The Australian Research Network on Young people transitioning from out-of-home care (ARNT) held its first online network meeting in 2022. The network was established by three academics: Philip Mendes from Monash University, Tim Moore from the Australian Catholic University, and Melissa O’Donnell from the University of South Australia. The objective is to bring together researchers from all eight Australian jurisdictions.

ARNT is informally organized, and membership is open to all researchers who are undertaking research on transitions from OOHC.

The network has online meetings about every 10 weeks. Approximately 15-20 researchers have attended most meetings. In these meetings, we exchange information about our current research outputs, consultations, and plans. There is a strong emphasis on advancing collaboration and sharing of ideas between members, and particularly enabling the contribution of those with lived experience of OOHC.

An ongoing activity is mapping leaving care research, legislative and policy initiatives in each jurisdiction. In September 2023, a group of network members presented a paper at the EUSARF Conference held in Brighton, England.

Members

We now have approximately 30 leaving care researchers across Australia on our email list, ranging from senior academics to early career researchers, Doctoral students and minor thesis students. An ongoing activity is mapping leaving care research, legislative and policy initiatives in each jurisdiction. And the regular meetings provide an opportunity to provide updates on recent conferences attended, funding grants attained, and scholarly publications.

Recent Activities:

• Meetings
  • The INTRAC Australia group meet online about every two months, totalling approximately six meetings per year. At most meetings, one or two researchers present their latest research projects and findings. Recent presentations have included established academics such as Jacinta Waugh, Joel McGregor, Jemma Venables and Fadzai Chikwava, and current or recently completed Doctoral students such as Fadzai Chikwava, Rangga Radityaputra, Yujie Zhao, Kassandra Chan, Chloe Fretwell, Sally-Ann Keipert and Hayley Wainwright.

• Workshops
  • INTRAC Australian were successful in securing an Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia Workshop Grant to hold a two day national research workshop in Melbourne in late August 2026: https://socialsciences.org.au/news/2026-workshop-program-grant-recipients-announced/
  • A wide range of Australian researchers, policy advocates, support workers, carers, and adults with lived experience of out-of-home care presented and/or participated in this Workshop which was also attended by a number of visiting guests from the UK and Canada: https://www.monash.edu/medicine/news/events/2026/national-leaving-care-research-workshop/_recache. We plan to publish a special issue of the Children Australia academic journal based on papers presented at this Workshop.

Past Activities

• In September 2023, a group of network members presented a paper at the EUSARF Conference held in Brighton, England.
• During 2024, we completed a guest editing of a special issue of the high impact Australian Journal of Social Issues on ‘Young people transitioning from out-of-home care in Australia’.

Further information about our network can be attained by contacting Professor Philip Mendes on philip.mendes@monash.edu