Southern Cross projects across two Faculties set to advance bold ideas, improve lives and foster collaboration

When grandparents are forced to fill the gap and parent the grandkids

Across Australia, more children are now living in kinship care (also known as relative care) than in any other form of out-of-home care. This shift marks one of the most significant transformations in child welfare over recent decades. Yet despite its growing prevalence, kinship care remains under-researched and under-supported.

“This is an unprecedented opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of children and young people living in kinship care, most often with their grandparents,” said Professor Lynne McPherson.

“Many of these children have endured significant adversity in their early years. This research will help us understand how to create the conditions for healing, stability, and lifelong connection. Ultimately, this work is about more than care, it is about belonging, continuity, and hope for the next generation of children raised within family networks of love and resilience.”

The project will co-design tangible, practice-ready solutions drawn directly from the voices and experiences of children, young people, and their carers. By elevating lived experience as a source of wisdom, the project aims to inform national policy, reshape practice frameworks, and strengthen the systems that hold kinship families together.

International partner Emeritus Professor Robbie Gilligan, from Trinity College Dublin, will ensure that the project maintains high global relevance.

Reimagining Belonging and Support for Children in Kinship Care, $579,700 over 3-years (matched in cash and kind by community agencies)

Chief Investigator: Professor Lynne McPherson.

The project is set to start in January 2026.

Partners: Australian Childhood Foundation; Anglicare Victoria; Coffs Harbour Aboriginal Family Community Care Aboriginal Corporation; CASPA Services Ltd; OzChild.

‘Don’t tell me to be resilient; show me how’: listening to children and young people in climate-induced disasters

The ‘Floods + Me’ study, supported by the Southern Cross University Vice-Chancellor’s Flood Recovery Scheme, was the pilot for this ARC Linkage project. The ‘Disaster Ready Schools’ national project aims to deepen understandings of how climate-induced disasters impact Australia’s education system. The project will co-design an Australia’s first Disaster Ready Education Framework and supportive resources to ensure schools can offer a range of learning options in times of adversity.

Aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - particularly Goal 4 (Quality Education) and Goal 13 (Climate Action) - this world-first research adopts an original and comprehensive approach to investigate the historical, current, and emerging impacts of intensifying climate-induced disasters on the national education sector. There will be a particular focus on Queensland and Victoria, the most disaster-exposed states in Australia.

“When the Southern Cross team wrote and submitted this Linkage grant application in March 2025, the chief investigators experienced the severe impacts of Cyclone Alfred, including displacement, no power, no wi-fi and school cancellations; they were living the direct impacts of a climate-induced disaster,” said Professor Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles.

“This project is critically important to all Australian schools and will deliver the nation’s first Disaster Ready Education Framework.”

Disaster Ready Schools: strengthening Australia’s education sector, $202,983 over 3-years (matched in cash and kind by government and community agencies)

Chief Investigator: Professor Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles.

The project is set to start in January 2026.

Partners: Education Queensland; UNICEF Australia; Australian Association for Environmental Education; Maribyrnong City Council.