Our people

Ms Alex Cahill

Research Officer
Institute of Child Protection Studies

Areas of expertise: child protection; out-of-home care; child youth and engagement; youth participation; first nation children and young people; family and domestic violence and the impacts on children and young people

Phone: +61 431895197

Email: alex.cahill@acu.edu.au

Location: ACU Brisbane Campus 

Alex has over 20 years of experience working in the child protection and out of home care sectors. She has worked in both government and non-government sectors, including homelessness, strategic policy and planning, child and youth engagement and residential care management.

Since completing a Masters in Youth Studies with the ACU, Alex's area of interests is in the connection between youth policy and practice and how best to translate this directly for workers on the ground and the children and young people they work with. She commenced work with the ICPS in September 2017 as a research officer.

Curriculum Vitae

Select publications

• Reports
• Morgan, G., Butler, C., French, R., Creamer, T., Hillan, L., Ruggiero, E., Parsons, J., Prior, G., Idagi, L., Bruce, R., Twist, A., Gray, T., Hostalek, M., Gibson, J., Mitchell, B., Lea, T., Miller, C., Lemson, F., Bogdanek, S., … Cahill, A. (2023). You can't pour from an empty cup: Strengthening our service and systems responses for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people who experience domestic and family violence (Research report, 01/2023). ANROWS.
• Morgan, G., Butler, C., French, R., Creamer, T., Hillan, L., Ruggiero, E., Parsons, J., Prior, G., Idagi, L., Bruce, R., Twist, A., Gray, T., Hostalek, M., Gibson, J., Mitchell, B., Lea, T., Miller, C., Lemson, F., Bogdanek, S., … Cahill, A. (2023). Healing our children and young people: A framework to address the impacts of domestic and family violence (Insights 01/2023). ANROWS.
• Cahill, A., Stewart, J. & Higgins, D. (2020). Service system responses to children and young people in the statutory child protection system who have experienced or witnessed family violence. Institute of Child Protection Studies, Australian Catholic University
• Higgins, D., Stewart, J., Cahill, A., McDougall, J., & Medvedeva, A. (2020). Catholic Safeguarding Australia: A national office for oversight and coordination of safeguarding and professional standards for the Catholic Church in Australia (A report to the Safeguarding Steering Committee of the Australian Episcopal Conference of the Roman Catholic Church and Catholic Religious Australia). Canberra: ACU Institute of Child Protection Studies.
• Moore, T., Cahill, A., & McDougall, S., (2022). I wasn't quite ready: Exploring the aspirations and pathways to parenting of young people who are parents in South Australia. Melbourne: Institute of Child Protection Studies, Australian Catholic University. DOI: YY (Not published)
• Hodgkin, S., Higgins, D., Cahill, A., Wheeler, A., Herbert, J., Katz, I., Kong, L. & Paulson, P. (2023). Providing best evidence in child sexual assault proceedings: Final report on an evaluation of the Queensland Intermediary Scheme (Pilot). Institute of Child Protection Studies, Australian Catholic University. DOI: 10.24268/acu.8zw09 (Not published yet).

Projects

• 2020
• Catholic Safeguarding Australia - a report for the safeguarding Steering Committee of the Australian Episcopal Conference of the Roman Catholic Church and Catholic Religious Australia.
• Service system responses to domestic and family violence in the child protection system. The report was for the then Department of Social Services, Australian Government.
• 2022
• Exploring the aspirations and pathways to parenting for young people in South Australia. Funded by South Australian Government. We worked with and were paid by the University of South Australia for our work.
• 2023
• Impact of domestic and family violence on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people. Two reports and a practice framework developed. Funded by Australian National Research Office for Women's Safety (ANROWS).
• Queensland Intermediary Scheme. Evaluaiton of the 2-year pilot of the intermediary scheme. Funded by Department of Justice and Attorney General. Two-year project. A consortium was developed between ACU, UniSA, UNSW and private consultants to conduct the project. 

Public engagement activities

• I have for the last 5 years facilitated the Keeping Kids Central training. This training is conducted twice a year with child protection staff in the ACT. This training forms part of our contractual arrangements for the provision of services and expert advice for the ACT local government.
• I am the led facilitator for these training sessions.