Lloyd Owen has been a professional social worker and a member of the Australian Association of Social Workers for over 40 years. His career includes substantial direct service and consultancy in a variety of non government organisations concerned with the welfare of children, youth and families, over 20 years in various management and senior executive roles in Victorian Government welfare services and over 20 years as a social work academic teaching, researching and consulting in Australia and overseas. He has had an appointment as adjunct senior lecturer at La Trobe University, casual teaching roles with Deakin University and member of the Board of Time for Youth in Geelong. Since Time for Youth merged with Barwon Youth and Glastonbury Family Services in 2015 he has become a Board member in the new community service agency Barwon Child Youth and Family. He has also been ppointed as an Honorary Fellow in Social Work at Deakin University Waterfront Campus Geelong.On the 31st March 2022 BCYF commenced merging with Bethany to create a new agency Melli. Lloyd retired from Board positions with BCYF and Barwon Youth. He has continued on the governing committee of The Geelong Project an innovative early intervention program based on a partnership of services and schools with a collective impact approach. This model has been picked up tonsome extent interstate and overseas. in the UK and USA. He was also elected in 2022 as Vice President of the Geelong and District Branch of the National Trust of Australia (Victoria).
Lloyd was the editor of the National child welfare journal 'Children Australia' for many years has authored a variety of consultancy reports, articles, book chapters and conference presentations. Consultancies have been concerned with practice, policy and organisational development in youth justice, youth homelessness, child, youth and family welfare, out of home care, leaving care, parent education, family violence, therapeutic crisis intervention, disability services, drug and alcohol services, labour migration, community development and international social development, These activities have involved local, regional, state, national and international communities.
He has had a longstanding interest in social ecological models of practice some of which was explicated in his Monash University Masters thesis "Spheres of Influence' completed in 1982. This work was updated in 2000 and is being extended in 2019. His PhD in Social Work completed in 2007 with La Trobe University involved looking for good practice with young people who challenge service systems and optimal services to support good practice. see publications for PhD thesis and conference presentations on Looking for good practice
For the SPHERES OF INFLUENCE MODEL see publications: World Forum 2000 paper