Managing at the Margins: Women Making it Work in Precarious Times. This project aims to investigate the economic, social and emotional impacts of precarious work on women. Focusing on the challenges that arise from juggling precarious work with care responsibilities and/or demands from the social support system, the project identifies the strategies women have to manage these demands, and the impacts these demands have on everyday lives across different life stages. By combining otherwise separa ....Managing at the Margins: Women Making it Work in Precarious Times. This project aims to investigate the economic, social and emotional impacts of precarious work on women. Focusing on the challenges that arise from juggling precarious work with care responsibilities and/or demands from the social support system, the project identifies the strategies women have to manage these demands, and the impacts these demands have on everyday lives across different life stages. By combining otherwise separate bodies of literature with innovative quantitative and qualitative data, the project seeks to generate new knowledge about the impacts of precarious work on women and families. This knowledge is expected to inform policies and services to improve women’s lives and promote economic inclusion and social cohesion.Read moreRead less
Towards an effective practice model for youth detention. This project aims to examine the effectiveness of an innovative government program, which seeks to enhance the safety and rehabilitative culture of juvenile detention centres by increasing staff interpersonal skills through specialist training, coaching and supervision. The project is expected to identify best practice principles, allowing government departments to focus efforts on training and staff support to provide a higher quality wor ....Towards an effective practice model for youth detention. This project aims to examine the effectiveness of an innovative government program, which seeks to enhance the safety and rehabilitative culture of juvenile detention centres by increasing staff interpersonal skills through specialist training, coaching and supervision. The project is expected to identify best practice principles, allowing government departments to focus efforts on training and staff support to provide a higher quality work force. An evidence based framework will be developed in consultation with juvenile justice agencies across Australia. This will potentially improve outcomes for young people in custody and the wider community.Read moreRead less
Religion and domestic violence: exploring men’s perpetration. The project will generate new knowledge about how religious beliefs and practices are used by men to perpetrate domestic violence. Using a qualitative design this project will gain insights into how churches understand and respond to domestic violence; and identify and analyse the perpetration of spiritual abuse as a form of domestic violence. The significant innovation and benefit is interviewing Australian men about their understand ....Religion and domestic violence: exploring men’s perpetration. The project will generate new knowledge about how religious beliefs and practices are used by men to perpetrate domestic violence. Using a qualitative design this project will gain insights into how churches understand and respond to domestic violence; and identify and analyse the perpetration of spiritual abuse as a form of domestic violence. The significant innovation and benefit is interviewing Australian men about their understandings and use of violence through an ecclesiastical lens. The outcomes will enhance the knowledge base of domestic violence theory, serving as a platform to develop more effective policies and practice inside and outside religious settings to prevent domestic violence. Read moreRead less
Strengthening Relationships for Young People in Residential Care. Young people in residential care face major challenges in forming positive relationships, many having experienced adults as a source of threat rather than safety. This project aims to investigate practices within therapeutic residential care that enable or limit young people’s identity formation, positive social connections, safety and wellbeing. This research will generate nuanced knowledge informing interpersonal and institution ....Strengthening Relationships for Young People in Residential Care. Young people in residential care face major challenges in forming positive relationships, many having experienced adults as a source of threat rather than safety. This project aims to investigate practices within therapeutic residential care that enable or limit young people’s identity formation, positive social connections, safety and wellbeing. This research will generate nuanced knowledge informing interpersonal and institutional change. Expected outcomes include improved approaches to therapeutic care and to methods for enabling the participation of young people in care in matters that may change their life trajectory on exiting care. Expected benefits include more responsive policies and frameworks for practice.Read moreRead less
DIsrupting Child Exploitation - the DICE project. Child sexual exploitation is an insidious social problem which impacts the most vulnerable children and young people in Australia. The DICE project (Disrupting Child Sexual Exploitation) aims to develop a multi-agency response which pivots the focus of intervention to the sexual exploitation predators who target vulnerable young people in statutory care. Previous interventions have prioritised protecting (and controlling) the young people, with l ....DIsrupting Child Exploitation - the DICE project. Child sexual exploitation is an insidious social problem which impacts the most vulnerable children and young people in Australia. The DICE project (Disrupting Child Sexual Exploitation) aims to develop a multi-agency response which pivots the focus of intervention to the sexual exploitation predators who target vulnerable young people in statutory care. Previous interventions have prioritised protecting (and controlling) the young people, with limited success. Through a trauma informed approach which supports young people, combined with disruptive police strategies targeting perpetrators, and co-ordinated multiagency working, it is anticipated that there will be measurable changes to the protection of vulnerable young people. Read moreRead less
