Our Founder & Consultants

Our Founder

Laura Lindsay

Laura grew up in country NSW on the land of the Kamilaroi/ Gamilaroi/ Gomeroi and now lives on the land of the Wurundjeri people in Victoria. Laura is the founding Director of GlassHouse Safeguarding, established to work in collaboration with individuals and organisations to assist with safeguarding consultancy, training, partnerships and projects about child sexual abuse and exploitation.

Laura has over 20 years’ experience working across different sectors including community services, out of home care, education, and faith-based settings. Prior to establishing GlassHouse, Laura has worked across Australia with the faith sector assisting after the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse were released to capacity build with their child safety obligations.

Laura’s qualifications include BA Social Science, MA Theology and she will complete her MA of Counselling through Edith Cowan University in 2023. Laura’s formative career was in front line community services and schools working with children at risk of harm and abuse. She has delivered mentoring programs for at risk children and young people K-12, worked with children removed from education, co-established a youth drop-in service for vulnerable youth and worked in out of home care and chaplaincy in a low socio-economic area. Laura has also worked with homeless women in Melbourne in front line crisis support.

Laura has lived experience of clergy child sexual abuse and understands the complexity of spiritual abuse and the and the psychological impact, this is why she wants to engage globally with others with lived experience so they are not ‘forgotten’ and ‘silenced’. Laura delivers ChildSafe Australia’s Body Safety & Consent Education primarily to ELC educators. This program is a partnership ChildSafe has with Educate to Empower and Author Jayneen Sanders. Laura is the current lead contracted trainer for ChildSafe Australia a national children’s harm prevention organisation.

Consultants

Carol Phillips

Consultant

Carol is passionate about safe effective service delivery and the development of confident, creative practitioners and leaders. Carol is a social worker (MSW, BA) with more than 20 years’ experience strengthening services that serve vulnerable children and families within the government and non-government sectors in Queensland, the Northern Territory and Nationally. She is a skilled project manager, who has driven large scale practice reform including the implementation of Royal Commission Recommendations and the Child Safe Standards at a national level. Skilled in all aspects of policy, systems and resource development there is nothing Carol enjoys more than being able to assess and strengthen systemic and practice responses that support the wellbeing of children and their families.

As a leader, Carol has extensive experience supervising professionals who work with children and families around a range of complex issues. Carol has been a front-line worker, Team Leader, Manager and held senior practice development roles in child protection, out of home care and disability services, across urban, rural and remote locations, including discrete Aboriginal communities. She is a strength-based practitioner who values opportunities to enable the growth and development of other professionals and leaders through supervision.

Bonnie is passionate about creating environments where all people feel safe and are holistically safe to live full and fulfilling lives and where they can build strength, resilience, and the capacity to thrive. Bonnie has extensive experience in the Not-for-profit sector, developing credibility and trust in wide-ranging networks throughout Queensland and Nationally. Safeguarding and well-being of the most vulnerable in communities has been at the forefront of her practice. Bonnie is a qualified Professional Supervisor with widespread experience supporting leaders of faith communities. Often referred to as a creative and innovative thinker, Bonnie enjoys using methods such as Critical Reflection, Associative Thinking and Art in her supervision.

*“Recommendation 16.45 of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, states “Each religious institution should ensure that all people in religious or pastoral ministry, including religious leaders, have professional supervision with a trained professional or pastoral supervisor who has a degree of separation from the institution”.

For supervision enquires
Att: GlassHouse Supervision enquiry
bonnie.seip@outlook.com