History
The Parenting Research Centre was established in 1997 as the Victorian Parenting Centre (VPC) following the launch of a Victorian Government strategy recognising the importance of parenting in improving outcomes for children.
A consortium of leading experts and organisations was behind the initial development of the VPC. These included:
- Centre for Child Health and Ambulatory Paediatrics, Royal Children’s Hospital
- Psychology Department, Royal Children’s Hospital
- Tweddle Child and Family Health Services
- Psychology and Intellectual Disabilities Studies Unit, RMIT University
Following the establishment of the VPC, with a core staff of five, work began on coordinating and developing a research and development program and supporting the delivery of evidence-based parenting programs in the Victorian community.
Our research program has grown continuously, including research in areas such as parenting of adolescents, parental fatigue, school-parent partnerships, parenting children with a disability. In 2004, the VPC became national in its focus, receiving funding from the Federal Government to research, develop and disseminate a range of parenting programs across the country.
In 2006, in recognition of the growth of the organisation, its unique research focus and growing national presence, the Victorian Parenting Centre became the Parenting Research Centre (PRC). We launched our first nationally coordinated parenting capacity-building strategy, with the Healthy Start network of professionals who support parents with intellectual disabilities. We also coordinated our first large-scale program roll-out across Victoria with the Signpost for Building for Better Behaviour program.
We played a central role in establishing a federally funded national website providing evidence-informed parenting information – the Raising Children Network (RCN). We also coordinated a major national initiative establishing peer-support groups around Australia for parents and carers of children with a disability – MyTime.
In 2007, we established new approaches and tools to facilitate the two-way transfer of knowledge between parenting researchers and service providers.
From 2008 to the present day we have seen significant growth in research (currently standing at 35 research projects) and in national program development and coordination such as the Early Days workshop program for parents of young children with autism.
The PRC was commissioned at the end of 2009 by the Victorian Government Department of Education and Early Childhood Development to conduct a $9 million, three-year pioneering study into how best to support parents in disadvantaged families to provide a high-quality home learning environment.
And increasingly we are being sought out by community-based organisations to support them in identifying and adopting evidenced-based parenting support.
