that telling works

Each arrow rests on an assumption. They are listed under What has to be true, with what the evidence says about each so far.

The problem

Children

62%

of Australians experienced abuse or neglect as a child

Children

45%

of people sexually abused as children had never told anyone

Young people

29%

of 18 and 19 year olds were abused by a partner in the past year

Young people

11.3%

of Australian adolescents surveyed had been sexually extorted

Adults

27%

of women, and 15% of men, have been abused by a partner they lived with

Online, all ages

100,194

reports of online child sexual exploitation reached the ACCCE in 2025–26

The figures in full, with sources

Why harm goes unseen

The person is usually someone close

Most people sexually abused as children knew the person, and partner abuse happens at home.

People are seldom asked how they are treated

Being asked is one of the few things known to help children tell.

Control can look like care at first

Grooming and coercive control can feel like attention, so a person may say their day was fine.

Some harm moves fast, and follows people

A threat needs an answer now, and abusers increasingly track people through their phones.

The evidence, with sources

The person is usually someone close. Of people sexually abused by an adult before they were 15, 88% of women and 82% of men knew the person, and for 47% of women and 32% of men it was a family member. Abuse by a partner they live with, which more than a quarter of women have experienced, happens at home too. Tools that report to the household cannot help when the harm is at home. ABS: Childhood abuse, 2021–22 · ABS: Partner violence, 2021–22

People are seldom asked. Reviews of the research find that being asked, and given chances to tell, is one of the few things that help children disclose. Most of the time, at any age, telling depends on the person starting the conversation. Lemaigre and colleagues, 2017 · Alaggia and colleagues, 2019

Control can look like care at first. Grooming builds trust before anything looks wrong, and coercive control can begin as attention and concern. A person enjoying that attention will say their day was fine. So Hi Esteem asks directly, in turn, about secrets, isolation, monitoring and money, alongside questions about kindness and pride.

Some harm moves fast, and follows people. A threat to share an image needs an answer now, not at tomorrow’s check-in. And abuse can follow a person through their phone: the number of family violence workers reporting abusers using GPS to track victim-survivors rose by 244.8% between 2015 and 2020. Help has to be one tap away, and the app has to be safe to keep on a phone someone else may check. WESNET survey on technology abuse, 2020

What exists, and what is missing

What is missing, as we see it: a regular, private, low-effort moment for anyone to notice and say that something is not right, with a response that fits their age.

What exists today, and its limits

Safety lessons, helplines, family violence services, monitoring apps, and Child Protection and police all have a part. Most depend on the person speaking up first, and monitoring apps cannot help when the harm is at home. The response that fits a person’s age is someone they trust, and for children and teenagers a qualified person who knows what to do next.

  • Safety lessons teach children the words and the rules. A review of 24 trials found they improve what children know without making them more anxious or afraid. But knowing what is wrong is not the same as telling someone. Cochrane review, 2015
  • Helplines such as Kids Helpline and 1800RESPECT are there, at any hour, when someone reaches out, but the person has to start.
  • Family violence services, such as Victoria’s Orange Door, are there for people who come to them. The Orange Door
  • Monitoring apps can read a child’s messages and report to parents. They intrude on privacy, and cannot help when the harm is at home.
  • Child Protection and police act once someone reports.

One check-in, three responses

It is for every age, because harm happens at every age. It matters most for children and teenagers, who have the least power to act alone.

Children, 9 to 14

Set up with a parent. A trusted adult is asked to talk with them, and a practitioner reads every serious answer.

Teenagers, 15 to 17

Set up alone. The app offers to message someone they trust, and a practitioner reads every serious answer.

Adults, 18 and over

Set up alone. Nothing is sent unless they choose it, 000 and 1800RESPECT come first, and every screen has Leave quickly.

Parents can check in on their own phones alongside their children. It is an example, not a way of watching: no one sees anyone else’s answers.

The full comparison

The questions cover much the same ground at every age, in words that fit it. What changes is who sets the app up, who decides what happens next, and who is behind it. A person’s say grows with their age.

