Dale is Director Education for Life Without Barriers, one of Australia’s largest charitable organisations with services in every state and territory including remote areas.
Life Without Barriers supports around 25,000 people each year in the areas of disability support, aged care, mental health services for refugees and people seeking asylum and supports some of Australia’s most vulnerable children, young people and families in out-of-home care.
As Director Education of Life Without Barriers, Dale leads the education unit to support children and young people in care to reach their educational potential. For over 35 years Dale has worked in flexible education provision with a focus on supporting kids with barriers to education. His career began as a teacher in the Centre Education Programme before he was promoted to Principal. Dale then held the role of Edmund Rice Education Australia (EREA) Principal Flexible Learning Centre Network, Director EREA Youth+, Youth+ Institute and Director Partnership for EREA. In his time with EREA he was responsible for the creation of 23 Flexible Learning Centres in Australia impacting 1,000’s of young people.
Dale focusses on education strategies that create partnerships between families, carers, care case managers and schools – believing that collaboration to support children’s enjoyment and success in education requires a joint effort, especially when children are dealing with complex trauma histories. Dale is Co- Board Chair of the Australian Association Flexible and Inclusive Education (www.aafie.org.au) and participates in a range of research partnership with the ARC and NHMRC. He has completed a Churchill Fellowship and Endeavour Fellowship which focused on education environments for disenfranchised young people and first nations education respectively.
Dale has a deep commitment to working with communities, NGO's, government, families and young people in developing learning environments and pathways that offer socially inclusive education.