Sharon Sparks

Brotherhood of St Laurence

Sharon is a Manager at HIPPY (Home Interaction Program for Parents and Youngsters) Australia; a home based early years transition program for parents and their 4 and 5 year old children. Her work focuses on advocating for children’s voices, children’s participation, training and support of HIPPY staff and sites across Australia. Sharon has worked as a primary school teacher for 10 years and has been part of the community sector for the last 8 years.  Her participation experiences are focused on children between the ages of 3 to 12 years old. Highlights include collaborating with children to run a large children’s’ conference with the National Children’s Commissioner as a keynote, having a job interview with year 6 students, working with local school children to promote children’s rights, winning an international grant to learn from leaders in participation (UK and Sweden) and most recently, leading two national children’s voices listening tours with 180 four and five year old’s participating in HIPPY, and the creation of practice guidelines for the Brotherhood of St Laurence.