Making prevention matter: Establishing characteristics of effective child sexual abuse prevention programs. Child sexual abuse is a significant public health problem requiring intervention and prevention. School-based child sexual abuse prevention programs aim to educate children to protect themselves and teach adults skills for protecting children. But programs vary widely in their quality and there is inadequate information available to guide program choice. This fundamental research, undertak ....Making prevention matter: Establishing characteristics of effective child sexual abuse prevention programs. Child sexual abuse is a significant public health problem requiring intervention and prevention. School-based child sexual abuse prevention programs aim to educate children to protect themselves and teach adults skills for protecting children. But programs vary widely in their quality and there is inadequate information available to guide program choice. This fundamental research, undertakes the necessary first steps towards implementing high quality, evidence-based child sexual abuse prevention programs. It will develop an overarching evidence-based conceptual framework for program design and evaluation thus advancing Australia's responses to child protection and enhancing children's healthy start to life.Read moreRead less
Exploring Wellbeing Outcomes in the Aquatic and Recreation Industry. This project aims to investigate the impact on individual wellbeing through use of public aquatic and recreation centres in Australia. Through the use of mixed methods across multiple locations, the project expects to generate new knowledge on the effect on users of different management and service models for the provision of aquatic and recreational infrastructure. Expected outcomes include a quantifiable measure of social and ....Exploring Wellbeing Outcomes in the Aquatic and Recreation Industry. This project aims to investigate the impact on individual wellbeing through use of public aquatic and recreation centres in Australia. Through the use of mixed methods across multiple locations, the project expects to generate new knowledge on the effect on users of different management and service models for the provision of aquatic and recreational infrastructure. Expected outcomes include a quantifiable measure of social and emotional wellbeing that can be utilised by centre management and government. This will help assessment of best practice for maximising community wellbeing, and can guide investment decisions by state and local government.Read moreRead less
Cluster randomised control trial of an early childhood literacy intervention to improve literacy and language outcomes in preschool aged children. Reading failure disproportionately affects disadvantaged communities in Australia, with nearly 40% of poor children failing to read at the minimum reading benchmark in Grade three. Of more concern is the disturbing trend indicating that prior to first grade, socioeconomic status (SES) differences also exist in important antecedents of reading such as ....Cluster randomised control trial of an early childhood literacy intervention to improve literacy and language outcomes in preschool aged children. Reading failure disproportionately affects disadvantaged communities in Australia, with nearly 40% of poor children failing to read at the minimum reading benchmark in Grade three. Of more concern is the disturbing trend indicating that prior to first grade, socioeconomic status (SES) differences also exist in important antecedents of reading such as letter knowledge and phonological processing skills, yet there remains no universal program to promote early language and literacy practices in the primary care setting. We propose a cluster randomised controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of a multi injection intervention to improve literacy outcomes of children in disadvantaged communities.Read moreRead less
Engaging Men and Boys in Violence Prevention: Effective directions for practice. Violence against women is a significant issue of policy effort and community concern. In the past decade, there has been an increasing emphasis on the need to engage men and boys in preventing and reducing men’s violence against women, both nationally and internationally. However, little is known about what works and does not work. Using robust evaluations of key strategies and interventions, this project aims to pr ....Engaging Men and Boys in Violence Prevention: Effective directions for practice. Violence against women is a significant issue of policy effort and community concern. In the past decade, there has been an increasing emphasis on the need to engage men and boys in preventing and reducing men’s violence against women, both nationally and internationally. However, little is known about what works and does not work. Using robust evaluations of key strategies and interventions, this project aims to produce a systematic framework for effective practice in engaging men and boys in preventing violence against women. It aims to produce both significant scholarly insights regarding gender and violence prevention and practical directions for policy and programming.Read moreRead less
Both Smart and Healthy: Learning Communities as a Settings-based Approaches to Health Promotion. This project will use a collaborative learning model to build health promotion capacity. The project brings together two innovative approaches to develop new knowledge about how setting-based approaches to health can be implemented in future. This approach could potentially address chronic disease at a national and international level by promoting healthy communities that can effectively manage chr ....Both Smart and Healthy: Learning Communities as a Settings-based Approaches to Health Promotion. This project will use a collaborative learning model to build health promotion capacity. The project brings together two innovative approaches to develop new knowledge about how setting-based approaches to health can be implemented in future. This approach could potentially address chronic disease at a national and international level by promoting healthy communities that can effectively manage chronic disease through collaborative learning and knowledge-building. The project represents an important collaboration between a university and its community with a view to improving health capacity.Read moreRead less
