Hearing and valuing young voices
06/06/2025
Children have an undeniable right and capability to shape the decisions and processes that affect their lives. While our work at the Centre has focused on helping children thrive, many of our projects have been guided by adult perspectives. This is also true of our research colleagues at other institutions, and of many organisations delivering services to children.
The Voice of the Child toolkit seeks to redress this imbalance. It provides evidence-based tools and approaches that empower children and young people to contribute meaningfully to research, care, and service delivery. By actively partnering with children, their families, and their communities, we foster an environment where young voices are heard and valued as critical contributors to knowledge and solutions.
The toolkit will be developed and refined collaboratively. We have partnered with Polyglot Theatre, a world-renowned contemporary theatre company based in Melbourne/Naarm making exceptional arts experiences for children and families. We are researching some of Polyglot’s creative activities to inform the broader work of the Voice of the Child toolkit.
With funding from Minderoo Foundation, this work will creatively engage children aged 3-5 years in five early childhood education and care settings across Australia.
With funding from VicHealth, we will work with children aged 3-12 years in three community healthcare settings across Victoria.
The engagement process will include:
- Art-based activities facilitated by the Centre and Polyglot Theatre, such as drawing (allowing free expression through large-scale collaborative drawing) and small parts play (inviting children to produce imaginative creations).
- Polyglot Theatre’s Voice Lab - a unique module for collecting the thoughts and opinions of children. It is an immersive, creative experience for children where, one at a time, they can express themselves without inhibition.
Through these structured and playful methods, we will share the power adults have traditionally held with children to enable them to express their experiences in a way that feels natural, meaningful, and engaging. During these activities, facilitators will ask children questions using pre-determined prompts. Children’s insights will help us improve our processes and develop resources to support services and communities to use the toolkit and make changes based on children’s perspectives and guidance.
Impact
Our work with the Voice of the Child toolkit will help services deepen their insights into young children’s needs, perspectives and experience to foster more inclusive and responsive approaches.
Learnings will be used to refine the toolkit and develop capacity building materials. These resources will be freely available to support and empower communities, services and other organisations keen to ensure that services and programs adequately respond to the needs of young children.
Additionally, this research will contribute to the broader movement advocating for children’s rights and participation, helping ensure that even the youngest voices are heard and valued.
