Laura-Jane Singh has been selected as one of 17 Indigenous and Pacific changemakers for the 2025 Atlantic Fellows for Social Equity (AFSE) fellowship program.
Targeting Melbourne’s west, Ms Singh’s plan is to develop a culturally specific framework that addresses the increased rate of child sexual exploitation of Aboriginal young people in residential care.
A proud Wiradjuri woman, Ms Singh currently works for the Victorian Aboriginal Children and Young People’s Alliance where she is tasked with creating an Aboriginal-led framework for kinship care.
She discussed her goals with the fellowship in the western suburbs.
“My hopes are to create an Aboriginal healing centre, so the victims and survivors of child sexual exploitation have a place to go,” she said.
Ms Singh herself was a victim of sexual exploitation while she was under the care of child protective services.
“That has probably played a big impact into the why.
“Sexual exploitation, alongside trafficking, it takes a lifetime to recover from.”
Ms Singh said that many of the minors she works with are deprived of educational opportunities and subsequently stop going to school as young as 12 or 13 in many cases.
“I believe that young people should have the opportunity to access therapeutic support alongside education.”
Having analysed case studies of child sex exploitation both in Australia and abroad, she said “I think the system doesn’t work,” and that the model of residential care can leave young Aboriginal people disconnected from their communities.
Mr Singh moved to the western suburbs with her husband and two daughters
Previously living in Brisbane, Ms Singh moved with her husband to Melbourne’s western suburbs, where they now reside in Wyndham Vale with their two daughters.
The goals of Ms Singh’s work extend beyond her own generation, with a focus on leaving the world in a better place
“If I can address this now, I hope this isn’t a fight my children have to fight on after me.”
She also sits on the board of The Koling Wada-ngal Aboriginal Corporation and is the deputy chair of Western RAJAC.
The AFSE program, hosted by the University of Melbourne, supports Indigenous-led solutions to pressing challenges facing their local community.
