Christopher Boyle

Chris Boyle has worked in the child protection and family support sector for over 25 years. Starting his career as a social worker, Chris is considered one of Queensland’s longest standing and most respected child protection experts. He has a passion for social justice and giving a voice and opportunity to the most vulnerable children, young people and families in our community.

In 2012, Chris completed a Churchill Fellowship into Family Preservation and Restoration Services across the world. His project aim was to study the effective use of intensive family support services to address child abuse and neglect.

Pursuing his passion to implement the recommendations of his Churchill Fellowship and reform the child protection system, in 2016 Chris commenced his transformation from a social worker to a social entrepreneur, founding the StandbyU Foundation - a not for profit and charity start up that harnesses the power of technology and relationships to connect those vulnerable children at risk of abuse to those who care. Chris developed a program, now known as the StandbyU Shield, to help address complex social issues such as abuse, domestic violence and isolation through the mobilisation of family and friends. The program is based on existing social networks, a plan to address risks, and a wearable device that connects to pre-identified safe networks.

This world first solution is now being used across the child protection and domestic violence sectors to keep hundreds of people safe. Recently StandbyU Foundation received a $500K Commonwealth Government grant to pilot this initiative across Queensland, with a vision to expanding this solution across Australia, and the world, over the next two years.

In 2022, Chris was a recipient of round two of the Trust's Impact Funding program — a new initiative to enhance outcomes of Churchill Fellowships across all industries and sectors. Chris' Impact Funding project is to build a cloud-based solution that will enable national (and world-wide) automation of the StandbyU shield, and reduce programming time of each shield by up to 90%. About Impact Funding