Dr BJ Newton | UNSW Research

Fields of Research (FoR)

Social work, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social work and social justice, Social Policy

Biography

BJ Newton, PhD (Social Work/ Social Policy), University of NSW, BA (hons. In sociology), University of New South Wales, B Social Work, University of New South Wales.

BJ Newton is a proud Wiradjuri woman and mother to three young children. She is a Scientia Senior Research Fellow based at the Social Policy Research Centre within UNSW Sydney. BJ specialises in Indigenous research methods and child protection research and policy. Her research focuses on working in partnership with Aboriginal organisations to build evidence and support Aboriginal families interfacing with child protection systems.

BJ's current research, Bring them home, keep them home investigates the rates, outcomes and experiences of successful and sustainable restoration for Aboriginal children in out-of-home care. This is a four-year research project running from mid-2021 to mid-2025 in partnership with Aboriginal organisations in NSW.

BJ has extensive experience working on a range of child protection and domestic and family violence commissioned research for NSW DCJ, and multiple projects for the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse. BJ was the inaugural Associate Dean (Indigenous) of the Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, a position held from January 2021- August 2022 when she accepted the Scientia academic position which enables her to focus on her research and impact.

My Grants

Current grants

Bring them home, keep them home: charting the experiences, successful pathways and outcomes of Aboriginal families whose children have been restored from Out-of-Home Care (ARC Discovery Indigenous- Lead Chief Investigator)

Understanding the potential impact of carers on the experiences and care outcomes of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care using the POCLS (NSW Department of Communities and Justice- Lead Chief Investigator)

Exploring how parental and family characteristics influences child protection reporting and removal, and out-of-home care experiences for Aboriginal children under two years of age (NSW Department of Communities and Justice- Lead Chief Investigator)

Exploring the experiences of Aboriginal girls that go missing from out-of-home care then have contact with the criminal justice system (NSW Department of Communities and Justice- Chief Investigator)

Missing girls: From childhood runaway to criminalised women (ARC Linkage- Chief Investigator)

Selected previous grants:

Understanding the influential factors and outcomes of restoration from Out-Of-Home Care for Aboriginal children (Funded by NSW DCJ- Lead Chief Investigator)

Pathways of Change: optimising the mental health of children in OOHC (Funded by NSW DCJ- co-Chief Investigator)

Mothers and children with disability using violence prevention and early intervention services (Funded by Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS)- co-Chief Investigator)