RAS Knowledge Transfer Coordinator Position Descriptions
Erin Taylor and Anna Barrett have recently taken up two newly created Knowledge Transfer Coordinator roles with RAS - Erin as Research Coordinator and Anna as Community Engagement Coordinator. These two roles align with the University’s Knowledge Transfer aims – that is, the creation of links between the University and the outside community in ways that are beneficial to all involved. Through these Knowledge Transfer Coordinator roles we hope to more fully connect the activities of RAS with the needs and activities of asylum seekers and their support groups, to build relationships that foster the exchange of ideas and experiences, and to engage the wider community about issues facing asylum seekers. As an example, a specific Knowledge Transfer task for RAS will be developing a strategic relationship with the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) to improve outcomes for asylum seekers.

Since its inception, RAS has primarily been a volunteer run organisation. While it has been able to produce some great outcomes for refugee and asylum seeker research and advocacy, it has long been recognised that for the group to continue and grow it would need financial support. RAS has been pro-active in securing funding from the University of Melbourne Vice Chancellor’s Strategic Incentives and Allocations Fund. The two positions are 1-day per week for a period of 12 months. The Coordinator roles commenced in mid-May 2007, and are reviewable in May 2008.

Volunteers will continue to be central to RAS. In their roles as Knowledge Transfer Coordinators, Erin and Anna will support and coordinate volunteer contributions to RAS projects and events, enabling RAS to more quickly develop long-term goals. These goals include the facilitation of greater connections between advocacy, service provision and research groups; the development of RAS’s role as a primary conduit for the provision of refugee and asylum seeker research to groups such as the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) and the general public; and, more generally, to raise awareness of the plight of asylum seekers through forums, conferences, research and the distribution of information on asylum seeker issues.

Erin Taylor, Knowledge Transfer - Research Coordinator

Personal Background

“I am a currently a PhD Candidate in the School of Historical Studies at the University of Melbourne, for which I am investigating the migration of people of Burmese origin – many of whom have been refugees – to Australia since the Second World War. I have had a long-term interest in researching refugee history. I completed my Honours thesis on the arrival of Vietnamese asylum seekers in Australia during the election campaign of 1977 and I have since worked as a research assistant for historian Klaus Neumann, author of Refuge Australia: Australia's Humanitarian Record. I became a member of RAS almost eighteen months ago and have been attending monthly meetings for the past year. As a volunteer I have assisted with RAS fundraising events and researched and wrote a short history of the Tampa and the “Pacific Solution” for distribution at public events.”

Position Description

1. Establishing links with relevant groups and developing a research database
In order to assist RAS in achieving its goals Anna and I will be responsible for establishing and strengthening links between RAS and relevant advocacy and service provision groups. Primary target organisations include the ASRC, and A Just Australia, both of which RAS has had positive past connections with. RAS has also recently established links with the Hotham Mission’s Asylum Seeker Project. Through consultation with these groups, and others, we will develop a list of research topics that need urgent attention. Both Anna and I will coordinate volunteer contributions to the compilation of a research database, including annotated bibliographies and academic fact-sheets, for use by such groups and the general public.

2. Widening the RAS Knowledge and Member base
Affiliated with the University of Melbourne, School of Behavioural Science, RAS has a strong base in the psychological effects of refugee and asylum seeker issues. There are, however, RAS members and volunteers who are based in disciplines outside of the psychology sphere. I see part of my role as broadening the scope of RAS to incorporate the research backgrounds and skills of these members so that RAS can strengthen its multi-disciplinary approach to asylum seeker and refugee research provision. With this aim in mind, I will specifically coordinate the compilation of research databases and fact-sheets on areas ranging from history, to politics, economics and the law.

3. Developing the RAS website
I will also be responsible for the updating and redesign of the RAS website which will act as a permanent home for the provision of the information housed in these databases. Using the web as an information provision mechanism will give RAS flexibility to revise and update information where necessary and allow for the incorporation of feedback from the groups we are attempting to service. The redesign of the website is also aimed at creating an online ‘one-stop-shop’ on refugee and asylum seeker information in Australia. It has come to our attention that asylum seekers living in the community may be unaware of where to turn to for assistance and so we will establish over time a nation-wide database of service provision, advocacy and research groups, making it available on our website as a means, in part, of alleviating this problem.

