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We have forged strong partnerships with people who share our commitment to improving the safety and wellbeing of children and young people. Our staff and our affiliate members are passionate about wanting to make a real difference in shaping the future of Australia's children.
Our affiliate members work in education, health sciences, social welfare, youth work, public policy or law or any other discipline where children are central, to become affiliates. Together we explore interdisciplinary research projects that benefit children in the following categories:
If your research, teaching or engagement interests align with ours, there is great potential to work together on developing child- and family-informed policy and practice through evaluations, training, consultation and knowledge translation.
To express your interest in becoming an affiliate, contact us for more information: icps@acu.edu.au
Laurien Beane is a lecturer in the School of Education (Faculty of Education and Arts) at Australian Catholic University. She is a course co-ordinator, and her work includes review, evaluation and implementation of degree programs and early childhood resources. Her areas of research include leadership, advocacy and professional practice in early childhood long day care and family day care settings. Qualitative research design, data collection, and analysis methodologies underpin this research.
We welcome her contribution to our work in approaches to child maltreatment and informing service provision.
Dr Jen Couch is Senior Lecturer Youth Work in the Faculty of Education and Arts at Australian Catholic University. Jen conducted the first longitudinal study into refugee youth homeless In Australia and has used a range of empirical research methods to research homelessness, youth work practice, the lives of working children in India and the experiences of young refugee people during Covid 19.
She is an experienced youth and community development worker who has worked extensively with refugee young people in Australia and South Asia. Jen is helping us with a project exploring young people's views on disability, and is developing a project on unaccompanied humanitarian minors.
Her experience and research about children and families will bring valuable insights into our work in safeguarding children in institutions, informing service provision and child-centred and child-informed research.
Dr Ben Durant is a lecturer in youth work within the Faculty of Education and Arts. His research focuses on the lived experiences of young people, particularly those from marginalised backgrounds and those with connections to the out-of-home care system. He uses qualitative methodologies including ethnography, narrative inquiry, focus groups, and surveys to explore trauma, identity, and service engagement within youth work and community practice.
Over the next 12 months, he aims to develop research that examines the intersections of youth work, marginalisation and trauma. He will focus on translating research insights into practical resources, training tools, and policy recommendations that support improved service delivery.
Ben hopes that his work will inform service provision and contribute to better outcomes for marginalised children and young people.
Dr Susan Edwards specialises in many facets of early childhood education and care, including play and play-based learning, curriculum and pedagogy, playgroups educational technologies, philosophy of technology, digital play cyber-safety and online safety education, and AI in this sphere.
Her focuses on creating accessible end user resources for educators and families to promote online safety opportunities for young children. A recent achievement is the launch of the website Young Children in Digital Society to support educators and services to help young children and their families use digital technologies.
We are excited about exploring opportunities to work with Susan on research about children and families that will support educators and services.
Dr Chloe Gordon is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Positive Psychology and Education in the Faculty of Education and Arts at Australian Catholic University.
Chloe is an interdisciplinary researcher specialising in media literacy, digital flourishing, and school-based research. Her strengths are in developing, implementing and evaluating theoretically driven interventions using mixed methods and leading systematic reviews. Chloe enjoys working collaboratively with industry partners to co-design research that has real world impact.
Chloe is currently leading a situational analysis of the consent and respectful relationships education landscape. The project is commissioned by Catholic Schools NSW and conducted in partnership with Professor Daryl Higgins.
Chloe's work closely aligns with our research priorities by focusing on improving the wellbeing of children and young and amplifying the voices of young people.
Associate Professor Wendy Goff is the Deputy Head (Melb) for School Education within the Faculty of Education and Arts at Australian Catholic University.
Wendy's research explores the dynamics of adult relationships and partnerships, including their influence and impact on children's learning, health, wellbeing, and overall development. She uses four different vehicles to study these relationships and partnerships: mathematics education, technology, early childhood education, and health and wellbeing.
Her current work focuses on advancing and creating knowledge to improve the safety and wellbeing of children, young people, families and communities with projects that include an Oxford Bibliography article on early childhood education and care, a partnership with Maningrida (preschool-year 12 school in Arnhem Land) that aims to provide a pipeline of teachers into the school, and a survey with grandparents as kinship carers that investigates the challenges they experience caring for children in out-of-home care.
We look forward to exploring ways to explore further opportunities to conduct research about children and families and research that is child-centred and child-informed.
Dr Janine Luttick works within the Faculty of Theology and Philosophy. Her research focuses on depictions of children and families in the biblical tradition and early Christianity, the early Roman empire, and Second Temple Judaism. She works in the areas of historical investigation, child-attentive approaches to biblical interpretation, post-modern biblical hermeneutics and trauma studies and the Bible.
Janine is currently developing a project, The Embodied Child in Christianity, which examines how notions of the embodied child in Christianity contribute to the Church’s understanding of itself and of children today. The project also examines the Church’s conceptualisations of ecclesiology, education and missiology.
One of the aims of the project is to provide Church organisations with theological reflection tools that promote the voice and agency of children and young people. In that respect Janine’s research is truly in synch with our own research themes of safeguarding children in institutions, informing service provision, supporting child protection systems, services and practice, and conducting research that is child-centred and child-informed.
Associate Professor Benjamin Mountford is Director, Centre for Regional Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, in the National School of Arts and Humanities within in the Faculty of Education and Arts at Australian Catholic University. He is also Associate Professor of History.
Based in Ballarat, Victoria, the Centre is committed to standing with the survivors of abuse and to encouraging historical research that helps us to better understand the history of childhood and families in regional Australia. In partnership with us, Ben seeks to contribute to the ongoing public dialogue on historical justice and the legacies of historic child abuse in Ballarat.
He also supports the establishment of an Industry PhD candidate working with our partners at Child and Family Services in Ballarat, focusing on the history of institutional care.
Ben is committed to supporting our research priorities, especially research about children and families.
Dr Stefani Vasil is a Lecturer in Criminology and Criminal Justice within the Thomas More Law School, Faculty of Law and Business at Australian Catholic University.
Her research focuses on the diverse manifestations of domestic and family violence. Her primary research centres on the intersections between migration and domestic and family violence and she has significant experience undertaking in-depth qualitative and community-based research that draws on lived experience. Stephani research investigates gendered violence, border criminology, critical migration studies, gender, precarity and non-citizenship, qualitative and community-based research.
We look forward to conducting research about children and families and exploring ways to inform service provision and improve child protection systems, services and practice that is child-centred and child-informed.
Associate Professor Megan Willis is Course Coordinator for Psychology Honours for the School of Behavioural and Health Sciences (NSW) in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Australian Catholic University.
Her research focuses on intimate partner violence, examining its prevalence, associated risk factors, and health outcomes. She is particularly interested in understanding how child maltreatment contributes to increased risks for intimate partner violence perpetration and victimisation.
Megan is planning to examine the association between intimate partner violence and mental health outcomes and health risk behaviours, and how these associations relate to experiences of child maltreatment. She also hopes to develop a new measure of psychological abuse in intimate partner violence.
This research will contribute to our understanding of the complex factors that affect the safety and wellbeing of children, young people and their families. It aligns with our own research about children and families and approaches to child maltreatment with an overall aim to minimise the negative impacts on child safety and wellbeing.
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