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The Institute's Conference 2000 Committee has selected more than one hundred papers for this year's program. With presenters drawn from academia, the social services and government, the Conference 2000 program aims to address current family policy issues from a range of perspectives. Wherever possible, sessions have been structured to include papers from service providers, as well as from academics and policy makers. Delegates will be able to choose from sessions, workshops and symposia on a wide range of topics addressing the three conference themes. Children and Parenting. Sessions in this stream include the latest research on: the role of fathers in families; child abuse and protection; meeting the parenting needs of children in care . . . and more! Family and Marriage. This stream offers research and debate on topics including: co-parenting after divorce; strategies for supporting marriage and family life; current directions in family law; responses to family violence . . . and more! Family and Society. In this stream, delegates will be challenged by policy development and research in areas including: mutual obligation and the welfare state; family support services; perceptions of family; social capital and civil society; workplace flexibility and family . . . and more! Conference 2000 will feature three world class keynote speakers. Lawrence Mead is Professor of Politics at New York University where he teaches public policy and American politics. He is an internationally known writer on American politics and policy making; social policy, especially anti-poverty programs and the politics surrounding them; welfare and welfare reform; work requirements in welfare and the implementation of welfare employment programs; implementation research and public policy analysis; public policy as a field in political science. His books include Beyond Entitlement (1986), The New Politics of Poverty (1992), and The New Paternalism: Supervisory Approaches to Poverty (1997). Professor Mead was a contributor to the Welfare Reform edition of Family Matters (Spring/Summer 1999) and has a chapter in the Institute's Reforming the Australian Welfare State, which will be launched at the Conference. Carol Smart has been Professor of Sociology at the University of Leeds, UK, since 1992 and is founding Director of the University's Centre for Research on Family, Kinship & Childhood. She is Deputy Director of the ESRC research group on Care, Values and the Future of Welfare (CAVA) at Leeds. In addition she currently holds a number of grants for research into aspects of family life and childhood, and has recently completed two projects on children's experiences of post-divorce family life. Her main interests span issues of gender, intimacy and family life, childhood and socio-legal
studies. Her recent books include: Family Fragments? (1999) Polity, (with B. Neale);
The 'New' Family? (1999) Sage, (edited with E. Silva). Future publications will include Changing Childhoods/Changing Families with B. Neale and A. Wade,
(Polity) and Childhood Contested (Routledge). Gillian Calvert is New South Wales’ first Commissioner for Children and Young People. The Commission is a new organisation set up to listen to children and young people and to promote their interests. The Commission works with children and young people and their families, schools, neighbourhoods, government bodies and community-based organizations to help make NSW a better place for children and young people. Gillian has held a number of positions focusing on children and young people. She has been the Senior Policy Adviser to the Minister for Community Services, a lecturer in Social Work, a social policy and management consultant, a therapist working with troubled children, young people and their families and Coordinator of a Women's Refuge. Gillian has been a community member on the National Child Protection Council and Executive Officer of the NSW Child Protection Council. Gillian was formerly Director of the Office of Children and Young People (OCYP) in the NSW Cabinet Office. She has published in the field of child protection including Preventing Child Abuse A National Strategy, National Child Protection Council, 1993 and The Practice of Child Protection: Current Australian Approaches, Sydney: Hale & Iremonger, 1992. She has also assisted with publishing young peoples activities books: 'It's OK to say No', Ayers and James Publishing Company.
Conference themes
Keynote speakers
Australian Institute of
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