Kathy Karatasas

For over four decades Kathy Karatasas (Totidis) has been a strong advocate to improving outcomes for children by keeping them safe, connected to family, community and culture. Kathy has qualifications in Social Work and Management and worked across direct service delivery and management services.

As a second-generation migrant to Greek orthodox parents, and lived experience overseas, she has a deep experience of what helps children and families from diverse multicultural families promote connections and build positive sense of self and identity. Her personal experiences which include a family member being in kinship care and raising four children after the early passing of their father, has enhanced her understanding of the importance of family and culture in developing children’s sense of belonging.

Kathy has been a leading advocate for all of the 46,000 children in out of home care in Australia, including the 40%+ of First Nations children and also those from diverse multi-cultural backgrounds, which data indicates is up to 30% of children in care. The right to cultural connections is included in the United Nations Conventions yet our practices in keeping children connected to their families and cultures remains significantly inconsistent and underdeveloped.

In recent years Kathy’s accomplishments include:

•Leading the development of a Multicultural specialist child and family out-of-home-care program,

•Being a lead investigator in national research on children in care

•Chairing Ministerial and Community-based working groups

•being Depty Chair of the NSW peak body for child welfare services

Kathy co-found the Settlement Ethnicity Language and Faith model, referred to as SELF, providing guidance on how to ask questions about culture to better understand its relevance for families.

Kathy is also the Founder of CulturalWorks consultancy collaborating with organisations to elevate their culturally responsive practices with children and families.