Workshop - SOLD OUT
Person-Centred Practice for Service Delivery
Thursday, 19 June 2025
Join us for a day of training workshops for front-line practice. You will consolidate your learnings from the two-day conference and connect with peers in a more intimate setting whilst gaining skills and knowledge to take back to your organisations and clients.
Agenda
Day Three | Thursday, 19 June 2025
8:30
Coffee and Networking
Skills to Change Lives
Choose to attend Session A or B on the day of the workshop
Session A
9:00
Workshop: Strengthening the Homelessness Workforce to End Homelessness: Building Skills, Retention, and Resilience
This interactive, solutions-focused workshop will explore workforce development as a key strategy in ending homelessness. Participants will engage in practical discussions and interactive activities that address workforce shortages, retention strategies, and skills development.
The workshop will introduce the Specialist Homelessness Services Professional Practice Framework (SHSPPF) and highlight the Academy 4 Learning, a sector-wide initiative designed to strengthen training, leadership, across Specialist Homelessness Services (SHS) in Queensland.
Participants will leave with practical workforce solutions, an understanding of cross-sector collaboration, and strategies to improve service delivery.
By the end of this workshop, participants will:
Understand the SHSPPF and how it standardises best practices across the sector.
Explore workforce development strategies, including mentorship programs, leadership initiatives, and recruitment incentives for regional and remote areas.
Gain insights into the Academy 4 Learning, a professional development initiative supporting SHS workers.
Discuss the role of multi-disciplinary case management in improving client outcomes.
Identify practical workforce retention strategies to reduce burnout and increase sector stability.
Engage in cross-sector collaboration exercises to strengthen community partnerships.
Facilitators:
Stephen Hawkins, Project Lead, Homelessness QLD
Alicia Pont, Practice Lead, Homelessness QLD
Cameron Thayer, Chief Executive Officer, Karakan
Session B
9:00
Workshop: Exploring Housing First and how we can use the principles without coercion to rework our practice, service models and system to end homelessness
This session is split into two parts, with the first part before the break exploring the Housing First principles by placing the lens of “without coercion” over them.
This interactive workshop will delve into the Housing First model as a proven approach to ending homelessness. The first part will explore how coercion impacts our day-to-day practice, the design of our service models and our wider service system and how applying the Housing First principles can find ways to reduce and eliminate coercion from our work. The session will include group discussions, problem-solving exercises, and scenario-based learning to help attendees translate theory into action.
By the end of part 1 of this workshop, participants will:
Understand the Housing First model – its principles, benefits, and how it actively challenges the use of coercion.
Explore explicit and unintended use of coercion – unpack examples of how coercion seeps into practice, service models and the wider system and the impact this has on both the people we are aiming to help and the staff in our services.
Identify opportunities for change – within our current work environments, service models and system that could be used as leverage points to create change, that will be workshopped in part 2 of this session.
Facilitators:
Leah Watkins, Senior Advisory Supportive Housing, Housing Choices
Ewan Higgs, Housing Services Program Manager, Hobart City Mission
Charlotte Georgiou, Housing First Practice Lead, Unison
10:45
Morning Tea
Innovation and Practice
Choose to attend Session A or B on the day of the workshop
Session A
11:15
Workshop: Centring Lived Experience in Service Design
Involving people with lived experience in service design leads to stronger, more effective systems—but how can organisations do this in a meaningful and sustainable way? This workshop will provide practical tools to co-design services with lived experience at the centre, while also recognising the challenges and emotional labour involved. Through examples, interactive exercises and reflective discussions, participants will gain strategies to embed lived experience in service design, making it more ethical, impactful, and sustainable.
Facilitator: Lorna Robinson, Lived Experience and Project Coordinator, Australian Alliance to End Homelessness
Session B
11:15
Workshop: Exploring Housing First and how we can use the principles without coercion to rework our practice, service models and system to end homelessness.
This session is split into two parts, with the second part after the break exploring opportunities to leverage change in our practice, service models and the wider system to implement Housing First without coercion.
This interactive workshop will delve into the Housing First model as a proven approach to ending homelessness through systems change. The second part focuses on what can be done to drive meaningful change. The session will include group discussions, problem-solving exercises, and scenario-based learning to help attendees translate theory into action.
By the end of this workshop, participants will:
Identify their capacity to influence – at a practice, service or system level and understand the importance of each of these.
Engage in practical problem-solving by working through common challenges in Housing First implementation faced both in their own work or imposed on them by the service model and system we work in.
Develop an action plan for applying Housing First strategies within their own work, organisations or communities.
Facilitators:
Leah Watkins, Senior Advisory Supportive Housing, Housing Choices
Ewan Higgs, Housing Services Program Manager, Hobart City Mission
Charlotte Georgiou, Housing First Practice Lead, Unison
12:30
Lunch and Networking
Experiencing Homelessness Services: Reflecting on Practice From Lived Experience
Choose to attend Session A or B on the day of the workshop
Session A
1:15
Unpacking Advantaged Thinking in Youth Foyers
Learn from young people who have experienced homelessness and the Gold Coast Youth Service about how to supercharge your practice through Advantage Thinking
Session B
1:15
Session Incoming
2:15
Afternoon Tea
Workforce (Concurrent Sessions)
Sessions Incoming
3:35
End of Day 3