The Remote Australia Employment Service (RAES) replaced the previous NIAA contract held by Kalano Community Association known as the Community Development Program (CDP) on the 1^st November 2025.  The RAES program is an Australian Government initiative overseen by the National Indigenous Australians Agency otherwise known as NIAA.  After extensive trials which took place in the later part of the CDP contract with Kalano and other CDP Providers around the country, RAES has been designed to enable providers to use local knowledge to help communities unlock long-term sustainable jobs and create clear pathways for participants through tailored, culturally safe support and community-led projects.  Kalano Community Association were successful in achieving the contract for the Katherine Region 31 and the RAES Contract period is in place until the 30^th June 2028.

Aboriginal People Working for Aboriginal People

Kalano’s RAES has become a leader in the Northern Territory as it uniquely maintains an average of about a 90% Aboriginal caseload and over 50% of our current RAES team members are Aboriginal workforce with the remainder being from a diverse range of ethnic backgrounds. Kalano are committed to onboarding, training, and developing aboriginal people from our local region to be a part of our future team to grow these numbers.  Kalano RAES provides participants with tailored case management support that is high quality, strengths-based, culturally safe and appropriate to our region and location. We understand the barriers faced by our clients and this support aims to increase Participant skills and experience to gain and sustain employment, overcome barriers, and meet their Mutual Obligation Requirements.

Employment and Strong Stakeholder Focus

Kalano RAES continues to work on building strong employer relationships and are open to new ideas from local employers and community members about what kind of training and support they would like to see offered for the region to assist in building capability in the local workforce.  The RAES contract is Employment focused and has mechanisms allowing us to offer extensive ongoing support to both participants and employers for up to 12 months following an Employment Placement. Workforce development programs are also in place to assist in building participant skills to prepare them for the requirements of a workplace or opportunities to start their own small business.

Training and Skills Development Activities

Kalano’s Case Management team work closely with participants to build trust through active listening, having first-hand understanding of cultural obligations, recognising, and affirming individual strengths, identity and previous lived experiences as part of the ongoing assessment and support process.  We are then able to refer participants based on this and their future aspirations to a variety of training options, capacity-building workshops, community project activities or enterprises and work experience opportunities within Kalano or with local employer contacts within the region.  Kalano are also able to provide referrals to local health services or other agencies as required to overcome .  Some of the organisations we work with include:

Employment Placements

Job placements within the region are made up of local employers who approach our organisation with vacant roles for us to fill and of jobs that participants have managed to secure of their own accord.  No matter how the person gains the employment, Kalano RAES is able to sit down with the participant and if permission is given, the employer, to negotiate any required supports that are needed to help them maintain employment and achieve their employment goals.

Employment Placement Support (EPS)

Kalano has an Employment Placement Support team headed up by an experienced local Indigenous employee who has extensive knowledge of the local region and has built strong relationships with employers and available services.  This team are trained to offer our participants/new employees effective mentoring to achieve success in the workplace and to work toward meeting employer expectations.  Part of the EPS is to also offer employers mentoring if required, build on their cultural understanding in the region where we all work and live together and to offer incentives for Employers to recruit and train their new team members.