Research Network
Connecting the justice, community and academic sectors around legal research and evaluation related to access to justice.
The Research Network connects the justice, community and academic sectors to enable knowledge sharing and encourage collaboration among those working on legal research and evaluation related to access to justice issues.
We do this by holding events throughout the year showcasing exciting international and domestic access to justice and legal need developments. Learn about these developments and meet and connect with colleagues working in this space.
Recent event
Precarious Housing: From research to practice
Many Australians are facing the challenges of housing insecurity and homelessness. These complex and urgent issues require effective solutions.
In our recent Research Network webinar, principal lawyer Cameron Lavery and Associate Professor Maree Petersen joined us to explore the increasing problem of precarious housing and what may be done to help resolve the issue.
Following the presentation, we hosted a discussion about Precarious Housing and where to from here.
Presenters
Cameron Lavery
Cameron Lavery is a principal lawyer at Justice Connect where he has worked since 2016. His current role as the head of Community Programs includes leading Justice Connect’s Homeless Law, with a specialist focus on preventing and ending homelessness for Victorians by increasing access to integrated and digital legal support, and advocating for better laws and policies.
Cameron also leads the Seniors Law program, overseeing health justice partnerships for older people experiencing or at risk of elder abuse in Victoria and New South Wales.
Prior to starting with Justice Connect, Cameron was the managing lawyer of the LawRight (formerly QPILCH) Homeless Persons’ Legal Clinic for over four years, supervising 20 outreach legal clinics for people facing homelessness across Queensland. He previously managed the Pro Bono Referral Services of the Queensland Law Society and the Bar Association of Queensland, and was a lawyer with LawRight’s Self Representation Service. Cameron has also worked in private practice and has been actively involved in the wider-community and legal assistance sectors.
Associate Professor Maree Petersen
Associate Professor Maree Petersen is a social work academic with a research focus on older people experiencing disadvantage. A particular focus has been her work on understanding how older women come to be precariously housed in later life despite legislative, policy and social changes that sought to enhance gender equity.
Maree’s work is informed by a life course framework to understand how disadvantage accumulates over people’s lives and culminates in housing precarity in older years. With large current research projects on poverty and older people, and elder abuse her work seeks to bring attention to the intersection of the policy areas of housing, homelessness, community aged care, welfare, and justice necessary for ensuring wellbeing for people as they age.
Join the network
The Research Network is relevant to those working on access to justice related research and evaluation.
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If you have research or projects you’d like to present, contact the Research Team.