| Professor Sara Dolnicar, Dr Joseph Ciarrochi and Dr Melanie Randle fr... Professor Sara Dolnicar, Dr Joseph Ciarrochi and Dr Melanie Randle from UOW with Andrew Munro, CEO of CareSouth |
UOW foster care partnership attracts $480,000 grant
4 Jul 2008 | Kate McIlwain
A partnership between UOW and not-for-profit foster care provider CareSouth, will address the growing problems facing the Australian foster care system in a new research project.
The project attracted $480,000 from the Australian Research Council Linkage Project scheme to implement the five-year study in the Illawarra and surrounding regions.
The project team includes Dr Melanie Randle, Professor Sara Dolnicar and Professor John Rossiter from the School of Management and Marketing, Dr Joseph Ciarrochi from the School of Psychology, CareSouth CEO Mr Andrew Munro and CareSouth Senior Clinical Psychologist Ms Dee Neveling.
CareSouth has been operating in the Illawarra, Southern Highlands, Shoalhaven and South Coast since 1994 to provide accommodation and support services for children, young people, adults with disabilities and their families.
The UOW team, which has worked with other non-profit and volunteering organisations in the past, saw an opportunity to use their research experience to address the problem being experienced by CareSouth: how to identify and attract more successful foster parents.
“CareSouth is a not-for-profit organisation so it has limited resources to devote to marketing and research activities.” Dr Randle said.
Prior research shows that foster children tend to have high levels of aggression and associated behavioural problems, few pro-social tendencies, and poor peer relationships.
They also face many risk factors that contribute to antisocial behaviour, including abuse, neglect and environmental instability.
“Developing tools to identify and retain local carers who can provide supportive homes for foster children will reduce the problems they face later in life, ultimately strengthening the social fabric of the Illawarra, Southern Highlands, Shoalhaven and South Coast regions.” Dr Randle said.
“This is a particularly challenging task because foster care is possibly the most involved form of volunteering. People can’t just volunteer for an hour or a day because caring for a foster child is a full time job.” Professor Dolnicar said.
“The project is particularly important for the Illawarra region because the majority of participants in this study will be foster parents living in these areas, so the issues identified will be specific to local pressures and concerns.” Dr Randle said.
|