What changesChildren, 9 to 14Teenagers, 15 to 17Adults, 18 and over
Who sets it upThe child, with a parent, who promises not to take the phone or ask to see answersThe young person, alone. They can invite a parentThe person, alone. Trusted people are optional
When answers add upA trusted adult the child chooses is asked to talk with themThe app offers to message someone they trust. Nothing is sent without a yesThe app offers to message someone they trust. Nothing is sent without a yes
A serious answerA safeguarding practitioner reads it first, and reports where the law requiresThe same, though what must be reported changes at 16 and 17. The young person chooses which adult is called, unless they say they are not safe right now or an adult is involved sexually000 and 1800RESPECT first, then someone they trust is offered, or messaged at once if they asked for that in advance. No practitioner reads adult answers
On the phoneNothing kept on the phone, and help one tap awayNothing kept on the phone, a reminder that says only “Daily reminder”, and Leave quickly on every screen

What has to be true

Each step in the chain rests on an assumption. Six of the ten are untested, and the pilot is how we find out. Open any one for the evidence.

  • SupportedBeing asked helps children tell

    Reviews find that prompts and chances to tell help children disclose, against many barriers.

    Lemaigre and colleagues, 2017 · Alaggia and colleagues, 2019

  • SupportedLearning about safety does not frighten children

    A Cochrane review of 24 trials with 5,802 children found gains in knowledge, and no evidence that programs raised anxiety or fear.

    Cochrane review, 2015

  • Partly supportedBeing asked about harm rarely upsets young people

    In a national US survey of 10 to 17 year olds, 4.5% were at all upset by questions about violence and abuse, and 0.8% pretty or a lot upset. That was a one-off survey, not daily questions that can lead to an alert.

    Finkelhor and colleagues, 2014

  • MixedAsking adults helps them

    A Cochrane review of 13 trials with 14,959 women found that screening in health care identified more women experiencing partner violence, with no evidence that violence then fell; only two trials measured it. Hi Esteem differs because the adult chooses to be asked, which is untested.

    Cochrane review of partner violence screening, 2015

  • UntestedPeople keep checking in for months

    Studies that prompt young people daily have run for days or weeks, with about three in four prompts answered. None we found has run for months.

    Wen and colleagues, 2017

  • UntestedTaps are accurate enough to act on

    We found no validated way for children to report grooming themselves, so every question is new, and false alarms have to be counted per person per month.

  • UntestedThe people told respond well

    That depends on the guide trusted people are given, on the practitioner, and on whether Child Protection and police act on reports that rest on answers in an app.

  • UntestedHaving the app does not put an adult at more risk

    An abusive partner may check a phone, and family violence workers report abusers increasingly tracking partners through their devices. Nothing is kept on the phone, the reminder is neutral, and every screen has Leave quickly, but whether that is enough has to be tested with family violence services.

    WESNET survey on technology abuse, 2020

  • UntestedParents who check in make it normal for their children

    This is the reason for inviting parents to check in on their own phones. No study we found tests it.

  • UntestedA charity can afford a practitioner for every open hour

    The volume check and the pilot will estimate the workload, and so the cost.

What could go wrong

Six risks we know of. Open any one for how the design responds.

  • An alert reaches the person causing harm

    Children name trusted adults outside the home, an alert never goes to the person it is about, and a practitioner reads every serious answer from a child or teenager first.

  • The questions make people anxious

    Questions about kindness and pride come every day, the most sensitive questions are rationed, and anxiety is measured.

  • False alarms upset families

    One odd day earns a kind word, not a call to an adult, and alerts are counted in the pilot.

  • A teenager loses trust because someone was told

    Teenagers are asked first. Calling someone they did not choose is kept for when they say they are not safe right now, or an adult is involved sexually.

  • Someone checks an adult’s phone

    Nothing is kept on the phone, the reminder says only “Daily reminder”, and Leave quickly closes the app at once.

  • Information is misused or leaked

    Only coded answers are kept, with no free text, and no real person takes part until the app is secured.

How we will know

A first pilot runs for one school term, with children aged 9 to 14 and their parents checking in on their own phones alongside them. We continue only if harms are low and adults judge a meaningful share of alerts worthwhile.

What the pilot measures

It will measure check-ins week by week, alerts per 100 children a month, how many alerts adults judged worthwhile, what wrong alerts cost families, children’s anxiety and trust, and adverse events. Teenagers and adults follow, each with its own review and pilot. That is the pathway to implementation.

Help us find out whether it works. We are looking for people and organisations to review, build, fund and test Hi Esteem, for every age it serves.

