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The Dr Dakhina Mitra Scholarship 2025
The Dr Dakhina Mitra Scholarship 2025: Honouring a Legacy
The Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare is honoured to establish the Dr Dakhina Mitra Scholarship in memory of Dr Dakhina Mitra, who worked in Social Policy and Research at the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare from 2018 until she sadly passed away in 2022.
Dr Dakhina’s work was focused on improving lives and capturing and supporting the voices of those most impacted by hardship or disadvantage, in particular, she was deeply committed to child rights, children’s safety and nurturing, amplifying children’s voices, and children’s right to have a say in the decisions affecting their lives.
Dr Dakhina loved being at the Centre and at the heart of policy, research, and advocacy work that could genuinely make a difference in the lives of children raised in challenging environments.
Purpose of the Scholarship
The Centre has established this scholarship in honour of Dr Dakhina’s work in seeking to make the world a better place for children and young people.
The scholarship reflects Dr Dakhina’s deep commitment to and enjoyment of learning and using research to improve practice. The Centre wanted to pay tribute to Dr Dakhina’s warmth and generosity as a person, her positive approach to life, her joy in helping others, her integrity, her love of learning, and her passion for the rights and safety of children.
The Centre will provide an annual scholarship of $5,000 to support a child and family services sector member undertaking study or professional development activities that improve outcomes for children and young people.
The scholarship can be used towards books or study resources, tuition fees, technology for study purposes, or other costs related to undertaking study or professional development aimed at improving the lives of children.
Scholarship Details
The Scholarship is open to any individual working in the child and family services sector in Victoria, including individuals employed by a Centre Member Organisation whose work supports better outcomes for children, young people and their families.
Applicants must complete all relevant sections on the form.
If submitting supporting documents, these must be referred to in the written application and relevant to the criteria questions. Supporting documents may include photographs, videos, support letters, etc. All submissions and supporting documents become the property of the Centre; they cannot be returned and may be used to promote the Centre, its programs and the Dr Dakhina Mitra scholarship. Please be mindful of what you submit and ask for permission from anyone featured in visual or written materials.
The 2025 scholarship award is open for submissions from 21 October – 31 December 2024.
The winners will be announced on 3 February 2025 and notified by phone and email. Bank details for the grant payment will be requested.
The winner of the award will be invited to present at the OPEN Symposium 2025 to share how the Scholarship has supported them in continuing their learning journey.
The information package will assist applicants in completing the nomination form. The package contains information on the scholarship criteria, which the judging panel will use when making their decision.
Applications must address all of the criteria to be eligible. Please be sure to read the information package carefully.
How to Apply
All applications must be received via our application form by midnight, 31 December 2024.
Applications close on 31 December 2024 at midnight.
Frequently Asked Questions
The scholarship is open to individuals working in the child and family services sector in Victoria, including those employed by a Centre Member Organisation.
The scholarship funds can be used towards books or study resources, tuition fees, technology for study purposes, or other costs related to undertaking study or professional development aimed at improving the lives of children.
The scholarship offers an annual grant of $5,000.
Applications close on 31 December 2024, midnight.
Applications are evaluated based on how well they address the criteria outlined in the application form.
This includes
- how applications demonstrate their commitment to the best outcomes for children through one or more of the following – your professional, educational, volunteer, and/or lived experience advocacy;
- applicants vision and/or goals for in supporting the best outcomes for children;
- the proposed study or professional development activities and their relevance to improving outcomes for children and young people.
Yes, applicants are encouraged to submit supporting documents such as CV/resume, academic transcripts, certificates of training, letters of recommendation, etc.
You may upload files in the application form, or load larger files to a Google Drive/Dropbox or similar folder and share the open link in your application.
The Judging Panel, comprised of representatives from the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare and the child and family services sector, makes the final decision on scholarship recipients.
The judging period will run from 1 January – 31 January 2025.
The winners will be announced on 3 February 2025 and notified by phone and email.
The number of scholarships awarded may vary depending on the quality of applications received and available funds.
At minimum one $5,000 scholarship will be awarded each year.
Yes, unsuccessful applicants are welcome to reapply for the scholarship in subsequent years, provided they still meet the eligibility criteria.
Applications are made through the online form.
For further inquiries, please email the Centre’s team at [email protected] with subject line: Dakhina Mitra Scholarship.
