Drawing a line in the sand on the Road to Reform

Welcome everyone to the December edition of the Impact Policy newsletter. We are firing into the holiday season, some of you might already be there. This edition is going to touch on an important topic, thinking and announcement around exciting times in 2025.

We are pleased to announce that in 2025 we will be hosting our first lived experience summit.

For too long conferences have continued to evolved into spaces and places that talk about us without us, with the occasional lived experience speaker sprinkled across the list of 'experts'. That coupled with the extortionary costs of many of these conference events means that the very people and communities that these spaces are talking too, particularly around topics such as effective engagement, relationships and connection practice the very exclusionary structures that continue to keep us on the outside in real time.

Personally, I have experienced this again and again. Despite leading a firm and championing social policy and change we still struggle to justify the ever growing costs of participation.

Recently I was invited to both deliver a keynote and sit on a panel for a conference, the topic was around youth at risk and out of state. Now not that I had expected to be, but wasn’t but what I did receive for my participation, lived and professional experience was free entry for the day that I was speaking. There were no speaking fees, no travel assistance or any other resources to support my participation. Again, luckily through the support of Impact Policy I could be supported to participate but I couldn't help think of the many that could have been there too if the access existed to support their participation. We deserve better.

 So with that, I returned with a fire in the belly and am drawing a line in the sand. Coming mid 2025 we will host;

·  Survivor Summit led by practitioners with lived experience of OOHC or Youth Justice.

·  Lived Expertise Summit (Full schedule of speakers and presenters that are practitioners, professionals with lived experience).

·  All conference speakers will be paid.

·  Where needed travel and accommodation will be supported for access, equity and inclusion.

·  Summit will be hosted in Sydney on Gadigal Country with the official venue to be announced shortly.

· Tickets will be FREE to champion participation for EVERYONE. However, if you or your organisation has capacity to pay we ask that you purchase a ticket with all funds being directed back into our pro bono policy and project work we deliver for community.

How can I get on board? Register your interest in 1 minute here

https://forms.gle/oUTwJpgvY7JAatQd6

·      Register your interest to attend and get on our mailing list

·      Sponsor the event – Do these values resonate with you? consider sponsoring our event , this will support costs that go towards paying speakers and other event logistics.

·      Are you a practitioner with lived experience of OOHC or Youth Justice? Maybe you want to share some of your work or what you really believe are the ingredients for change in the reform journey ahead? Register your interest in the following link as well.

Thank you everyone in our community for sharing and championing our values of ACCESS, EQUITY INCLUSION and JUSTICE. We are excited to bring something special together in 2025 that rebalances the power centres survivors and elevates lived expertise.

Thanks for walking with us on the journey. The line is drawn.