The Kids in Communities Study: national investigation of community level effects on children's developmental outcomes. This project (a cross-disciplinary collaboration) will investigate community level factors influencing early childhood developmental outcomes using a mixed methods approach in up to 10 communities across Australia. This will result in a potential set of measures or indicators that reflect communities that are good for children.
Meals on Wheels: building towards a new social experiment for our times. This project contributes directly to the National Research Priority, promoting and maintaining good health: ageing well, ageing productively, through developing evidence-based knowledge on which to build future volunteer business models. With the rapid ageing of the Australian population, it is imperative that volunteer-based organisations, such as Meals on Wheels, innovate to continue to deliver essential community service ....Meals on Wheels: building towards a new social experiment for our times. This project contributes directly to the National Research Priority, promoting and maintaining good health: ageing well, ageing productively, through developing evidence-based knowledge on which to build future volunteer business models. With the rapid ageing of the Australian population, it is imperative that volunteer-based organisations, such as Meals on Wheels, innovate to continue to deliver essential community services in a sustainable and cost-effective way. Meals on Wheels is integral within community care for frail, older people and those with disabilities, keeping people in their own homes and out of institutional care. Using national and international examples, the research has the potential to be adopted by the broad community services sector in Australia.Read moreRead less
Using 3D printing to improve access to graphics by vision-impaired people. This project aims to investigate the possible benefits of 3D printing for production of accessible materials for vision-impaired people. Currently tactile graphics are used to provide severely vision-impaired adults and children with access to graphical content used in education and in orientation and mobility training. This project is expected to clarify the kinds of graphics for which 3D prints are better suited than ta ....Using 3D printing to improve access to graphics by vision-impaired people. This project aims to investigate the possible benefits of 3D printing for production of accessible materials for vision-impaired people. Currently tactile graphics are used to provide severely vision-impaired adults and children with access to graphical content used in education and in orientation and mobility training. This project is expected to clarify the kinds of graphics for which 3D prints are better suited than tactile graphics, and to build capacity within the national accessible format provision sector for the production and use of 3D prints. Benefits will include increased educational opportunities and quality of life for Australians with severe vision impairment, through improved access to graphic materials used in education and orientation and mobility training.
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What Cost-effective Built Environment Interventions Would Create Healthy, Liveable And Equitable Communities In Australia, And What Would Facilitate These Being Translated Into Policy And Practice?
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,658,832.00
Summary
This CRE involves collaboration between a multi-disciplinary research team across Australia working with policy-makers covering planning, urban design, transport planning and health. It will identify the most cost-effective built environment interventions required to create healthy, liveable, and equitable communities. Factors that influence research findings being translated into urban planning policy and practice will be examined and tools to assist changes to policy and practice developed.
Optimising intersectoral collaboration between the health and education sectors. The Australian Government has a clear commitment to improving the health of all Australians. In the face of rising rates of chronic illness and attendant unsustainable high medical costs, optimising outcomes for public health initiatives, such as school based immunisation programs, is of the utmost importance. The recent H1N1 (Swine Flu) epidemic school closures highlight the need for a more effective, efficient and ....Optimising intersectoral collaboration between the health and education sectors. The Australian Government has a clear commitment to improving the health of all Australians. In the face of rising rates of chronic illness and attendant unsustainable high medical costs, optimising outcomes for public health initiatives, such as school based immunisation programs, is of the utmost importance. The recent H1N1 (Swine Flu) epidemic school closures highlight the need for a more effective, efficient and flexible intersection between education and health. This project offers the opportunity for the public health and education sectors to work closely together to identify how they can best configure future collaborations to maximise outcomes for all Australians.Read moreRead less
