Current and Past Projects
Current Projects

New research report: Who cares? A fair share of work and care
New research report: Who cares? A fair share of work and care Natasha Cortis, Meagan Blaxland and Sara Charlesworth 2021 A new report Who cares? A

New research report: Women, Work, Care and COVID
New research report: Women, Work, Care and COVID Fiona Macdonald, Jenny Malone, and Sara Charlesworth 2021 The Women, Work, Care and COVID research report reveals how women

Report on Vulnerable Workers in Victoria
In June 2021, RMIT’s CPOW together with the Business and Human Rights Centre, jointly released a report that brought home the urgency of law reform and support for vulnerable workers.

Supporting careers of LGBTQIA+ students in Australian universities
Australians who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, asexual and more (LGBTQIA+) face tremendous challenges in preparing careers through higher education.

Promoting Long-Term Employment of Autistic Individuals
Autistic adults tend to have poor employment outcomes and poor well-being, but these outcomes have mostly been treated separately. This project aims to investigate the links between sustainable employment and well-being of autistic adults.

Report: Scoping Study on Gender-Based Violence in Individualised Support & Care Services in Victoria
Sara Charlesworth, Fiona Macdonald and Jane Clarke, are undertaking this scoping project for Worksafe Victoria.

Australia Public Libraries and the support services for newly settled refugees
The aim of this study is to explore the role of Australian Public Libraries and their support services for newly settled refugees.

The Future of Regional Jobs: Report for Regional Australia Institute
The overarching project aims to identify and explain the significance of jobs, work and employment in sub-national regions over time in Australia.

Growing Southern Gippsland
The ‘Growing Southern Gippsland’ project is a collaboration between the Bass Coast Landcare Network, RMIT University, Federation University Australia, Bass Coast Shire Council and the South Gippsland Landcare Network through funding from the Victorian State Government and the Victorian Centre for Climate Change Innovation.

A day in the life of a care and support worker
This project used time diaries to investigate the working time of disability support workers providing home and community support.

CRIMT
CRIMT is an interdisciplinary and interuniversity research centre which focuses on the theoretical and practical challenges of institutional and organizational renewal in the areas of work and employment in the global era.

Imagining Age-Friendly “Communities within Communities”: International Promising Practices
Sara Charlesworth is an investigator on this Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council-funded project.

Decent Work Good Care: International approaches to aged care
This project explores the links between job quality and care quality in the context of formal aged care provision in the distinct liberal welfare states

Unacceptable Forms of Work: Gender-Based Violence
The research focuses on gender-based violence in home care as an ‘unacceptable form of work’ and locates it with home care work conditions.

Paid work in cash-for-care: Australia in comparative perspective
This project is investigating the outcomes of cash-for-care reforms for care workers.
Past Projects

Queensland Mental Health Lived Experience Workforce Framework
A toolkit for embedding people with experience of mental health challenges into public and private workplaces and non-government organisations.

CRIMT ‘Institutional Experimentation for Better Work’ Research Partnership
Institutional Experimentation for Better Work 25 – 27 October 2019 at Hôtel Chéribourg, Magog, Québec Plenary session. From left, facing audience: Adrienne Eaton (Rutgers University),

Meeting the social and emotional support needs of older people using aged care services
by Sara Charlesworth, Wendy Taylor Project duration: March 2019 – October 2019 Sara Charlesworth and Wendy Taylor worked with Gabrielle Meagher (Macquarie) and Natasha Cortis

Explaining the Development of Information Security Climate and an Information Security Support Network: A Longitudinal Social Network Analysis
The research team performed the longitudinal social network analysis on six networks, which described six forms of socialisation in the workplace over a three-month period,

Platforms and the emergency management sector: understanding the use by organisations and citizens
The study investigates how organisations and citizens use social media to share information in the context of emergencies. Funding: Emergency Management Victoria Dates: October 2017

Future Jobs and Regional Workforce Development: Foundations and Analysis
The aim of the research is to investigate the future of work in regions.

Data-driven Regional Development – Gippsland 2019
A strategic project designed to create data-guided baselines to inform future regional development strategies in Gippsland Project Duration: 16 September 2018 – 13 November 2018 The

Worker’s capital: a history of industry superannuation
Worker’s capital: a history of industry superannuation This industry-funded project was to research and write a history of industry superannuation in Australia. Project dates: July

Work, care, retirement and health: Ageing agendas
Work, care, retirement and health: Ageing agendas The project examines the health and equality consequences of population ageing, labour market inequalities and the gendering of