ABOUT
Lauri Parr is an award-winning participatory visual artist, researcher, and youth specialist.
My practice is an ongoing exploration of voice, strength, power, and systems - using collaborative and creative methods– to share stories, celebrate perspectives, consider meanings and co-design new things.
Suspicious of the assumption adults know best, I work predominately with children and those who support them.
With focus on those often least heard, I use rights-based and strengths-based approaches and trauma informed practice to co-create fun, safe and meaningful dialogues.
CURRENTLY
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2025-2026 Forrest Foundation Creative Leadership Fellow, developing 'Visual Futures' which co-creates new ways for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to creatively experiment and influence digital culture
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Appointed Academic at Curtin University in School of Population Health
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Developing creative youth strategy for Act Belong Commit
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Playing with new immersive technologies and approaches
WORK EXPERIENCE
Development/design/delivery of 20+ participatory projects and youth social action initiatives. Training, development and mentoring worldwide for individuals, NGOs, leading universities and governments.
Portfolio spans 14 countries across Europe, Africa, Asia, South America and Oceania; and includes young people who are homeless; young people involved in criminal justice (2014- 2019); sex workers, people who use drugs and LGBTQIA+ community members (2019); children in conflict zones (2020); child victims and perpetrators of sexual violence (2022); children in care (2016 -2023), and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children (current).
EDUCATION + TRAINING
Master of Laws: Human Rights, University of London (2022)
First class distinction, Jonson Scholarship
Youth Pedagogy and Safety
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Trauma Informed Practice (2022) Evaluating Online Success, 2021), Digital Safeguarding, (2020) PRINCE 2 (2019), Risk Management (2019) Safeguarding children with gang affiliation and criminal justice experience (2018) Child Protection (2017-2018), Safeguarding policy development (2017)
Visual Arts
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Adobe Suite, Photoshop, InDesign, Premiere Pro (2019-2024) Graphic Facilitation and Recording (2023), Curation and editing (2024) Photography post-production (2024) Digital graphic design (2024)
Ben Twomey, CEO at Generation Rent
"I worked with Lauri for many years and could not recommend her highly enough. As part of a very small team, project success relied heavily on Lauri's abilities to bring out the best in partners and deliver on the ambition of work from inception to impact. Lauri would be a great asset to any team that wants to bring people together, get things done and make a real difference"
Izzy Shaw, Ramblers Association
"Lauri is funny, witty, and clever. She is never flustered and can manage high levels of conflict. She is informally and affectionately known as 'The Fixer': she has a great way with people at all levels of management. Lauri is kind, good hearted, generous and makes friends easily. She is always there when you need her and is reliable and conscientious. To me, she is irreplaceable."
Professor Christina Pollard, Curtin University
"Lauren has an exceptional ability to innovate, consult, create, and produce outstanding results (under challenging circumstances) for simultaneous projects. Her imagination, critical thinking, problem solving and responsiveness to challenges in a timely manner to produce high quality results are a testament of her confidence and authentic leadership."