Published on Thursday 16 May, 2024

Our Executive Director of Child and Family Services, Lisa Giacomelli, has been elected Chair of the Children in Care Collective.

“What I liked about it is that it has a national role. As a national provider, it’s always really good to be able to walk alongside organisations and collectives that also have a national focus,” says Lisa, who first became involved with the Collective in 2021 though her previous position at Life without Barriers. Life Without Barriers established the Collective in 2016 and provided stewardship of the Collective until Lisa’s appointment.

The Children in Care Collective was formed to bring together Out-of-Home Care service providers and academics from around Australia to address systemic issues and advocate for meaningful change for children and young people.

Lisa reconnected with the Collective around six months ago and hopes to work alongside her peers to leverage their national platform.

“The Collective can walk into spaces that the sector is finding really frustrating but are not necessarily able to gather and move forward on,” remarks Lisa. “Something I’m really passionate about as the Chair is that a lot of the issues that we face are nationally driven – like inflation, cost of living, the accessibility of housing, family support and childcare – yet we chip away at it from a state-based perspective.”

Lisa is keen to advocate for equity of experience and access to care across the country’s child protection systems.

“Why should a child in Queensland have a different experience to a child in New South Wales, to a child in the Northern Territory or Western Australia?” Lisa asks, speaking on what she hopes to achieve in her tenure as Chair.

“That’s why having that national perspective and national voice, connected to the foremost academics on child protection and safety in the country, is a really valuable thing.”