Frequently Asked Questions

  • Empowerment-Ed offers a suite of strengths-based, pro-social programs for students and staff:

    • Empowering Relationships: Age-appropriate workshops on healthy, respectful relationships with social-media literacy and consent education.

    • Empowering Leadership: “Answer the Call,” our signature student leadership formation program—available as a six-month journey, intensive camp, or tailored keynote.

    • Empowering Cohorts: School retreats, reflection days, and cohort-building events aligned with your values and calendar.

    • Empowering Classrooms: On-site and external teacher professional development workshops in student engagement, behaviour management, teaching boys, middle leadership development, and relational pedagogy.

    • Empowering Wellbeing: Fully resourced, research-informed wellbeing curriculum packages with lesson plans, student booklets, and PowerPoints.

  • All programs are designed and delivered by Ben Russell, Director of Empowerment-Ed. Ben brings:

    • Over 15 years of education leadership experience in pastoral care, wellbeing, and student formation.

    • Edu-presenter at national conferences in Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne.

    • Expertise in relational pedagogy, student engagement, and evidence-based practice.

    Every workshop, retreat, and module reflects Ben’s hands-on insight and collaborative facilitator mindset.

    • Upper Primary (Years 5–6): foundational lessons in respectful relationships and digital citizenship, or cohort formation days.

    • Middle Years (Years 7–9): respectful relationship programs (including online safety) and cohort formation / retreat days.

    • Senior Years (Years 10–12): advanced leadership formation, student leadership development, senior retreats, respectful relationships, and consent education.

    • Staff and Parent Sessions: bespoke workshops that mirror student content and provide adults with facilitation tools.

    • Teachers: professional development programs on behaviour management, classroom management, student engagement, relational pedagogy and stepping into leadership.

  • Yes. All Empowerment-Ed programs are:

    • Grounded in evidence-based frameworks (including eSafety’s Best Practice Framework for online safety, ACARA, AERO). This has been affirmed through the endorsement of all programs by the Australian Council of Education Research (ACER).

    • Informed by current literature on adolescent development, leadership psychology, and relational pedagogy.

    • Evaluated through stakeholder feedback loops to ensure continuous improvement and cultural relevance.

    Our curriculum packages include references, curated resources, and facilitator guides to uphold research rigour.

  • We partner with schools, colleges, and education networks across all Australian states and territories:

    • Queensland

    • New South Wales

    • Victoria

    • South Australia

    • Western Australia

    • Tasmania

    • Australian Capital Territory

    • Northern Territory

    Whether you’re in a metropolitan centre or a regional community, our team can deliver on-campus workshops, retreats, or virtual sessions.

  • Absolutely. Every Empowerment-Ed offering is fully bespoke:

    • Select modules or tailor sequences from our 90+ wellbeing lessons.

    • Adapt leadership rituals to align with your school traditions.

    • Embed local case studies, language, and values into workshops.

    • Co-design retreat themes, reflection prompts, and assessment tools.

    • Adjust teacher professional development programs to suit the needs of school staff

    Our team works collaboratively with your key stakeholders to ensure cultural fit, scheduling flexibility, and seamless integration.

    • Experience where it counts: Ben has been in the trenches, seen when student leadership is not prioritised and the impacts it has on schools, has walked with a young person experiencing an unhealthy relationship, pressure online, to even the more serious cases involving child-protection matters. He has facilitated too many retreats to remember and worked collaboratively with teachers to better professional practice.

    • Designed with schools in mind: having someone who has lived and breathed schools and education his entire career, Ben is aware of the current landscape and the difference between what looks good on paper vs the lived reality. The programs of Empowerment-Ed reflect this.

    • Relational Pedagogy at the Core: every activity is co-created to prioritise trust, empathy, and student agency.

    • Deep Context Customisation: from language and case studies to school rituals and calendar cycles.

    • Evidence-Based & Aligned: grounded in the latest research and endorsed frameworks.

    • Holistic Formation Lens: we don’t just teach skills, we nurture ongoing identity and purpose.

  • Yes. We partner with families to extend learning beyond school walls:

    • Parent Workshops: interactive sessions on social media literacy, consent, and adolescent wellbeing.

    • Webinars and Resource Packs: self-paced guides, conversation starters, and tip sheets.

    • Family Engagement Events: co-designed evenings that model the same strengths-based, values-driven approach used in schools, often following on from the student session conducted earlier in the day.

  • Empowerment-Ed’s professional development for teachers blends research-informed frameworks with hands-on practice to build capacity in key areas of school life.

    Our four areas which we provide teacher professional development are:

    • Behaviour management

    • Student Engagement

    • Teaching Boys / Relational Pedagogy

    • Stepping into Middle Leadership.

    These programs are offered either internally on-site in a school (Australia-wide), or as separate professional development workshops (Brisbane, South-east Queensland).