Improving the Wellbeing of Young Australians

The role of prevention science.

Posted: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 - 12:43

Location: Melbourne (67 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy in Father Tucker's Room)

Event Time: 12:00pm-1:00pm

Event Date: 25 March 2010

Organisation: Brotherhood of St Laurence

Link: http://www.bsl.org.au/About-the-Brotherhood/Whats-on.aspx

Contact Name: Kristine Philipp

Contact Phone: 03 9483 1364

Cost: free

The problems that children and young people face are complex and cross physical, emotional, social and educational domains, but with closely interrelated causal drivers concentrated amongst disadvantaged communities and groups.  Current strategies to address these problems focus on crisis-end treatment, which is costly, relatively ineffective and fails to reach the majority of those affected.


This seminar will describe a proposal to establish a Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Prevention Science for Children and Young People, which aims to deliver integrated, evidence-based preventive strategies to improve the health, development and wellbeing of Australia’s young people. It will engage in collaborative, cross-sectoral, multi-disciplinary research, driven by the needs of policy and practice end-users.  It will address all phases of prevention science – identifying the best leverage points for intervention, rigorous development of innovative prevention strategies, and applied research of how to take prevention strategies to scale, to those who need them most and in a sustainable way. Knowledge exchange and capacity-building will underlie all its work, ranging from PhD training through secondments to work-based training modules.