If we want to inform better public policy to end poverty and disadvantage, hard data and facts are more important than ever. This sets up both a challenge and an opportunity for organisations as philanthropy in Australia develops even further. In this episode, we draw together the threads of our earlier conversations.

We talk to Susan Urahn, from the Pew Charitable Trusts, about philanthropy’s role in bringing diverse groups together and governments to the table. She shares her insights from over two decades of work as a pioneer in the field, especially in relation to sentencing and corrections reform in the United States.

And we also hear from Anhaar Kareem, a young Australian woman, with her imagining of what a better future looks like.

This is the final episode is this season of Life’s Lottery. Stay tuned for more in 2022.

Visit lifeslottery.com.au for more.

Produced by UTS Impact Studios: 
Executive Producer: Olivia Rosenman
Audio Producer: Nicole Curby
Researcher/writer: Jackie May
Theme music and Sound Design: Frank Lopez
Production music: Blue Dot Sessions
Graphic design: Celia Neilson

No major social problem has a single cause so why would a single approach or organisation be able to solve it? Collective Impact starts with social objectives that are agreed upon across all sectors of society. This episode considers the idea at the heart of Collective Impact: that large-scale social change comes from better cross-sector coordination rather than from the isolated intervention of individual organisations. How does abandoning individual agendas and short-term solutions kick-start long term processes of social change?

Matthew Cox shares the experience of building Logan Together from the grassroots up. The project is making gains around a singular focus – to improve life outcomes for children in a region with some of the most entrenched poverty in the country.

We’ll also hear how justice reinvestment works to tackle existing systems and structures geared towards ‘isolated impact’. Julie Williams and Judy Duncan from Just Reinvest NSW give insights into their lived experience of the criminal justice system and talk about their holistic efforts to divert young people away from it for good.

Visit lifeslottery.com.au for more.

Produced by UTS Impact Studios: 
Executive Producer: Olivia Rosenman
Audio Producer: Nicole Curby
Researcher/writer: Jackie May
Theme music and Sound Design: Frank Lopez
Production music: Blue Dot Sessions
Graphic design: Celia Neilson

Most people in jail have experienced disadvantage at some point in their lives, and it’s a legacy that often passes from parent to child. This episode examines current Australian research into the experience of mothers in the criminal justice system with Professor Susan Dennison from Griffith University. Her research project, Transforming corrections to transform lives, explores how having a parent in prison shapes the development and life outcomes of their children. A better understanding of parental identity in prison could help to improve the experience of those parents, and promote their rehabilitation.

We’ll also meet Tegan in this episode. Tegan is serving a sentence at the Darwin Correctional Centre, and her mum is there too. We’ll hear what it’s like for Tegan trying to parent three young children from inside prison.

Could transforming policies and systems for parents in prison reduce the intergenerational transmission of offending and disadvantage? What kind of measures would ensure prisoners maintain strong relationships with their children and why are these investments worth it? Might this be a way to ensure a prison sentence becomes an offramp to break the cycle of disadvantage?

Tegan’s story is excerpted from Birds’ Eye View, the first podcast made by women in the Darwin Correctional Centre. For more information, and to listen to the podcast in its entirety, visit birdseyeviewpodcast.net

Visit lifeslottery.com.au for more.

Produced by UTS Impact Studios: 
Executive Producer: Olivia Rosenman
Audio Producer: Nicole Curby
Researcher/writer: Jackie May
Theme music and Sound Design: Frank Lopez
Production music: Blue Dot Sessions
Graphic design: Celia Neilson