Creating and sustaining a strong future for volunteering in Australia. This project seeks to answer the question of how to increase social participation by converting non-volunteers to the benefits of volunteering. In Australia today, communities and governments are increasingly dependent on volunteers to build social capital and deliver an increasing range of services. A world first, this project aims to create new theory by examining three levels of analysis: the micro level of the individual ....Creating and sustaining a strong future for volunteering in Australia. This project seeks to answer the question of how to increase social participation by converting non-volunteers to the benefits of volunteering. In Australia today, communities and governments are increasingly dependent on volunteers to build social capital and deliver an increasing range of services. A world first, this project aims to create new theory by examining three levels of analysis: the micro level of the individual volunteer or non-volunteer; the mezzo level of the volunteer-involving organisation; and the macro level of society. This innovative approach aims to identify, analyse and develop a tool to help organisations build Australia’s civil society and develop policy to create a sustainable volunteer sector into the future.Read moreRead less
Killing which averts suffering: the role of norms and empathy. Abattoir workers and butchers kill animals to prepare food, farmers to cull stock, and veterinarians to alleviate suffering. Soldiers kill other humans in war, police or security guards to protect the public, and doctors to enact legal euthanasia. Research shows that these tasks can be confronting, and even traumatic. This project aims to test the processes through which people learn socially supported palliative killing to avert suf ....Killing which averts suffering: the role of norms and empathy. Abattoir workers and butchers kill animals to prepare food, farmers to cull stock, and veterinarians to alleviate suffering. Soldiers kill other humans in war, police or security guards to protect the public, and doctors to enact legal euthanasia. Research shows that these tasks can be confronting, and even traumatic. This project aims to test the processes through which people learn socially supported palliative killing to avert suffering and their neural underpinnings, with a focus on norms and empathic distress. It will focus on two core samples: veterinarians, who must euthanize animals, and health practitioners in Victoria, where legal changes will introduce ‘voluntary assisted dying’ in mid-2019. It will investigate how practitioners learn palliative killing, and what the impact is on psychological variables such as empathy and identity. It will generate new understandings of social influence around life and death decisions, provide an evidence basis to inform policy makers, and help institutions and practitioners seeking to manage distress and respond to fast-moving, controversial policy changes.Read moreRead less
Social disadvantage and economic recession: promoting inclusion and combating deprivation. The onset of recession in the wake of the global financial crisis has reawakened concern over inequality and exclusion. This project will feed directly into the government's new social inclusion agenda by providing a better understanding of the nature of social exclusion, its relation to location-specific and other dimensions of disadvantage, and the processes that trigger and sustain exclusion. A speciall ....Social disadvantage and economic recession: promoting inclusion and combating deprivation. The onset of recession in the wake of the global financial crisis has reawakened concern over inequality and exclusion. This project will feed directly into the government's new social inclusion agenda by providing a better understanding of the nature of social exclusion, its relation to location-specific and other dimensions of disadvantage, and the processes that trigger and sustain exclusion. A specially designed survey will be coordinated with other data collection activity to provide timely new information that will assist government and non-government agencies to promote social inclusion and tackle the root causes of disadvantage.Read moreRead less
Defining the Status of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Young People. This project aims to improve the social cohesion of Australian society and the living standards of a significant group of our young people. Around 25 per cent of all Australians aged 12 to 24 are from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. In collaboration with nine Australian organisations, the project aims to critically define the status of CALD youth; develop the first national status reporting frame ....Defining the Status of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Young People. This project aims to improve the social cohesion of Australian society and the living standards of a significant group of our young people. Around 25 per cent of all Australians aged 12 to 24 are from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. In collaboration with nine Australian organisations, the project aims to critically define the status of CALD youth; develop the first national status reporting framework for the group that will generate new social, economic and cultural indicators; and build a knowledge hub to store and curate CALD youth data. Data and understanding from this project is intended to enable governments to meet the group’s specific needs and enhance their opportunities.Read moreRead less
An exploration of the frequency, outcomes, enablers and constraints of bystander anti-racism. Bystander anti-racism involves ordinary people speaking up and taking prosocial action when witnessing racism. This project will develop empirical understandings of this underexplored, yet potentially powerful, form of anti-racism, including its frequency, the outcome of action, and factors that enable and constrain bystander anti-racism.