Health Sciences

Background

La Trobe University has an extensive network of relationships with agencies in the Northern sub-region of Melbourne. School of Public Health faculty support Municipal Public Health Planning through participation in advisory committees, and research and development, with agencies in the region, and advice to a number of municipal councils, including the City of Whittlesea. A group of researchers interested in violence prevention (including a faculty from The University of Melbourne) has been active for some time. Members of the group have worked in community violence prevention in Toronto (Whitzman), family law in Victoria (Howse), family violence prevention in primary health care (Walker), and in violence related policy and service areas (Lin, Hayes). In the local area this involvement has included a wide range of activities such as chairing local mental health networks, supporting the "Family and Neighbourhood Links" project, and being members of the Council's Municipal Public health Plan Steering Committee.

The University of Melbourne is involved in research and action projects at both the local and international level on violence prevention, emphasizing the linkages between planning and public health. It brings experience in developing comprehensive violence prevention strategies, along with international examples of good practice at the local level. It is also working on development of community level violence indicators.

The City of Whittlesea began developing a draft Community Safety Strategy in 2003 with extensive service provider consultation. An active member of the Whittlesea Local Safety Committee (LSC), Council is leading a number of initiatives to address community safety in the municipality, including the development of a website in conjunction with the LSC to address perceptions of safety.

In the last decade there has been a major effort in the USA, and now internationally, to develop 'constructive, mutually-beneficial and enduring interactions … between communities and their academic residents' (Holland 2003:3). These Partnerships are now viewed as a 'powerful force for revitalizing communities, fostering civic engagement and strengthening the core missions of higher education' (Seifer 2003:2). Community-Campus Partnerships (CCP) typically focus on community-based participatory research aimed at solving specific problems that benefits the community (Seifer 2003:2, Israel et al 1998). Major academic institutions engaged with CCP include New York Urban Research Centre, Wellesley Central Health Corporation, Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Centre and Morehouse School of Medicine. In 2004 Rae Walker and Rick Hayes spent time in the USA investigating CCP initiatives and their applicability to Australian conditions. It is clear that much of the work supported by the Kellog Foundation and others, for example the work on community-engaged scholarship (CCPH 2005), can be readily adapted for Australia. The CCP model is a strong one.

The three partners in this proposal share the view that violence is an appropriate focus for a Community-Campus Partnership in Melbourne. Reviews of Community-Campus Partnerships in USA have identified 3 key challenges in their development (Metzler et al 2003) that will be important considerations for this proposal. They are:

Because the Community-Campus Partnership model has become so widespread overseas we believe that what is learned from the development of this Partnership could be readily adapted by other Victorian communities, and other universities, to address other complex issues.

The partners in this project bring research capacity and a deep knowledge of agencies working on family violence issues in the community. The Local Safety Committee (chaired by Victoria Police), the City of Whittlesea and the Family Violence Network have collaborated on the development of the Community Safety Plan (Draft). The two universities bring research capacity and a commitment to working closely with community agencies to undertake high quality research into the issues that will benefit community members. Furthermore, the proposal is based on an understanding of the structures and processes that have supported effective community-campus collaboration in other countries.

The activities undertaken by this partnership will utilise processes that facilitate the development of relationships between the participants. Appropriate relationships will facilitate high quality community oriented research and provide a foundation for research into local community issues.

Good indicators cannot be developed without community participation and consultation. In this project the consultation process will therefore include the Project Management Committee as well as local stakeholders such as community leaders, police, maternal and child health and other community nurses, EHOs, social workers, local politicians.

The outcome of this project will be a set of indicators that can be used by agencies to monitor violence in the community of Whittlesea.

The partners will jointly define the research question(s), explore the potential methods for undertaking the research and the outcomes for the community that may be achieved. The academic staff will prepare the proposal and seek input from the agencies at relevant points in the development.

Research Outputs to date:

Conference Presentations

Publications

Unpublished Reports

 

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