Children’s Participation in Australian Family Law – Research Project

The ‘Children’s Participation in Australian Family Law’ research project seeks to understand children and young people’s experiences of participating in the family law system (including the family courts, mediation and family dispute resolution). The project will work with children and young people to co-create a Children’s Participation Toolkit, which will help them better understand their right to express their views and be heard in family law decision-making processes. 

1. The project is recruiting children and young people:
   • between 10 and 21 years old; and
   • living in Victoria, New South Wales or Queensland; and
   • whose parents have separated and engaged with the family law system since 2019, and whose family law matter has been finalised; and
   • for whom there is no anticipated issue of safety or risk arising from participation in this project.
2. Participants will be invited to take part in two activities
   • A 90-minute interview about whether and how they participated in decisions made after their parents separated, and to share their ideas about how children and young people can be better supported to participate in family law processes.
   • A 90-minute workshop to ‘test’ a Children’s Participation Toolkit that the research team will create based on children and young people’s ideas from the interviews. We will show them our first draft of the Toolkit and ask for their feedback.

As an acknowledgement of their time and expertise, participants will receive a $125 e-gift card for the interview and a $125 e-gift card for the workshop.

If you know of any children and young people who might like to take part, you are welcome to share this link with them: https://forms.gle/A51QCSfMuuwsp9379.

Additional Resources

Download the Project Brief for Practitioners

Download a Flyer to share with the children and young people you work with