The Ovens Murray Community Services – Stronger Together Symposium is a chance for Community Service sector practitioners and leaders to come together in celebrating and promoting collaborative pathways, connection and practice.

The full-day program will include keynote speakers, presentations and panellists discussing and exploring pathways for collaboration and innovative practice to enable our workforce to work together, for better outcomes for children, young people and families across Ovens Murray.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

MATT and SARAH BROWN- 'SHE IS NOT YOUR REHAB'

In their powerful keynote messages, Mataio + Sarah Brown share their innovative and revolutionary approaches to addressing family violence, emphasising the pivotal role of community and collective healing in breaking the cycle of intergenerational trauma while passionately advocating for healthy masculinity role modelling. They encourage men to overcome shame while taking responsibility for their own healing. Their message inspires a transformative journey towards healthy relationships and cultural shifts that challenge ingrained norms to foster a safer, more empathetic and holistic society.

PROFESSOR DARYL HIGGINS - Australian Child Maltreatment Study - A multi-sector response

Is Director of the Institute of Child Protection Studies. For 30 years, Prof Higgins has been researching child abuse prevalence and impacts, public health approaches to prevention, child protection and out-of-home care systems, family law, family violence, family wellbeing, and past adoption practices. He is one of the Chief Investigators on the Australian Child Maltreatment Study.

Dr ANITA MORRIS - Trauma and Trauma-informed practice

Is the DFFH Statewide Family Violence Principal Practitioner based in the Office of Professional Practice. She works closely with the Chief Practitioner Human Services and the Statewide Principal Practitioners for Child Protection, Children & Families and Aboriginal Children and Families. Anita is a social worker of many years with a clinical, research, training and practice development background. Her work focuses on children’s experiences of family violence and promoting trauma and violence informed practice.

LISTENING TO VOICES - Lived Experience Performance

BUILD UNDERSTANDING AND INCREASE HOPEFUL DIALOGUE

Human Beings are creatures of story. Since gathering by the fires of antiquity, tales have been told to entertain, teach and explain the mysteries of the world. Stories have explored the shadows that lie beneath our own experience. They grow in the telling, coloured each time by the teller, and by those told.

Theatre is a unique, timeless way of bringing stories to people, particularly in the world as it is today. Being in the room with an actor, as a story unfolds before the brings emotional intimacy and intensity, making the story personal. Listening to Voices brings these stories to bear in an inclusive, human way.

This relationship is made particularly poignant when the story being shared is taken from the actual experiences of the storyteller. The truth of the shared experience, the power of the story, come together in an experience that teaches, confronts, entertains and challenges.

We look forward to seeing you around the fire.

Ben Pearson