The Practice Project

Samia Michail is a Lecturer, Social Work in the School of Social Sciences at Western Sydney University. She is interested in children’s wellbeing and their participatory rights to determine that wellbeing. She uses participatory research methodologies to highlight children and young people's lived experience and their human rights to make decisions about their own life trajectories, especially in the context of child protection and safeguarding.  Samia’s current research is in the application of complexity theory to care and protection systems focussed on exploring the intersections of child voice, children's rights, and service provision in safeguarding children and young people.

Samia has over 25 years of experience in human service agencies in direct service provision, management in the non-government sector, senior roles in government and academia across a range of universities.

• Michail, S., Baird, K., Fattore, T., & Grace, R. (2023). Operationalising children's participation: Competing understandings of the policy to practice ‘gap’. Children & Society, 37(5), 1576-1595. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12708

Professor Gabrielle Drake is Deputy Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Professor of Social Work at Western Sydney University. Professor Drake is a recognised expert in the areas of social policy, mental health and disability, child well-being and homelessness. Gabrielle’s research interests include social work practice in child well-being; mental health; disability; boarding houses; housing and homelessness pathways; consumer and carer voices in social work education; and inclusive and emancipatory research.

Gabrielle has 25 years practice experience spanning a variety of roles and practice settings including community and public sector management, strategic policy and reform, research, teaching in graduate and postgraduate social work programs, direct practice, and oversight.

• Drake, G., Falloon, J., Fattore, T., Felton, R., Mason, J. and Mogensen, L. (2022), 'Children's standpoint on vulnerability: implications for social work practice with children and young people', Handbook of Children's Risk, Vulnerability and Quality of Life: Global Perspectives, Springer 9783031017827.

Angelica Ojinnaka-Psillakis (she/her) is a youth affairs leader, speaker, and researcher. Driven by social change, her research interests include access and participation, social inequalities, community mental health, determinants of health, violence against children, marginalisation and intersectionality, civic and political participation, participatory and emancipatory research, and international affairs. Most recently, her youth advocacy includes serving as the 2022 Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations and the current Oceania Representative on the World Federation of United Nations Associations Youth Advisory Council 2023-2026.

She is a Founding Member of the African Australian Youth Suicide Prevention Group, a Youth Advocate with the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, a former Youth Activist for Plan International Australia, and a current Board Director for youth-led charity Yung Prodigy focusing on young people and parental incarceration. In 2021, she received the NSW Premier’s Youth Medal for her youth well-being and participation advocacy and was named one of the United Nations’ 23 Young People Leading Resilient Recovery in the Decade of Action.

• Ojinnaka, A., Stronach, L., Andonov, I, & Kettyle, E. (2023). Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations Report: Youth Voices from 2021 and 2022. UN Youth Australia.