Concetta "Connie" Benn AM ( Megna; 12 December 1926 – 18 March 2011) was an Australian social worker. Born in Melbourne to a family of Italian migrants, Benn is best known for her work with the Brotherhood of St Laurence and created a new theory of social work called developmental approach. She was the first Research Officer for the Leader of the Opposition in the state of Victoria where she helped bring in amendments to the state's Social Welfare Act. In her retirement she accepted positions for various organisations. Benn was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1995, and was added to the Victorian Honour Roll of Women seven years later.
Early life
Benn was born in Melbourne on 12 December 1926. She was the daughter of Maddalena (née Paino) and Antonio Megna. Megna immigrated from the Italian island of Lipari before the outbreak of the First World War but was required to return and joined the Italian Army. After a few years, he went back to Australia, and started a successful chain of fruit and vegetable shops. Benn was educated at Mac.Robertson Girls' High School where like many migrant families of the era, she was given a hard time which she would later display in her working life; she later graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree and a diploma in journalism at the University of Melbourne in 1949. In the same year she married medical student Keith Benn, and moved around for the next six years because he was qualifying as a psychiatrist. They had three children.
She had become interested in social work, and her husband suggested she return to the University of Melbourne where she studied a partial degree in arts and a near complete degree in psychology. Benn visited the university's arts faculty and spoke with the person responsible who told her she could continue with psychology or she could study social work. Benn elected to study social work as she did not wish to test people, and after a formal interview, was found to be suitable for the course. She graduated in 1957.
Career
She obtained her first job at the Larundel Hospital's Mental Hygiene Department where she worked until her husband was transferred to Royal Park and later Mont Park. Benn later left Mont Park and found employment at her local Citizens' Welfare Service as their Director of Social Work and Research where she remained for five years during which she began marriage and adolescent counselling. Benn participated on a weekly television panel where she advised people. She left as she felt she wanted to work in academia, and worked on a master's degree which was uncompleted. Benn found a job at the Parliament of Victoria where she worked as the first Research Officer for the state's Leader of the Opposition. She performed a large amount of research into the discovery of gas in the Bass Strait, and assisted in bring about 99 amendments to the Social Welfare Act, by working and making suggestions to the Government of Victoria.
Benn applied for a job with the national Australian Government whilst she was still working in the Victoria Parliament which was accepted 18 months later. She held it for two days until the Prime Minister John Gorton announced the position would be eliminated. Benn started working for the Brotherhood of St Laurence in 1971, for a small job with the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) who were needing to find residence for families and dealt with cases relating to work wages. Whilst at the project Benn decided their work into Social Work service was not producing the ideal result, which resulted in ACTU later electing to close their facility. ACTU employed her for six months during which she founded St Laurence's Family Centre project. It was a three-year experimental plan, and she used a professional criteria to select 60 families, of which at least 40 used it by 1973. Other families that were unable to join were referred to welfare agencies.