Get involved

Pathway to implementation

How Hi Esteem could become a free service for children, teenagers and adults, run by a charity, in nine steps. Why it is needed is set out in the theory of change.

A plan for discussion. Each step lists things we have already identified to look at, checked against public sources in October 2026. They are notes for the board and its advisers to follow up, not conclusions or legal advice.

What exists

The design brief, and this working model of its rules, running on invented people. One hundred and seven scripted cases pass, and the gaps it found are listed for reviewers.

What does not yet

A company, a board, funding, reviewers or partners. No expert has reviewed the design, and no question has been tested with the people it is for.

What this is not

A service, advice, or evidence that a daily check-in helps. We treat the idea as a hypothesis to test.

The path

Stage 1 · Get started Stage 2 · Get it right Stage 3 · Reach people Ready forreal people? Stopor go 1 Founding board 2 A registered charity 3 Funding to build 4 Expert review 5 Build and secure 6 Team and partners 7 Pilots, families first 8 Launch and run it well 9 Broaden the reach We are here
Nine steps in three stages. The charity comes first, because free legal help, tax-deductible gifts and most grants need one. No real person uses Hi Esteem until the design is reviewed and the app secured, and the pilot ends in a decision to stop or go.
  1. Organisation the charity, its board and its money
  2. Review and partners the experts who check the design, and the people and organisations it depends on
  3. The app building, testing and securing it
  4. All three the pilot, the launch and what follows
Stage 1

Get started

The people, a legal home, and the money to build.

1

Bring together a founding board

Organisation

We want a founding board of five to seven people who believe everyone, and above all every child, deserves a regular, safe chance to say that something is not right.

The experience we want around the table

  • A chair who has governed a charity or a service for children
  • Safeguarding or child protection practice
  • Child psychology
  • Family and domestic violence practice
  • Law, especially privacy, child protection or charities
  • Technology and security
  • Finance and fundraising
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership
  • Lived experience of harm, in childhood or as an adult
  • A young person’s view, for example a director under 25
More on this step

Done when At least five people have agreed to serve, and we know which skills we still need.

Together they need to be able to lead a charity that serves children, young people and adults well.

Already identified to look at
  • A public company needs at least three directors, two of whom live in Australia, and a secretary who does.
  • Each director needs a free director ID before they are appointed.
  • Governance Standard 4, which expects a charity to check that no director is disqualified, against the ACNC’s register.
  • A Working with Children Check for every director, and a register of conflicts of interest, from the first meeting.
Sources
ASIC: directors and secretaries · ABRS: director ID · ACNC: Governance Standard 4 · ACNC: choosing board members

Interested in joining the board? Get involved

2

Set Hi Esteem up as a charity

Organisation

We want Hi Esteem to be an independent charity that can receive tax-deductible gifts.

More on this step

Done when Hi Esteem is a registered charity, can receive tax-deductible gifts, and has its child safety policies and insurance in place.

That means a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee, registered as a charity and endorsed as a deductible gift recipient, so that philanthropic funds can support it.

Already identified to look at
  • The ACNC’s template constitution for companies limited by guarantee, and the gift fund and winding-up clauses that deductible gift status needs.
  • Registering the company with ASIC, then with the ACNC, which charges nothing. The Charities Act counts protecting children and young people, and relieving the distress of individuals or families, as advancing social or public welfare.
  • The harm prevention category of deductible gift recipient, for charities whose main work is preventing harmful or abusive behaviour.
  • Starting under an established charity’s auspice while registration is pending.
  • Notifying Consumer Affairs Victoria before fundraising, and the different rules in other states.
  • Victoria’s Child Safe Standards, which cover charities that work with children, and insurance that covers claims of child abuse.
Sources
ACNC: template constitution · ASIC: registering a company · ACNC: who can register · Charities Act 2013, s 15 · ATO: harm prevention charities · Justice Connect: auspicing · Consumer Affairs Victoria: charities · Justice Connect: fundraising by state · Victoria: who the Child Safe Standards cover · Justice Connect: insurance

Can you help with charity law or governance? Get involved

3

Raise the money to build it

Organisation

We aim to raise enough to take Hi Esteem from this model to the end of a pilot, and to keep it free for everyone who uses it.

