2025 QLD Senior Australian of the Year Dr Bronwyn Herbert

Australian Community Media

Meet your Australians - 2025 QLD Senior Australian of the Year Dr Bronwyn Herbert. ACM is proud to be media partner for the 2025 Australian of the Year Awards.

Transcript

00:00I've worked as a social worker until I was 81 years old.

00:06I've worked with a lot of people who are experiencing domestic violence

00:11and we worked through those issues.

00:13And then I also worked with people in homelessness

00:17and I became a manager of a homeless program

00:20for families with children.

00:22And as time went by,

00:25I noticed that some of the children were returning

00:28and I wondered what we could have done differently

00:31to prevent this intergenerational homelessness.

00:34I decided that I wanted to do my Master's

00:37to achieve better outcome with the things that I was doing

00:41and so I worked on that

00:44and I decided I'd do my PhD when I was in my 80s.

00:50For my PhD, I worked on homeless families as voices

00:56telling me how they felt about their homeless experiences

01:00because there's not much written about that

01:03and I want to hear how they felt about the parenting they received,

01:07the education, the schooling they had and their employment

01:12and later their relationships and the housing they now currently have.

01:17So that's the area I worked on,

01:19looking at what the children felt about their homeless experiences.

01:24I would like to see a wraparound service

01:27with children and their whole families

01:31because they all need support when they're homeless.

01:35This would involve supporting parents with their parenting role,

01:41helping them to discipline safely

01:44and would look after the children, support them to go to school

01:50and to get a better education.

01:53I loved working with people

01:55and I loved helping them to become stable in their housing.

02:00My aim in life is to help people make a positive change in their lives

02:07that they could experience happiness and enjoy living daily.

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