How Robyn Miller’s Catholic upbringing inspires her work with shattered families

Dr Robyn Miller AM describes the devastation in a family where child sexual abuse has occurred as like an atomic bomb going off.

‘The betrayal, the insidious sort of grooming that happens within a family … it fragments,’ says Robyn.

The MacKillop Family Services CEO says success in child protection comes by working with the family.

‘Our role is tapping into the belief and support of non-offending family members.

‘And that was the critical ingredient in supporting these poor kids and young people who were traumatised, acting out, often in that fight-flight response.’

The Good Samaritan nuns who educated young Robyn Miller at Santa Maria College in Northcote saw something special in her.

‘I remember being taken aside and one of the sisters saying, “You know, you’re very good with people and you’ve got high empathy.”’

They encouraged her towards psychology, insisting she study mathematics—specifically statistics.

Robyn says she still draws on both that early faith-based commitment to social justice and her scientific training in her work at the frontlines of family breakdown.

It has given her a foundation on which to build innovative programs that reach from remote Aboriginal communities to Melbourne’s high-rise public housing.

That foundation is cemented in an unshakeable belief in human dignity: ‘that deep sense of the innate worth of every single child and every single human being’.

Robyn’s deep commitment to helping others was also influenced by her family’s values.

‘My family had a very strong sense of community, of looking after the working person,’ she says.

‘My sister has Down syndrome. I’m sure that shaped me as well—that sense of being passionate about the rights of people with disability.

‘I remember there was talk about her, talk about putting her in an institution, and I remember this fierce response I had, and of course, thank God, my parents were like, “no way”.’

I’ve never doubted I’m working in the right space.

The values instilled by her upbringing and education have led Robyn to a highly practical application of Catholicism, what she describes as rolling up your sleeves and doing something about the injustice in the world.

Her community service began as a volunteer for St Vincent de Paul and the Brotherhood of St Laurence while studying social work and later completing a Masters in Clinical Therapy.

Robyn’s career in one of the most difficult areas of social service has taken her from the Bouverie Family Therapy Centre to the Department of Human Services in Victoria, to heading McKillop Family Services via a role as a consultant to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Dealing with the horrors of child abuse cannot be easy, but Robyn’s commitment is unwavering.

‘I’ve never doubted I’m working in the right space,’ she says.

‘I always joke, I can’t knit or sew, but I was always drawn to working with people, and I loved the work.

‘I loved engaging with people.’

Her genuine joy in being with other people extends to a commitment to recognising the team effort inherent in her work.

On being appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to children, young people and families in this year’s Australia Day honours, her thanks immediately went to her staff and colleagues, and those she works to help.

‘I am deeply humbled to be recognised with an Order of Australia, although the people who really deserve an Award are the brave children and families I am privileged to work with every day,’ she said on accepting the award.

‘They are the real heroes, and I consider myself fortunate that I have had the opportunity to work with them throughout my career.’

That generosity in acknowledging others’ contributions has a tangible impact on the programs Robyn has instigated at MacKillop.

The organisation’s work with Aboriginal communities, for example, in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, Darwin and western New South Wales is community-led.

‘We’re deeply respectful of culture and First Nations, and they take the lead,’ Robyn says.

‘So it’s not paternalistic. They’re the experts, you know, and we partner up to support and enable, [providing] the expertise that we’ve got.’

Aboriginal community programs are part of the development of MacKillop’s Reconciliation Action Plan.

It’s part of a process the organisation wants to be at the heart of its work with Aboriginal families and the foster care programs that operate in Indigenous communities.

‘It’s really helping all of McKillop to be culturally safe, which I’m sure Mary MacKillop would have loved,’ Robyn says.

Child protection work is ‘not for the faint-hearted’, Robyn says.

She describes the frustrations of navigating the legal process during her time at the Department of Social Services, watching offenders manipulate the system.

‘[They] scrub up and look good for court.

‘And we’d taken disclosures from children who were then brainwashed and want to go back to daddy—you know, it was infuriating at times.’

That was when her focus on early intervention began, in partnership with the Magistrates Court, police and child protection services, setting up programs for offenders as well as family recovery programs.

The work being done in Victoria to disrupt child sexual exploitation was well ahead of other states at the time, and it led to Robyn being offered a consulting role at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

‘I was asked to go and work up there [in Sydney] around the contemporary issues for out-of-home care,’ she says.

She realised that it was a chance to make a real difference.

‘They had such power at a federal level, and I knew it would be a game-changer for policy and practice going forward.

‘Now every state in Australia has regulatory oversight and what we call child safe standards.’

On her arrival at MacKillop Family Services, she set to developing programs to prevent the exploitation of children, through education and early intervention.

Robyn says MacKillop teamed up with the University of Melbourne to link what she calls silos of policy, research and practice in the child protection sector, and create the ‘Power to Kids’ program.

The program provides strategies for understanding respectful relationships, sexual safety and early identification of risk and protective factors. It is run in Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools and other mainstream schools. Robyn says it equips teachers to be confident in identifying the indicators of possible child exploitation.

Power to Kids also helps to counter the harmful impact of pornography, where Robyn says many children now get their ‘sex education’. The program offers an understanding of consent and what makes a healthy relationship.

Robyn says a program that recognises pre-existing trauma has been developed for the young people in residential care who are the focus of a lot of MacKillop’s work, and has been set up at its schools for at-risk children in Victoria and New South Wales.

‘They need a different way, and what we’ve done is to set up the program “Relate” through our McKillop Institute, where we are working with many schools to help them develop better strategies to cope with these complex behaviours,’ she says.

MacKillop Family services now operates across five states and territories and employs more than 2,000 people providing family support, family violence, out-of-home care, and homelessness, disability and education support programs to thousands of children, young people and families.

As the organisation’s leader, Robyn has overseen this expansion but remains very much at the coal face.

A staff member at the MacKillop Family Services office in South Melbourne spontaneously shared with Melbourne Catholic what an honour it was to work with someone who truly cares for people. That care extends to every individual child and those who look after them, the staffer said.

‘Whenever she travels, she makes a point of visiting the kids, finding out how they are, if there’s anything they need. She puts them first, and does everything she can to set them up for success.’