Researching an all-of-family program in family violence & substance misuse. Family violence services and drug and alcohol services have been inappropriately siloed given co-occurrence of these problems is common. This project aims to evaluate an innovative program which integrates these services, focuses on fathering to ensure recognition of the needs of children (50% of family violence victims) and provides all-of-family support to ensure the safety and well-being of women and children. Expect ....Researching an all-of-family program in family violence & substance misuse. Family violence services and drug and alcohol services have been inappropriately siloed given co-occurrence of these problems is common. This project aims to evaluate an innovative program which integrates these services, focuses on fathering to ensure recognition of the needs of children (50% of family violence victims) and provides all-of-family support to ensure the safety and well-being of women and children. Expected outcomes include better evidence for countering family violence, and policy frameworks for integrated service provision. Changing the behaviour of men who use violence is a significant social challenge and the outcomes of this targeted approach should have ramifications nationally and internationally. Read moreRead less
Developing a national rural volunteering roadmap. This project aims to investigate the challenges affecting rural volunteering in Australia. Conducting a national analysis of volunteering demand and supply, this project expects to generate new interdisciplinary knowledge of the structural, demographic, organisational and personal factors affecting the sustainability of rural volunteering. Expected outcomes of this project include a world-first index of volunteering vulnerabilities and a spatial ....Developing a national rural volunteering roadmap. This project aims to investigate the challenges affecting rural volunteering in Australia. Conducting a national analysis of volunteering demand and supply, this project expects to generate new interdisciplinary knowledge of the structural, demographic, organisational and personal factors affecting the sustainability of rural volunteering. Expected outcomes of this project include a world-first index of volunteering vulnerabilities and a spatial map of volunteering unevenness, leading to the development of an evidence-based National Rural Volunteering Roadmap (2025-2035), which will guide our volunteering peak body partners, governments and rural communities to plan for and support rural volunteering over the longer-term.Read moreRead less
Screening and responding to domestic violence experienced by refugee women. We will adapt and test an evidence-based intervention to identify and address domestic violence with newly arrived refugee women, partnering with Settlement Services International, one of Australia’s largest providers of settlement programs. Domestic violence is the lead contributor to premature death among Australian women, and costs $22 b each year, with refugee women at heightened risk. This study will compare outcome ....Screening and responding to domestic violence experienced by refugee women. We will adapt and test an evidence-based intervention to identify and address domestic violence with newly arrived refugee women, partnering with Settlement Services International, one of Australia’s largest providers of settlement programs. Domestic violence is the lead contributor to premature death among Australian women, and costs $22 b each year, with refugee women at heightened risk. This study will compare outcomes for women who receive the intervention to controls and culturally sensitive, scaleable tested tools. This intervention should reduce the human and financial cost of domestic violence among refugee and other vulnerable migrant women, providing tools to settlement services to address this complex, hidden problem. Read moreRead less
Promoting Child and Carer Wellbeing and Placement Stability in Kinship Care. Kinship care is the fastest growing out-of-home care placement in Australia, yet least supported. This project aims to implement and evaluate an attachment and trauma-based program for kinship carers, explore its suitability for cultural adaptation for Indigenous families and co-design practical resources to promote program sustainability and trauma-informed practice. This project is Australia’s first randomised trial o ....Promoting Child and Carer Wellbeing and Placement Stability in Kinship Care. Kinship care is the fastest growing out-of-home care placement in Australia, yet least supported. This project aims to implement and evaluate an attachment and trauma-based program for kinship carers, explore its suitability for cultural adaptation for Indigenous families and co-design practical resources to promote program sustainability and trauma-informed practice. This project is Australia’s first randomised trial of a tailored program for kinship carers and expects to generate vital knowledge on evidence-based support. Via implementing an innovative program for kinship carers in statutory child protection, this project should build capacity for research-based practice and benefit family wellbeing and placement outcomes in kinship care.Read moreRead less
Post-parental care planning for rural people with intellectual disabilities. This project addresses the urgent issue of post-parental care plans for people with an intellectual disability and their older parental carers in rural areas. The project aims to co-design a post-parental care planning approach and resources in collaboration with people with an intellectual disability, older parental carers and disability services. The results will be used by the researchers to generate new knowledge on ....Post-parental care planning for rural people with intellectual disabilities. This project addresses the urgent issue of post-parental care plans for people with an intellectual disability and their older parental carers in rural areas. The project aims to co-design a post-parental care planning approach and resources in collaboration with people with an intellectual disability, older parental carers and disability services. The results will be used by the researchers to generate new knowledge on post-parental care transitions and how to construct post-parental care plans within the context of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. The planning approach and resources will assist families and services to avert crisis transitions through improved coordination, preparation and support for post-parental care. Read moreRead less