Queensland University of Technology, Flinders University and five Anglicare organisations across Australia are partnering in Young Women’s Voices, a three-year Australian Research Council-funded project focusing on improved service delivery for girls.
Young women’s contact with the justice system in Australia and internationally has shown significant increases in recent years, but the system is largely designed for young male offenders.
The project aims to discover how the youth justice system, and human services such as child protection, mental health and education that have touch points with justice, could be improved to generate better outcomes for those who identify as young women.
The Young Women’s Voices project emerged from the 2017 Anglicare Youth Voices project, which sought the views of young people about effective supports in their lives.
Visit Youth Voices
“Young Women’s Voices will privilege the views and experiences of young women who are part of these systems,” said Chief Investigator, Professor Kelly Richards from QUT.
“Young women will be part of the project every step of the way, from inclusion on the steering group through to contributing to the data analysis. Their voices will help to identify strengths and weaknesses in the justice and human services systems as they experience them.
“The project uses an innovative methodology and supporting software tool called ‘Sensemaker’®, which was designed to gain new insights into complex social policy problems.”
The research team
Kelly Richards
Professor
Queensland University of Technology
Ian Goodwin-Smith
Professor
Flinders University
Vanessa Ryan
Project Coordinator
Queensland University of Technology
Rachel Stringfellow
PhD(c)
Queensland University of Technology
University partners
Community partners
