Dr Graeme Stuart

Having been lucky enough to have been involved in practice, research and teaching for many years, I am constantly reminded of the value of integrating research, practitioner wisdom, and the experience and insights of people with lived experience. I have a strong belief that we are all teachers and all learners so I am particularly interested in collaborative work with practitioners. (You can read more about my approach here.)

While at the Family Action Centre (2003-2021) my focus was on strengths-based practice, community engagement, inclusive group work and nonviolent relationships. Now, I am part of the team behind Name.Narrate.Navigate (NNN), a volunteer with the Alternatives to Violence Project, an honorary lecturer and a blogger (https://sustainingcommunity.wordpress.com).

NNN is a trauma-informed and culturally responsive preventive-program with a dual focus of working with young people who have used or are risk of using violence in their families and personal relationships, and the workers who support them. In October 2021 we received $600,000 over three years from a Westpac Safer Children, Safer Communities Scale, to expand our work and to offer training and mentoring to practitioners that will help them develop skills in working with young people who are victims and perpetrators of violence, abuse and trauma, in ways that are creative and trauma informed.

The Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) was established in 1975 in Green Haven Correctional Facility (New York) and is currently offered in around 60 countries. Through experiential, intensive workshops we explore nonviolent relationships. AVP has become one of the biggest (if not the biggest) grassroots voluntary adult education programs in the world, with AVP techniques and processes being taught by volunteers who facilitate the workshops in a wide range of contexts including prisons, schools, conflict zone and the community. Besides facilitating workshops (including the first ever online workshop as a response to COVID and the first trial of AVP as an open group), I am a co-convenor of the AVP International research team, part of a small international team writing two books about AVP, and a member of the AVP NSW council.

My blog, Sustaining Communities, allows me to reflect on strengths-based approaches to working with families and communities and environmental sustainability. With nearly 2,000,000 views it is a resource used by students, practitioners and others around the World.

While at the Family Action Centre, some of the projects I was involved in included:

• Assertive outreach with women experiencing homelessness: Helping to create a model of assertive outreach with women. (Partner: Nova for Women and Children. Other team members: Tamara Blakemore, Joel McGregor, Louise Dean, Kelly Hanson, Kate Davies, Lee Liewes, Loreen Smith, Janine Johnston, and Marette Gale) Read more.
• Best practice and trends in counselling and mediation programs in NSW: A collaborative case study of Uniting: Explored best practice in the context of post-separation counselling and mediation, and working with Uniting staff to reflect on their practice. (Partner: Uniting counselling and mediation services. Other team members: Tamara Blakemore, Chris Krogh, Tom McClean, Duncan Cameron, Milena Heinsch, Amanda Howard, Shaun McCarthy, and Margaret Nimac). Read more
• Building social capital with refugee communities and new arrivals: An evaluation of AVP with refugees and new arrivals in Sydney. (Partners: AVP NSW an NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors. Other team members: Jasmina Bajraktarevie, Helen Bibby, Wendy Lambourne;, Raphael Manirakiza, Shakeh Momartin, Ansuya Naguran, Katherine Smith and Ken Woods). Read more
• Peaceful Pathways evaluation: An evaluation of AVP with refugees and new arrivals in Tasmania. (Partners: Red Cross Tasmania and AVP Tasmania. Other team members: Edward Obi, Xavier Lane-Mullins, Wendy Lambourne, Christine Widjaya, Julie Donehue, Tamara Blakemore).
• Evidence-based practice in Rural NSW children and family support services: Explored ways in which nine rural children and family services could enhance their capacity for evidence-based practice. (Other team members: Deborah Hartman). Read more
• Strengths-based approaches to working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities: Explored strengths-based approaches to working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. (Other team members: Jenny Cameron, Amanda Howard, Paul Hodge). Read more
• What can we do? Communities Responding to Violence: An action research project which explored how to build on community strengths to respond to domestic and family violence. (Partner: Caravan Project. Other team members: Dee Brooks, Craig Hammond). Read more
• Engaging Aboriginal Fathers: Explored ways in which family and community services can engage Aboriginal fathers. (Other team members: Craig Hammond, Chris May). Read more
• Brothers Inside: Fathering workshop with Aboriginal men in prison. (Other team member: Craig Hammond). Read more
• Asset-based community development and community capacity building: A national training program with the Defence Community Organisation. (Partner: Defence Community Organisation. Other team member: Dee Brooks.) Read more

I started working with communities in 1983 (through social change movements) and started working with families in 1992. Before joining the Family Action Centre in 2003 I worked in a range of roles including youth work, community development and peace work. My first five years at the Family Action Centre was as a community worker supporting permanent residents of caravan parks and other projects including facilitating workshops for Aboriginal fathers in prison.