More on this step

Done when The build, the reviews and the pilot are paid for.

That covers the build, the expert reviews, security testing, a practitioner team for the pilot, and an independent evaluation. There will be no advertising, and no one’s answers will be used to raise money.

Who we’d like to hear from
Philanthropic foundations and family offices, companies that care about safety at home and online, research partners, and anyone able to give in kind: legal work, hosting, audit, insurance broking or design.
Already identified to look at
  • Few open grants fit a project at this stage, and some foundations, such as the Telstra Foundation, take no unsolicited applications, so introductions will matter.
  • An ARC Linkage Project, where a university applies and partner organisations contribute cash or in kind.
  • A precedent: Stop It Now! Australia began as a pilot on philanthropic funding, then won a federal tender to become a national service.
  • Costs noted so far: an independent ethics review ($3,325 to $8,030 at one committee), Working with Children Checks ($139.20 for each employee, free for volunteers), insurance with abuse cover, security testing, and, largest of all, a practitioner rostered for every hour children and teenagers can check in.
Sources
Telstra Foundation · ARC Linkage Projects · Stop It Now! Australia · Iris Ethics: fees · WWC: costs

Could you fund Hi Esteem, or introduce us to someone who might? Get involved

Stage 2

Get it right

Checked by experts, built properly, and connected to the services that protect children and support adults.

4

Have every part checked by experts

Review and partners

Before anyone uses Hi Esteem, we want every question, rule and message checked by the people best placed to find what is wrong with it.

More on this step

Done when Each reviewer has marked up the design, the changes are made, and the wording has been tested with children, teenagers and adults.

That means a child psychologist, a safeguarding practitioner, a family violence practitioner, a youth worker, a forensic interviewer, a lawyer and a security adviser. We want children, teenagers and adults, including people with lived experience of family violence, to shape the wording through co-design, with ethics approval.

Who we’re looking for
Pro bono lawyers, reviewers for the panel, a research centre to partner on the evaluation, and an ethics committee.
Already identified to look at
  • Justice Connect’s pro bono program, which helps not-for-profits that are already operating and cannot pay for advice.
  • Whether Hi Esteem counts as a health service under the Privacy Act, and the Children’s Online Privacy Code, due by 10 December 2026.
  • Research partners such as the Australian Centre for Child Protection, ACU’s Institute of Child Protection Studies and the Young and Resilient Research Centre.
  • Ethics review under the National Statement, which has a chapter on research with children and young people.
  • Victoria’s MARAM framework for assessing and managing family violence risk, for the adult settings.
  • At 15 to 17 the duties change with age: Child Protection takes reports only under 17, and the failure to disclose offence covers only children under 16.
Sources
Justice Connect: who it helps · OAIC: Children’s Online Privacy Code · Australian Centre for Child Protection · ACU Institute of Child Protection Studies · Young and Resilient Research Centre · NHMRC: National Statement · Victoria: MARAM practice guides · Better Health Channel: Child Protection, under 17 · Crimes Act 1958 (Vic) s 327

Could you review part of the design? Get involved

5

Build it properly, and make it secure

The app

We want an app people find easy and safe to use at every age, independently security-tested before it holds a single real answer.

More on this step

Done when An independent security test is passed, before any real answer is stored.

It will be built to a production standard, private by design, hosted in Australia, and usable by people of different ages and abilities.

Who we’re looking for
Engineers, designers and security testers who have built for children or for sensitive information, and accessibility specialists.
Already identified to look at
  • A volume check first: thousands of invented children run through the rules, to estimate how many alerts a month the practitioners would see.
  • The Essential Eight as a security baseline, and the Australian Signals Directorate’s free partnership program for charities.
  • eSafety’s Safety by Design tools, and the online safety codes and standards that apply to some apps.
  • Verified consent from parents, a record of who opened each case, deletion on a schedule, and a rehearsed plan for a breach.
  • For adults, safety on the phone itself: Leave quickly, nothing kept on the phone, a neutral reminder, and a check at setup that it is safe to keep the app. Family violence workers report abusers increasingly using devices to track partners.
Sources
ASD: Essential Eight · ASD: cyber security for charities · eSafety: Safety by Design for start-ups · eSafety: industry codes and standards · WESNET survey on technology abuse, 2020

Could you help build or test it? Get involved

6

Build the team and the partnerships around it

Review and partners

Hi Esteem only works if the people around someone respond well, so we want practitioners on duty whenever children and teenagers can check in.

