The ReSPECT Project: Reconceptualising services from the perspectives of experienced children and teens

Children and teens have a vital role to play in policy debate and service development and innovation. This project aims to create opportunities for young people to participate in the discussions that influence their engagement with services and address the issues that impact their lives.

The ReSPECT (Reconceptualising the Service system from the Perspectives of Experienced Children and Teens) Project is an Australian Research Council-funded project currently underway within New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the first projects in Australia to follow the development of youth-led service ideas from development through to implementation and evaluation, and is being conducted in partnership with Macquarie University, Uniting, University of Melbourne, Carers NSW and Winangay.

ReSPECT’s research contributes the perspectives of young people to the debate on service reform, and employs a participatory and co-design methodology, engaging young people in the re-envisioning of the service system, and in the development and trial of youth-led service initiatives. It also explores organisational barriers to including young people in policy debate and service decision-making. We have worked with children and young people over the past two years to understand how they would like services to engage with them, and support them to participate more meaningfully in reconceptualising services. We conducted workshops with a range of service professionals – frontline staff and management – to build their capacity for working with and alongside children and young people to improve services.

We are currently in the process of making these workshops available as training resources through TeEACH’s iLearn portal, and interested practitioners, policy makers and organisations should contact us in the meantime.

CI: A/Prof Rebekah Grace, D/Prof Lynn Kemp

FoR Codes: 160512, 160807, 111704

Year: 2019 - 20222