4. Coordinating Events
In addition to the above I will be responsible for coordinating and supporting the organisation of RAS major events, including the book launch and attached conference to be held in mid-October 2007. While I will also provide RAS members with regular updates via the email list, both Anna and I will be periodically contacting the RAS member base throughout the year to ask for assistance with the above projects.

Anna Barrett , Knowledge Transfer - Community Engagement Coordinator

Personal Background

“I am an MPsych (Child Clinical)/PhD Candidate at the University of Melbourne, in my first year of Masters, and my third year of a PhD investigating early life adversity and its neuroanatomical correlates in the adolescent brain, as part of the ORYGEN Adolescent Development Study. I have been working as an administrative assistant to Mary Harvey in the Counselling Program at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre since July 2006. Currently, I attend the Centre two days a week, and my role includes research, database management, involuntary repatriation casework and general administrative work. I approached RAS in March 2007 with the goal of strengthening the link between the ASRC and RAS, and trying to facilitate interaction between the Counselling Program in particular, and RAS members.”

Position Description

1. Liaising with the ASRC, like organisations and other universities to facilitate Knowledge Transfer and research
The basis of my role will be to act as a liaison between RAS and the ASRC Counselling Program, in order to facilitate transfer of knowledge between RAS members and ASRC staff and volunteers. The goal of this liaison is to improve the services provided and associated client outcomes by allowing researchers greater access to the asylum seeker population and insight into the mental health issues they face. With regard to facilitating research on the operations of the Counselling Program and its clients, I will be meeting with relevant ethics bodies to discuss possible barriers to such research, and will attempt to preemptively sort through some of the ethical issues that may hinder conducting such research. I will also liaise with psychology, medicine and health sciences departments at the University of Melbourne, with a view to linking them into RAS and alerting them to the opportunities for research into asylum seeker issues that may be made possible through the RAS-ASRC collaboration. A potential research area of particular interest is program service evaluation within the Counselling Program, which would be of immediate benefit to the Program itself, as well as the researchers involved. In the event of a research project being organized, I would act as a liaison point between researchers, clients and Counselling staff.

2. Developing a research database
At the ASRC, I plan to gather information from the professionals working in and with the Counselling Program on which domains they feel they need access to further knowledge, and how this knowledge would best be delivered. Counsellors at the ASRC often need to access and communicate the most current state of knowledge on an issue, for example memory and trauma, for implementations such as Tribunal submissions, which may have profound implications for the client, and yet need to do so without the time, expertise or resources to conduct thorough literature searches. Once the topic areas that most frequently require discussion and additional information are identified, I will coordinate volunteers from the RAS member base to conduct literature searches on specific areas with which they are familiar. I will also coordinate the creation of summaries of relevant literature, which will be made available as part of a database on the RAS website and may be distributed to Counselling team members as fact sheets, and as electronic documents for easy inclusion into reports and submissions.

3. Developing a database of RAS members
To this end, an electronic survey of RAS members’ areas of expertise, willingness to contribute, and amount of time committed, will be conducted by myself and Erin Taylor. A database of available RAS volunteers and their areas of expertise will be compiled and drawn upon for information as new needs are identified by ASRC members.

4. Developing a database of available ‘Experts’
I will also coordinate the creation of a database of RAS members with specialist expertise in areas relevant to psychology and psychiatry. Such people will be available to be contacted directly by ASRC Counselling Team members, with a view to implementing a call-out system whereby a counsellor needing information or advice on a specialist issue for treatment of an individual case will be able to contact an expert in the field and discuss the options with them.  

5. Coordinating and developing relevant professional development workshops
Depending on preferences for information delivery expressed by Counselling Team members, professional development workshops may also be organized, using volunteer RAS members. It would be my role to identify or communicate identified areas of professional development need to relevant RAS volunteers, work with possible presenters in tailoring workshops to the needs and constraints of the ASRC environment, and organize the pragmatic details of such workshops.