About

Learn about this online course.

Telethon Kids Institute is committed to engaging with the community in all aspects of our research.

In 1998, we partnered with The UWA School of Population and Global Health to establish the first consumer advocate role and involvement program in a research organisation in Australia.

This included the development of a range of resources and training workshops for consumers and/or community members.

In 2009, in direct response to requests from researchers for help on implementing consumer and community involvement, we developed and facilitated training workshops for researchers. Since then over 130 workshops have been delivered to research and consumer organisations across Australia.

Find out more about Community Involvement at The Kids Institute.

Find out more about The Kids Research Institute Australia.

Our Team

Anne McKenzie AM

Community Engagement

Anne has worked as a consumer advocate for almost three decades. She commenced working as the Consumer Advocate and Involvement Program Manager at The University of Western Australia and the Telethon Kids Institute in 2004.

Since 2004 Anne has worked in research organisations to increase the community voice in research. She established the Consumer and Community Health Research Network which is a key platform of the WA Health Translation Network in 2016.

Anne is a senior consumer representative for Consumers Health Forum of Australia and serves on key state and national health and research committees. In 2015 Anne was appointed to the Order of Australia for her work in health service and research.

Belinda Frank

Community Engagement Manager

Belinda is the Community Engagement Manager at Telethon Kids Institute. She started her consumer advocacy work in 2002, originally as a board member and then state manager for a not for profit organisation. Belinda currently serves on state and national research committees.

In 2016 she started work at the Telethon Kids Institute as the Consumer Advocate then moving into the Development Team with the establishment of the Consumer and Community Health Research Network.

Belinda has since re-joined Telethon Kids Institute to take community involvement to the next level and support researchers and consumer and/or community members to work in partnership together to drive change in health research.