LSAC data launched at families week.(INSTITUTE ACTIVITIES)(Longitudinal Study of Australian Children)

On 16 May 2005 at the Melbourne Museum, Senator the Hon Kay Patterson, Minister for Family and Community Services, launched National Families Week, sponsored by the Australian Government and conducted by Families Australia, a national body established to advise the Australian Government on family policy.

Ms Sandie de Wolf, Chief Executive Officer of Berry Street Victoria and Chair of Families Australia, reminded assembled guests that National Families Week has been held each year since 2003 to celebrate Australian families. It is timed to coincide with the United Nations International Day of Families--observed by the UN to mark the importance the international community places on families as the most important units of society, as well as concern about their situation in many parts of the world.

National Families Week was a fitting occasion for Minister Patterson to launch the first wave of data from Growing Up in Australia--the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), initiated and funded by the Department of Family and Community Services and managed by the Australian Institute of Family Studies.

In welcoming the Minister and guests, Institute Director, Professor Alan Hayes, thanked all the families who agreed to be part of this study and noted that some of these families were present at the launch. He noted that Growing Up in Australia …