Dr Susie O’Neill set up the KIDS Foundation 30 years ago to create a better life for children who have suffered serious injury and trauma and to prevent it from happening through education and empowerment and has this year been recognised for her work with an Order of Australia Medal (OAM).
Susie, who is a mother, grandmother, former preschool and primary teacher and has a PhD in education, became interested in empowering children to protect themselves in 1988 whilst studying and working alongside the Children’s Protection Society.
“On my first teaching placement I met a little girl who had cigarette burns on her hands, which led me to devote my studies and career to children at risk,“ she said.
She established the organisation after meeting a young boy in an aged care home who was recovering from injury in a ward with three men in their 90s.
“At that time in Australia, there were no rehabilitation centres for children,“ she said.
Troubled by this boy’s situation, Susie decided to do something about it and in 1993 established the KIDS (Kids in Dangerous Situations) Foundation, based in Ballarat.
Over the year the KIDS Foundation has expanded to meet requirements with bases now established in Victoria, South Australia, NSW and on the Sunshine Coast.
In 2000, the KIDS Foundation opened its first children’s rehabilitation unit – Pete’s Place – at the Queen Elizabeth Centre in Ballarat. Later, a second refurbished unit for young people was established at the Caulfield General Medical Centre. The first child to stay in Pete’s Place was a burn survivor, and when it was time for him to return home, a national support network to assist in his recovery outside the comfort zone of the hospital could not be found. It was then that the KIDS Foundation established the Burn Survivors’ Network.
Research has revealed that more than 5000 Australian children are injured in accidents every day, and of those injured, more than 100 require hospitalisation. Preventable accidents also remain the single largest cause of childhood death in Australia.
Susie said the work of the KIDS Foundation today aims to reduce the number of children being injured to zero. Educating children, giving them the tools they need to better understand risk so that they can manage their own safety is KIDS focus. The KIDS mascot, SeeMore Safety, along with a compilation of child-friendly safety books, takes children on a journey that encourages lifelong safety conceptualisation.
“It is through the unimaginable tragedies of others that I have found purpose,“ Susie said.
“The children and young people we work with have the most uplifting stories of transformation, determination, and resilience that has led them along a path of self-discovery and healing, to find a place of belonging. Working with hundreds of survivors of unbelievable trauma, abuse, and burns, I have learnt that from ’bad things… good things can grow’. The courage and strength of the incredible people I have met and share their powerful stories with, will tell you that to survive they have had to find purpose in their unimaginable tragedy.“
Having bought a house in Noosa in 2002, Dr O’Neill and her family have moved between residences in Victoria and Noosa with plans to retire to Noosa.
KIDS Foundation will be running three recovery camps in Queensland this year in Noosa, Gold Coast and on Morton Island, Susie said.
