The The Kids Research Institute Australia is proud to be playing a key role in an Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence that will conduct world-leading research to investigate new ways of tackling entrenched social and economic disadvantage.
Launched this week, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course (the Life Course Centre) will receive $32 million in funding from the ARC over seven years.
Led by The University of Queensland and with nodes in New South Wales, Melbourne and Western Australia, the Centre is focused on generating evidence-based research to develop new knowledge, technology and practices to benefit people living in, or at risk of, disadvantage.
The Western Australian node, based at the The Kids Research Institute Australia in partnership with The University of Western Australia, has a particular focus on the impact of disadvantage on children.
Professor Donna Cross, Director of the WA node and co-Chief Investigator with Associate Professor Hayley Christian, said past Telethon Kids investigators had made a significant contribution to the first phase of the Life Course Centre (2014–2020), with the team helping to build the evidence base on addressing deep and persistent disadvantage over the life course.
This included identifying the important role of student engagement in driving improved school achievement by students from low socio-economic backgrounds, and investigating the experience of 4,000 families with pre-school-aged children to better understand the factors that help to determine school readiness.
“This has provided an excellent foundation for the continued, evolving research focus of the Centre over the seven years of its second ARC grant,” Professor Cross said.
“The new Life Course Centre will continue to address some really big questions, including how do we tackle poverty and disadvantage? How do we create opportunities for more people to fully participate economically, socially and civically, and choose lives that they value?
“Throughout this second phase, the Telethon Kids team will play an important role in developing solutions for vulnerable children and their families to ensure their journey across the life course is the best it can be.”
Some of the work to be undertaken by the Telethon Kids node over the next seven years will include studying social-emotional inequities in schools, investigating neighbourhood environments, and developing interventions to better support children and families in vulnerable communities.
“We are proud to be a part of this new Life Course Centre and excited about the opportunity to collaborate with experts from other disciplines,” Professor Cross said.
“Our team is committed to bringing the perspectives of communities and front-line service providers into research at the Centre, then working together to develop solutions for vulnerable children that change their life course trajectory.”
For more information on the The Kids Research Institute Australia’s role in the Life Course Centre, see here.