Schools as Community Hubs International Conference: Registrations now open. Keep safe, keep connected! No images? Click here Building Connections: Schools as Community Hubs is a three-year Australian Research Council Linkage Project investigating how best to plan, design, govern and manage schools to operate successfully as ‘more than a school’, encouraging the development of resilient and connected communities. Our newsletter will keep you updated on our research insights, activities and upcoming events. In this issue:
Welcome to Building Connections Newsletter #3Having just celebrated 12 months since commencing the Building Connections ARC project, we're pleased to launch the Schools as Community Hubs International Conference: to be held on December 3-4 as a online symposium. This event will feature academic papers (presentations) from around Australia and North America and a full written proceedings will be compiled. Registrations to attend are now open. Please click the banner above for more information. We hope you can join us for this unique conference! We are also thrilled to announce Hayley Paproth and Rob Polglase have joined the Building Connections project as PhD candidates. Both come with a wealth of highly relevant experience. We welcome them to the research team, which now has a full contingent of researchers. You can read more about their backgrounds and research projects below. Enjoy. Dr Benjamin Cleveland, Lead Chief Investigator. Schools as Community Hubs International ConferenceThe relationships between schools and communities are often complex. Educating young people invariably remains the principal goal, yet additional objectives commonly emerge. As cities around the world intensify and societal dynamics change, pressure on schools to become ‘more than a school’ appears to be increasing. The Schools as Community Hubs International Conference explores the expanded roles of schools, investigating how schools may offer more to their communities – historically, currently, and into the future.Welcoming two new PhD candidatesWe are delighted to welcome two new PhD scholarship recipients, Hayley Paproth and Rob Polglase, who will work alongside PhD candidates Carolina Rivera Yevenes and Natalie Miles. Hayley joins the Building Connections team as a PhD candidate in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at The University of Melbourne. Hayley will be evaluating the social impact of community hub schools, seeking to identify cases of improved social outcomes due to such schools, and the factors that lead to this success. She will also investigate ways to support community hub schools to conduct their own monitoring and evaluation. Hayley holds a Bachelor of Engineering, a Bachelor of Science, a Masters of Teaching, a Masters of Evaluation and has over 7 years’ experience as a teacher and leader in Victorian schools. She has also been involved in diverse evaluation projects, including managing large-scale projects being conducted for the Victorian Department of Education and Training, as part of her work with the Centre for Program Evaluation at the University of Melbourne. Rob joins the Building Connections team as a PhD candidate with the Centre for Urban Research at RMIT University. Rob is fulfilling a long-held dream to contribute to the evidence-base and influence policy settings connected to the planning, design and delivery of learning and community sites; thereby supporting flourishing communities. His PhD research will look at evaluating policy-planning-design-governance settings. Rob's experience includes education, health, community sectors, commercial, multi-residential, public realm, transport, urban renewal and land development programs. These projects have incorporated urban policy development, strategic planning, funding submissions, setting site planning and development vision, concept to final agreed design, contract procurement to delivery with advocacy for clients, stakeholders, communities, and all levels of government. Rob has participated in industry forums and academic teaching throughout his career. His recent teaching focus has included affordable, socially inclusive design for education, community health and connected neighbourhoods. Building Connections presented at IAPS 2020 ConferenceThis presentation was made at the International Association of People-Environment Studies (IAPS) 2020 Conference. See full citation at the Research outputs section below. Meet the Partners: Laurence Robinson of Brand ArchitectsLaurence Robinson is a Director at Brand Architects in Melbourne. Laurence and his firm bring extensive experience and knowledge through their work in designing schools that provide an integrated community service, such as Doveton College in outer Melbourne. Brand Architects joined the project as a Partner Investigator in November 2019, driven by their desire to contribute to the broader understanding about the potential for integrated community services. The practice is passionate about the contribution that innovative design and shared policy visions can make to improving outcomes for communities and believes Building Connections' research will be a driver for further developments in this area. Altona Early Years Hub by Brand ArchitectsOpened in 2019, this project for an integrated community hub on the site of Altona P-9 College was commissioned by Hobsons Bay City Council with funding from the DET. A participatory design process involving representatives from the school, Council and the local community resulted in design that invites community engagement with a range of activities offered across the site. Research outputs
This research is supported under Australian Research Council’s Linkage Projects funding scheme [LP170101050]. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Australian Research Council. Partner organisationsBuilding Connections: Schools as Community Hubs sites.research.unimelb.edu.au/learn-network/projects/building-connections |