Current JD Stout Fellow

Meet our current JD Stout Fellow and find out more about their research project.

Rebecca Macfie

JD Stout Fellow 2024

Author Rebecca Macfie has been appointed as the 2024 JD Stout Fellow.

Rebecca Macfie’s research will focus on the capacity of grassroots and community organisations to disrupt the harms of poverty by bringing a whānau-centred and strengths-based approach to bear on the systemic drivers of deprivation (including housing, precarious work, racism and intergenerational trauma). The Stout Fellowship will allow Rebecca to expand on an existing body of work, published in The Listener this year as a series titled ‘Hardship & Hope’, which shines a light on the skill and innovation in local communities determined to remove the structural barriers to wellbeing for their tamariki.

A growing body of scientific research points to the life-long harm caused by childhood deprivation. Increasingly, the evidence also points to the need for locally-led, place-based initiatives which – provided adequate long-term funding and the flexibility to build trusting relationships – can enable families suffering persistent disadvantage to build on their strengths and thrive. Rebecca will spend her year with the Stout Centre bringing these two threads of research together by telling the stories of local community activism and commitment to a decent future for children and families.

The Fellowship is from 1 March 2024 to 28 February 2025.