Our Centre recently celebrated a milestone we are incredibly proud of – 25 years of working collaboratively to improve the lives of children and families.
We took this milestone as an opportunity to reflect on our foundations and learnings over the last 25 years, and to ground our Centre’s vision moving forward.
Our anniversary report and video illustrate the Centre’s diverse impacts and pay homage to the incredible achievements of Founding Director Professor Frank Oberklaid and Deputy Director Associate Professor Jill Sewell.
On Thursday 31 October 2019 we celebrated with an event held at The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne. The night was filled with exciting and inspiring speeches, including presentations from Jane Miller, Acting CEO of The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne, Professor Kathryn North, Director of Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and Ms Megan Mitchell, Australia’s first National Children’s Commissioner. We also had the opportunity to hear about the impact some of our projects have had on children and families from a panel of our community and project partners.
Looking back and forging forward
The Centre for Community Child Health Director, Professor Sharon Goldfeld describes some of the early challenges faced by our visionary Founding Director and Deputy Director in our 25th-anniversary publication.
“It took vision and a leap of faith to establish the Centre for Community Child Health as a department within The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne in the early 1990s. This was a time when the primary focus of hospitals was on the children who attended them, and the concept of a hospital being responsible for children’s health in their homes and their communities was a radical one.”
The Centre has grown ito become an established leader in child health, development and wellbeing research, policy, systems and practice – with children and families, and our Centre’s staff and partners remaining at the heart.
Professor Sharon Goldfeld is committed to continuing the legacy of our founding Directors and forging ahead towards our vision of creating equitable health and developmental outcomes for all children.
“This year we celebrate the collective impact of our successful partnerships across so many settings and we look forward optimistically, as we develop new innovations that move us closer to a future where all children thrive.”
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