External provision of the school curriculum: Local needs to global networks in Health and Physical Education. This project will examine the factors that influence the appeal of and opportunities for external providers of health work (including HPE curricula) in schools at a local, national and international level. It will generate original, global data regarding: the influence of system networks on the creation of health issues; international trends for the external provision of health work prod ....External provision of the school curriculum: Local needs to global networks in Health and Physical Education. This project will examine the factors that influence the appeal of and opportunities for external providers of health work (including HPE curricula) in schools at a local, national and international level. It will generate original, global data regarding: the influence of system networks on the creation of health issues; international trends for the external provision of health work products and services to schools; and, the impact of networked health issues and providers on schooling. The findings will inform: policies related to outsourcing practices across the curriculum; expectations for teachers’ work; and, more broadly, control of young people’s health and the future of schooling. Read moreRead less
Increasing and Sustaining Physical Activity Levels of Sedentary Older Adults by Improving Social Support and Links with Local Community Resources. This project will promote the health of older people by linking them with local physical activity resources and social support to encourage them to increase and sustain their levels of physical activity. This project uses an innovative approach to tackle one of the key behavioural risk factors for older people, namely physical inactivity, identified b ....Increasing and Sustaining Physical Activity Levels of Sedentary Older Adults by Improving Social Support and Links with Local Community Resources. This project will promote the health of older people by linking them with local physical activity resources and social support to encourage them to increase and sustain their levels of physical activity. This project uses an innovative approach to tackle one of the key behavioural risk factors for older people, namely physical inactivity, identified by the national ageing strategy. The intervention model will provide, for the first time, a sustainable local community vehicle for engaging and sustaining sedentary older people in physical activity. It is anticipated that the community will adopt the model once its efficacy is demonstrated.Read moreRead less
Identifying Models of Personal and Community Resilience that enhance Psychological Wellness: A Stanthorpe Study. There are significant mental health problems in rural and remote Australia. Researchers in Australia are only just beginning to investigate mental health, and prevention is identified as a primary focus. A new innovative approach to mental health prevention is identifying and using characteristics that will enhance individual and community psychological wellness. Resilience has been i ....Identifying Models of Personal and Community Resilience that enhance Psychological Wellness: A Stanthorpe Study. There are significant mental health problems in rural and remote Australia. Researchers in Australia are only just beginning to investigate mental health, and prevention is identified as a primary focus. A new innovative approach to mental health prevention is identifying and using characteristics that will enhance individual and community psychological wellness. Resilience has been identified as one of those characteristics. The aim of this project is to work collaboratively with key stakeholders from a rural community (Stanthorpe in South East Queensland) to develop, implement, and evaluate a model that enhances psychological wellness in rural people and communities.Read moreRead less
Coalitions for Community Health: A Community-based Response to Chronic Disease. This project will provide a methodology for assisting communities to address chronic disease more effectively. It will improve the services available to people with chronic disease by facilitating local planning and delivery processes through collaboration and partnership across all sectors. The methodology will enable communities to access complex statistical and spatial data to use in their planning and decision ma ....Coalitions for Community Health: A Community-based Response to Chronic Disease. This project will provide a methodology for assisting communities to address chronic disease more effectively. It will improve the services available to people with chronic disease by facilitating local planning and delivery processes through collaboration and partnership across all sectors. The methodology will enable communities to access complex statistical and spatial data to use in their planning and decision making about chronic disease and will, therefore, improve service systems.Read moreRead less
The impact of park renewal on park usage and park-based physical activity. The study will examine whether the refurbishment of a park located in a low socio-economic area of Melbourne has an impact on park usage and park-based physical activity. The findings will help inform the design of future parks to optimise park usage and physical activity performed within the park.