About the Community of Practice:

The Lived Experience Leadership and Change Community of Practice is held online every six weeks and has been created to:

Offer a 'safe-enough' space for lived experience leaders and allies to share information and experiences about their change goals and efforts.
Explore and grapple with dilemmas and opportunities in and for influencing change.
Build capacity and skills to generate new thought, shared approaches and resources that support thinking and collective action in this space.

The Community of Practice has been offered in South Australia since 2020 - with some periods of pause throughout. It was originally convened as a component of the Activating Lived Experience Leadership (ALEL) Project. The Community of Practice is now 'borderless' and open to people across Australia involved in and ready to transform systems, particularly in circumstances where the power of lived experience is centred, amplified and/or supported to lead.

Who the Community of Practice is for:

The Community of Practice is for lived experience leaders, in designated and non-designated representative/advocacy and other lived experience roles, as well as allies active in creating positive change at organisational and systems level that centre and benefit people that access services or who use their lived experience to contribute to decision-making. People in leadership roles in organisations, service delivery, peer work, clinical roles, community development, engagement and policy roles, including those with lived experience, are welcome to attend.

It is important for people attending to know that this is a lived experience-led space where centring lived experience insights, nurturing consumer and lived experience leadership, making positionality of speakers known (ie. person who has direct personal lived experience as a consumer, person who is family/carer/kin/supporter of choice of someone who has direct personal experience, and/or person who is an ally), sharing power and organising around collective solutions are prioritised.

Structure of the sessions:

Community of Practice sessions are interactive facilitated conversations around a theme that participants decide at the previous session. The knowledge, skills and diverse experiences of participants will be drawn on to create an environment of dialogue, shared learning and community.

People that are registered for the Community of Practice sessions in advance will receive a link to an article, talk or clip connected to the upcoming session via confirmation/reminder emails at least one week before the Community of Practice session.

Dates for the Community of Practice between November 2023 and November 2024 (9.30-11am SA time):

Wednesday November 1st 2023.
Wednesday December 13th 2023.
Wednesday January 24th 2024.
Wednesday March 6th 2024.
Wednesday April 17th 2024.
Wednesday May 29th 2024.
Wednesday July 10th 2024.
Wednesday August 21st 2024.
Wednesday October 2nd 2024.
Wednesday November 13th 2024.

Session conveners:

The Community of Practice is co-convened by Mark Loughhead from the Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Research and Education Group at the University of South Australia and Ellie Hodges from LELAN.

About Dr Mark Loughhead | Lecturer - Lived Experience

Mark Loughhead is a lived experience academic within the Mental Health Suicide Prevention Research and Education Group at the University of South Australia. He promotes personal lived experience perspectives, empowerment and recovery spaces and how mental health supports and systems can be redesigned with lived experience leadership.

Mark also guides research and education relating to the recovery orientated practice skills of the wider workforce.

About Ellie Hodges | Executive Director & Founder

Ellie combines her professional, personal and socio-political worlds, centring lived experience and a commitment to transformative systems change. This is underpinned by a focus on innovation, social justice and leading together.

In 2017 Ellie founded and is the Executive Director of LELAN (the Lived Experience Leadership & Advocacy Network). LELAN is the peak organisation in South Australia for people with lived experience of mental distress, social issues or injustice. LELAN draws on the collective experiences, insights and leadership of people with lived experience to drive desperately needed change in the mental health and social sectors.

Ellie is an individually appointed member of the legislated South Australian Suicide Prevention Council and loves cheese, particularly the stinky oozy kind.