Sarah Paddick

Senior Associate, Architect, Grieve Gillett Architects, Australia

Trained in Architecture at the University of Adelaide, Sarah was a director in her own Architecture and Interior Design practice from 1994 to 2023 when she accepted a Senior Associate role with Grieve Gillett Architects as part of a merger.  She now leads GGA’s social Justice sector. Her main area of expertise is in Secure Facility Architecture, undertaking over 100 projects in secure facilities in South Australia. In 2010 she undertook a worldwide tour of Women’s Secure Facilities in her role as the Catherine Helen Spence Memorial Scholar, focusing on residential parenting programs, and now sits on the Catherine Helen Spence Scholarship Board. She has worked as a consultant to the South Australian Department for Correctional Services as a design advisor on their major redevelopment programs at the Yatala Labour Prison and Adelaide Women’s Prison and was a member of the Stronger Foundations and Clear Pathways Women’s Ministerial Work Group.
Sarah was part of the team that developed the very successful UTurn Construction Pathways Program at the Adelaide Women’s Prison, a unique program that gave incarcerated women work experience and training on a live construction site within the prison. In 2023 Sarah received an Australia Day Award, the Inspiring South Australian Woman’s Award, for her work in the social justice sector.
Sarah is passionate about improving conditions for incarcerated people, particularly women and children, and focusing on their specific needs to gain better outcomes.

Edwina Poynton

Principal Advisor, Out of Home Care & Youth Justice Services for Children and Families for Tasmanian Government, DECYP

Originally from Dublin, Ireland, Edwina is a registered social worker and a relational child and youth care practitioner with over 35 years’ experience working with children, families and communities within the fields of social services and education in a variety of settings, in both government and NGO sectors in a number of countries. Edwina has had a range of direct practice, leadership, management and advisory roles within services that provide group, residential, secure and foster care. She has also been a foster carer. She has a Master of Science in Child and Youth Care Studies with distinction from Strathclyde University, Scotland in addition to qualifications in early childhood, social work, clinical supervision and adult education. Edwina is committed to creating child centred rights-based environments where staff are enabled through organisational frameworks that provide the setting, tools, resources, training and supports to enhance safety and wellbeing through relational therapeutic trauma transformative and culturally informed care, whilst addressing needs including offending behaviour.