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Victorian-based award-winning volunteer, advocate, activist, and author, Tracie Oldham (b. 1962), was in voluntary placed kinship care as a child.
Tracie recently published her book, My Shitty Life, which details her suffering in kinship care, her transition to adulthood via homelessness, and her community service work over decades. She is currently lobbying the Victorian state parliament to have Voluntary Placed Survivors formally recognised as Care Leavers.
Tracie Oldham received a Hume City Council Citizen of the Year Award on 26 January 2020 for her community service. She was described by the Council as “a truly tireless advocate for mental health, raising awareness and working to ease the stigma and misconceptions around mental illness. Her passion for helping others has had lasting results, particularly through the three support groups she leads.”
In the above video, Tracie mentions:
- Rodney Croome AM is an Australian LGBTIQ+ rights activist and academic. Based in Tasmania, he worked on the campaign to decriminalise homosexuality in that state, was a founder of Australian Marriage Equality, is a spokesperson for both the Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group and Just.Equal, and is an Honorary lecturer in Sociology at the University of Tasmania.
- Todd Fernando is the Commissioner for LGBTIQ+ Communities across the state of Victoria. https://www.vic.gov.au/victorian-commissioner-lgbtiq-communities
- SOCIT – Refers to the Sexual Offences & Child Abuse Investigation Team of the Victorian Police, https://www.police.vic.gov.au/sexual-offences
- Tracie is featured in ‘Late Blooming Lesbians’: The rise of middle-aged women coming out.” The Feed, SBS News, 27 February 2018. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/article/late-blooming-lesbians-the-rise-of-middle-aged-women-coming-out/q9274klya
- Voluntary Placement – this term was used in Victoria from 1887 to refer to children who were not living with their parent(s) but who were not wards of the state either. For more information, see https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/vic/E000668
Tracie Oldham
Victorian-based award-winning volunteer, advocate, activist, and author, Tracie Oldham (b. 1962), was in voluntary placed kinship care as a child.
Birth1960, Carlton, VictoriaOccupationActivist, Community ServicePlacementKinship careArranged byVoluntary Placement