How do you celebrate the 20th birthday of an organisation that has spent two decades at the forefront of supporting Australian parents and caregivers? You partner with others who share the same commitment. Not just to children's wellbeing, but to storytelling, quality content and reaching families at scale.

Raising Children Network is Australia's national evidence-based parenting website. For 20 years, parents and carers across the country have turned to Raising Children Network when they've needed trusted, practical guidance, whether that's navigating the toddler years, understanding teenage behaviour or finding the right words for a difficult conversation. A milestone like this deserved something new, something that could bring Raising Children Network's expertise together with the power of story.

That's where this partnership began. In creating a meaningful resource to celebrate and support children, families and the professionals who care for them, StoryBox Hub, Raising Children Network and the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY) joined forces to create the Wellbeing Playlist, now live on the StoryBox Hub website.

What is the Wellbeing Playlist?

The Wellbeing Playlist is a collection of 12 StoryBox Hub titles, free for everyone to enjoy, each one matched to an area that supports a child's wellbeing. Whether you're reading with your own child at home or sharing stories in the classroom, these stories offer a way to start meaningful conversations.

Three organisations, three strengths, brought together. ARACY brings The Nest, an evidence-informed framework for understanding child wellbeing across six interconnected domains: Healthy, Participating, Identity and Culture, Material Basics, Learning, and Valued, Loved and Safe. StoryBox Hub brings high-quality Australian children's stories to life, with strong connections across schools, early childhood settings and public libraries. And Raising Children Network brings trusted, plain-language information, activities and practical guidance that parents and carers already know and rely on.

Storytelling and wellbeing belong together

When you meld Raising Children Network's practical resources with children's literature aligned to the six domains of The Nest framework, reading becomes more than a literacy experience. It becomes an opportunity for connection, reflection and meaningful conversation between the adult reader and the child.

Stories are often a child's first way of making sense of themselves and the world around them. A picture book can offer a safe, familiar space to explore big emotions, navigate tricky relationships or encounter new experiences for the first time. Through shared reading, children can see themselves reflected in stories, begin to develop empathy for others, and start to build the understanding and language they need to talk about their own wellbeing.

A story alone can spark curiosity. Trusted, practical guidance alone can answer questions. Brought together within a framework, they give adults the confidence to turn a favourite picture book into a genuine, everyday conversation about wellbeing.

Supporting the adults who support children

It's worth remembering that this partnership isn't only for children. Parents, carers and educators are all part of the audience for the Wellbeing Playlist, and each of these three organisations understands what it means to support the adults who support children.

Raising Children Network has spent 20 years answering parents' questions with evidence and empathy in equal measure. ARACY has spent years translating research on child wellbeing into frameworks that practitioners and policymakers can actually use. And StoryBox Hub has spent its own history building relationships with families, schools, early learning centres, and libraries, understanding what educators need to make stories work harder in their settings.

The Wellbeing Playlist gives grown-ups a starting point, whether that's a parent looking for a bedtime story with a bit more depth, or an educator planning a week of activities around a particular area of wellbeing.

A fitting way to mark 20 years

Twenty years of supporting Australian families is worth celebrating properly, and a new story collection, grounded in evidence and designed to spark real conversation, feels like a fitting way to do it. The Wellbeing Playlist is a resource built to be used again and again, at home, in the classroom and everywhere in between.

You can explore the Wellbeing Playlist now on the StoryBox Hub website.