More on this step

Done when Child Protection and police have told us how they want reports made, pilot partners have agreed, and the roster covers every hour children and teenagers can check in.

That means a small, well-supervised team of safeguarding practitioners, and working relationships with the organisations that protect and support people: Child Protection, police, schools, specialist family violence services, youth services, Aboriginal community-controlled organisations, helplines and researchers.

Who we’re looking for
Child Protection intake and Victoria Police, to tell us how they want reports made. Schools and community organisations willing to take part in a pilot. Aboriginal community-controlled organisations as partners in the design from the start. Specialist family violence services, through their peak body Safe and Equal, and The Orange Door. Kids Helpline, 1800RESPECT, the ACCCE and ThinkUKnow.
Already identified to look at
  • Registered psychologists are mandatory reporters in Victoria, and Working with Children Checks change from 19 October 2026.
  • Victorian government schools rely on the ST4S software assessment, and are advised to complete their own privacy impact assessment.
  • Research approval from the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, which takes about six to eight weeks, and from Victoria Police.
  • Cultural safety under Child Safe Standard 1, with communities designing the service from the start.
  • Kids Helpline has no public route for referral partners, so we would approach yourtown directly.
  • 1800RESPECT, the national domestic, family and sexual violence service, which every adult screen shows after 000.
Sources
Child Protection Manual: mandatory reporting · WWC: changes from October 2026 · Education Victoria: software risk · Education Victoria: privacy impact assessments · DFFH: external research · Victoria Police: research · CCYP: cultural safety guide · VACCA: partnerships · Kids Helpline: partners · Safe and Equal · The Orange Door · 1800RESPECT

Could your organisation partner with Hi Esteem? Get involved

Ready for real people?

No one uses Hi Esteem for real until the reviews are done, the legal advice is in, the app is hardened, and a practitioner is rostered for every hour children and teenagers can check in.

Three questions that could stop it here
  • Whether answers in an app can support a report.
  • Whether Child Protection and police would act on such reports.
  • Whether a small charity can afford the roster.
Stage 3

Reach people

Careful pilots, children first, then a service that grows.

7

Pilot, starting with families

All three

We want to pilot Hi Esteem for one school term with children aged 9 to 14 and their parents, then with teenagers, then with adults.

More on this step

Done when The evaluation is with the board, the ethics committee and our partners.

Families take part by choice, through partner schools and community organisations in Victoria, with parents checking in on their own phones alongside their children. Teenagers follow through schools and youth services, then adults through specialist family violence services. Each pilot is evaluated independently, and we publish what we find, including any harm.

What we’ll measure
Check-ins week by week, alerts per 100 children a month, how many alerts adults judged worthwhile, what a wrong alert cost a family, children’s anxiety and trust in the app, and any adverse events. In the adult pilot, also whether having the app on a phone ever made anyone less safe.
Stop or go

We continue only if harms are low and adults judge a meaningful share of alerts worthwhile.

8

Launch, and run it well

All three

We want Hi Esteem open to anyone in Victoria, at each age its pilot has cleared, free, and run by an organisation that keeps learning.

More on this step

Done when The service is open, staffed for every open hour, and its first year’s results are published.

It grows at a pace our practitioners can carry. Every change is reviewed, every case where the reporting matrix was set aside is examined, and our results are published each year.

Already identified to look at
  • App store rules for children’s apps, and public wording that never promises to keep a child safe.
  • Regular reviews under Child Safe Standard 10, and annual reporting to the ACNC.
  • Government funding brings its own child safety terms, and state funding for child protection related services can bring Victoria’s Reportable Conduct Scheme.
  • The proposed digital duty of care, published as an exposure draft on 8 September 2026.
Sources
Victoria: the 11 standards · ACNC: annual information statement · Commonwealth grants: child safety terms · Victoria: who the Reportable Conduct Scheme covers · Digital duty of care exposure draft
9

Broaden the reach

All three

Our long-term ambition is Hi Esteem for anyone in Australia who wants it.

More on this step

Done when Each new group has passed the same review and pilot as the first.

That means every state and territory, other languages, culturally safe versions co-designed with communities, and a version for older people, whose abuse by family or carers version one does not cover.

