The Imagined Futures Community of Practice delivered another impactful workshop today – this time aimed at building the capacity of service providers to navigate the service system to improve support for children experiencing mental ill-health and their families.

This collaborative effort brought together 40 people from 22 agencies spanning government, non-profit agencies, and private practice.

As the keynote speaker the Commissioner for Children and Young People the Hon. Jacqueline McGowan-Jones spoke with eloquence and passion about the need for young person’s voices to be heard, the urgency for action to address childhood poverty and trends such as the rapid increase in numbers of young people from multicultural communities requiring support.

Following the keynote address, participants engaged in roundtable Q and A sessions with local providers of support for families and children including:

• Just Kids Health
• South West Metro Parenting Network,
• Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service,
• Connecting Communities for Kids
• Uniting WA’s Attach program and
• Youthcare

This event is part of an ongoing series of workshops with each one responding to specific community needs, ensuring our efforts are timely and relevant.

The success of these events is a true reflection of the calibre and commitment of the Community of Practice members*, which is ably led by Sue Nickisson from Communicare.  The workshops are put together on an extremely small budget because each of the members’ contributions are largely in kind – for example the in this case the venue was provided by the City of Cockburn.  Each of the CoP members worked together to organize logistics and promote the event. Imagined Futures contributed to the catering costs through the Where is the Door? Project funding.

*Imagined Futures Community of Practice is comprised of Sue Nickkison, Communicare (Chair); Sakina Bindahneem, Fremantle Women’s Health Centre; Evie Devitt-Rix, City of Fremantle; Linda Walker, City of Cockburn; Kriz Brander, Library Connect (St Pat’s/ City of Fremantle) with backbone support from Karen Silverthorne, Imagined Futures.