Amanda Pennacchia

Amanda has been a social worker for over 10 years, with a particular focus on forensic clients. Amanda has worked in a range of roles across the community, DFFH, and, for the last 7 years, the Department of Justice and Community Safety. These have included direct client work with children, young people, and adults, as well as senior leadership and management roles.

Amanda's current role as the Multi-Agency Panel Coordinator includes high-level strategic stakeholder coordination, management and oversight of high-risk and complex young people who are supervised by Youth Justice both in community and custodial settings. The role addresses broader systemic barriers and gaps to ensure adequate support and supervision of young people to mitigate further offending risks.

Amanda’s recent work has included championing the Youth Collective Partnership between DJCS, DFFH and Victoria Police, which is an initiative focusing on robust collaboration and cooperation between statutory Departments to address high-risk offending, as well as early intervention strategies for emerging at-risk young people.