CCYP Events

Family Law 4 Kids

The Centre for Children and Young People is proud to invite you to the official launch of ‘Family Law 4 Kids’ – an online toolkit to help children and young people understand and exercise their right to participate in family law processes when their parents separate.

Led by Associate Professor Georgina Dimopoulos the Family Law 4 Kids has been co-designed with 41 children and young people aged 10 to 19 from across Queensland, NSW and Victoria, whose parents separated and accessed the family law system. The launch will showcase their meaningful, diverse contributions to designing and developing the Toolkit – a practice output created by, and for, children and young people. Hear directly from children and young people involved in the project, and Australia’s National Children’s Commissioner, Anne Hollonds.

Event Details

Date: Thursday 23rd October, 2025
Time: 4.30pm (QLD Time) 5.30pm (NSW Time)
Venue: Gold Coast Campus or online

Strengthening Relationships and Connections for Young People in Therapeutic Residential Care

Webinar held on Wednesday 27th August 2025.

Presented by Professor Lynne McPherson and colleagues.

This webinar shared findings from the ‘Strengthening Relationships and Connections for Young People in Therapeutic Residential Care’ research project, funded by the Australian Research Council and the Australian Childhood Foundation, with partners at Australian Catholic University, Charles Sturt University, and Trinity College Dublin.

Conducted in collaboration with young people aged 12–18, the research highlights the vital importance of strong family bonds and active community engagement. Special guest PhD candidate Kelly Hand presented her nested doctoral research, which explored how young people in OOHC participate in decisions about family engagement.

Racial Dignity Framework

Presented by Associate Professor Kathomi Gatwiri.

This seminar was held on Thursday 24th July 2025.

This inspiring and insightful session introduced an evidence-based resource designed to support organisations and practitioners working with diverse communities across various settings. The Racial Dignity Framework addresses the underlying factors that facilitate or hinder belonging and dignity for marginalised populations. It empowers organisations and practitioners to develop solutions and interventions that respond to experiences of disadvantage and minoritisation in a dignifying and inclusive way.

Access the research reports and resources here: https://www.racialdignity.com/

This webinar delivered meaningful insights and practical tools to enhance engagement with diverse communities. 

Translating research for policy and practice impact

Translating research for policy and practice impact

Presented by Dr Georgina Dimopoulos

This event was held on 28th October 2024.

Research knowledge is key to solving problems, improving services and supporting evidence-informed decisions. This seminar will explore translating research to action in policy and practice, through insights from the judiciary, government policy and academia.

Judge Alexandra Harland (Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia – Division 2), Rebecca Mills (Acting Assistant Secretary, Family Law Branch, Attorney-General’s Department) and Dr Georgina Dimopoulos (Southern Cross University) discuss the interactions between research processes, policy development and practice, and how research can be synthesised, disseminated and implemented for innovation, meaningful impact and change.

The conversation was moderated by Dean of Law, Professor David Heilpern (Southern Cross University).

Researching with children and young people on sensitive topics: Voices from therapeutic residential care.

Hosted by Prof Lynne McPherson & Dr Antonia Canosa

This seminar was held on 22nd August 2024.

In this presentation, we discussed learnings from recent research with children and young people living in therapeutic residential care in NSW. We explored how best to involve children who are often ‘gate-kept’ out of research because they are considered ‘too vulnerable’ to participate due to their lived experiences of trauma, abuse and neglect.

While the research focused on exploring relational practices of care that support young people’s development of positive relationships and social connections, in this presentation we focus on how the research team had to embody the principles of relational practice to establish rapport, trust and mutual respect and encourage our young participants to share their lived experiences and discuss sensitive topics to better inform policy and practice in the sector.

Decolonial Research: Creating and maintaining relationships with communities

Presented by Associate Professor Kathomi Gatwiri and Dr Kylie Day.

This seminar was held on 25th July 2024. 

The seminar focused on a form of ‘doing’ anti-racist research that focuses on building and maintaining ethical and safe relationships with racially marginalised communities.

In particular, it delved into the principles and practices of decolonial research that challenge colonial frameworks in knowledge production through centralising community voices.

It was designed for both experienced and emerging researchers and offered valuable insights for conducting research that builds on existing community knowledge and perspectives. This involves thinking about power, time, knowledge circulation and processes of building trust.