Already identified to look at
  • Each state has its own reporting laws, so each needs its own reporting matrix and legal settings.
  • Abuse of older people by family or carers has its own signs, which version one does not cover.
  • As with Stop It Now! Australia, lasting funding for a national service is likely to involve government.

Still to decide

  • Who joins the founding board, and who chairs it.
  • Whether to start under an established charity’s auspice.
  • Which partners, and which people, take part in each pilot.
  • Who builds the app, and where it is hosted.
  • Whether the settings for teenagers and adults, now in the working model, are right.
  • Which age group pilots after children and their parents.
  • Seventeen defaults the brief proposes, and forty-eight points the model had to settle, listed in the model under Rules for the reviewers.

What could stop it

  • An alert reaches the person causing harm

    Keeping them out depends on a frightened person saying who it is.

  • No qualified person is there when it matters

    The cost of the roster decides whether a small charity can run this.

  • A report rests on taps alone

    A misread answer can become a report, and the authorities may not act on answers from an app.

  • People stop checking in

    Without compulsion some will, and the pilots will measure it.

  • Someone checks an adult’s phone

    Finding the app at all can raise the risk, so nothing is kept on the phone and every screen has Leave quickly.

The theory of change sets out what has to be true for Hi Esteem to work, and what the evidence says so far.

Want to help with any of this? We are looking for board members, expert reviewers, builders, funders and partners.

Get involved

Get involved

Hi Esteem is at the beginning: a design, and the working model on this site. Turning it into a service will take people with many kinds of expertise, organisations willing to partner, and funders willing to back something new. If you would like to help, we would love to hear from you.

Who is behind this

This working model was created by Michael Symons, of Loosemore Advisory (www.loosemoreadvisory.com). He is the person who reads what you send through the form below.

The ambition is for Hi Esteem to be a free service operated by a charity, with its own board. It is not that yet, and the pathway sets out how it could get there.

Ways to help

  • Join the founding board

    We are looking for five to seven directors who between them bring safeguarding practice, child psychology, family and domestic violence practice, law, technology and security, finance and fundraising, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership, lived experience, and a young person’s view.

    Choose this: join the founding board

  • Review the design

    Child psychologists, safeguarding and child protection practitioners, family violence practitioners, youth workers, forensic interviewers, teachers and researchers, to test every question, rule and message before anyone sees it.

    Choose this: review the design

  • Give legal or privacy advice

    Pro bono help with charity law, privacy, reporting duties and online safety regulation.

    Choose this: give legal or privacy advice

  • Help build and test it

    Engineers, designers, security testers and accessibility specialists, to turn this working model into an app that is safe at every age, including on a phone someone else may check.

    Choose this: help build and test it

  • Fund it, or open doors

    Foundations, companies that care about safety at home and online, and anyone who can introduce us to them. Help in kind counts too: legal work, hosting, audit, insurance broking and design.

    Choose this: fund it, or open doors

  • Partner with us

    Schools, youth services, specialist family violence services, family and community services, Aboriginal community-controlled organisations, helplines and research groups, to shape the service and take part in a pilot.

    Choose this: partner with us

  • Stay in touch

    Hear about progress, the pilots and new ways to help, a few times a year.

    Choose this: stay in touch

Children, young people and adults with lived experience will shape Hi Esteem through co-design run with partner organisations, with ethics approval, and not through this form. If you work with children, young people or people affected by family violence, and could host co-design sessions, choose Partner with us.

Tell us how you would like to help

This form is not a way to report harm or to get support. If anyone is in danger, call 000. For support, Kids Helpline is on 1800 55 1800, 1800RESPECT is on 1800 737 732 and Lifeline is on 13 11 14. Please do not include details of harm, to you or to anyone else.
How would you like to help? Choose at least one

For example your experience, or what you could offer. Up to 1,000 characters.

What happens to your details

Michael Symons, who created this model, reads what you send. He uses it only to contact you about helping and, if you chose Stay in touch, to send you news. He will not sell your details, or share them with anyone outside the people setting up Hi Esteem without asking you. He keeps them only while they are needed, and you can ask him to show, correct or delete them at any time, by replying to any email from him or through the contact page at loosemoreadvisory.com. Where they are stored depends on where this page is hosted.