Improving contact between children in out-of-home care and their birth parents

• 
  Project Leader
  Professor Cathy Humphreys

  cathy.humphreys@unimelb.edu.au

  View researcher's webpage

  + 61 3 834 49427

Project Details

kContact is a three-year study to develop and trial a new model of managing and supporting contact between children in care and their parents. The aim is to reduce current and future distress related to contact, improve children's relationships with their birth parents and increase successful reunifications in the long term.

The project has been funded by the Australian Research Council, with significant partner contributions.

Conducted in the ACT and Victoria, the project is a joint initiative between University of Melbourne, the Institute of Child Protection Studies (ICPS) at the Australian Catholic University, and a number of government and community partners (see list below).

The official project website can be found athttp://www.acu.edu.au/icps-kcontact

Researchers

• Prof Cathy Humphreys
  Alfred Felton Chair of Child and Family Social Work
  Department of Social Work, University of Melbourne
• Dr Margaret Kertesz
  Senior Research Fellow, Department of Social Work
  School of Health Sciences, University of Melbourne
• Prof Morag McArthur
  Director, Institute of Child Protection Studies
  Australian Catholic University
• Assoc Prof Stephanie Taplin
  Associate Director, Institute of Child Protection Studies
  Australian Catholic University
• Dr Tracey Bullen
  Project Manager, kContact
  Institute of Child Protection Studies, Australian Catholic University
• Larissa Rossen
  Intervention Coordinator
  Institute of Child Protection Studies, Australian Catholic University
• Rhys Thorpe,
  PhD Candidate
  Research Scholar, Institute of Child Protection Studies

Collaborators

This research project is being jointly conducted by the University of Melbourne, and the Institute of Child Protection Studies at the Australian Catholic University in Canberra, in collaboration with the following government and non-government organisations.

Victoria

Non-government organisations

The Centre for Excellence in Child & Family Welfare provides the umbrella for 7 Victorian community sector organisations including:

• Baptcare
• Berry Street
• CAFS Ballarat
• Mackillop Family Services
• OzChild
• Salvation Army Westcare
• Wesley Mission Victoria

ACT

Government organisations

• ACT Community Services Directorate

Non-government organisations

• Marymead Child and Family Centre
• Barnardos

Funding

ARC Linkage