A Good Goodbye - The Journey to Dying Well

Solutions on how to better support dying well and grief.

Mentally Fit EP are driven by the recognition that while loss is inevitable, the trauma associated with death and dying can be lessened when end-of-life is approached holistically and with a range of supports. 

Mentally Fit EP is a community driven initiative delivered by West Coast Youth and Community Support aimed at partnering across community to support conversations and actions that build mental fitness and wellbeing from a strengths based perspective. Their goal is to work with local community members and organisations to understand the current barriers and gaps in support for individuals, families and caregivers facing end-of-life challenges and move towards a culture of engaging openly as a community about conversations of loss and grief and support for each other through this process.

Supporting Young and Emerging Leaders

Community led and culturally safe holistic supports to strengthen self-determination.

Building on the legacy of Ruby Hunter, the Foundation will work alongside community on Peramangk Country to support young and emerging leaders, elders and community members to gather in spaces and ways to strengthen self-determination and support each other. 

Their work will explore the role Ruby Hunter Foundation can play in supporting opportunities for community to come together in culturally safe ways to work through challenges and come together around priorities and opportunities.

Pride over Prejudice: LGBTIQA+ community solutions to hate and discrimination

Capacity to develop LGBTIQA+ community-led solutions to hate and discrimination

SARAA will bring together members of the LGBTIQA+ community across South Australia to share their experiences in a spirit of healing, to build their shared community knowledge, and explore and strengthen ways to support each other in the face of the stigma and discrimination that continues to negatively impact mental health and wellbeing.

Their hope is to create spaces that allow for community to feel affirmed, supported, connected and resourced to advocate for services and systems to be safe, inclusive and standing against discrimination.

Thriving Together: Co-Creating Well-being Supports for Parents of Autistic Children

Community-informed model supporting parent well-being, connection, and resilience.

Recognising an unmet need in the community, Autism SA aims to increase understanding of the unique wellbeing challenges faced by parents of autistic children by engaging in deep learning around the lived experiences of the autism community.

Drawing on its longstanding and strong connection with the Autistic and autism communities as South Australia’s autism peak body, Autism SA will use a co-design approach to understand and develop a model that supports parents of autistic children to feel connected and supported. 

The hope is that this approach may be replicated across different communities and empower members of the autism community to thrive together.

Understanding lived experience of infant removals in South Australia: a platform for change

Knowledge development for capability building and supportive lived experience network.

Drawing on the perspectives of those involved with statutory child protection in South Australia, The Reily Foundation aims to identify ways to support parents before, during, and after infant removals by listening deeply to those impacted by this experience. 

In disseminating findings gathered through deep community consultation, and elevating the voices of those with lived experience of infant removal, this project hopes to inform systems change at the intersection of child protection and health in South Australia and promote positive, long-term outcomes for families and the broader community. 

Exploring the Mental Health and Wellbeing of South Australian Changemakers Connected to South Australian Grassroots Ecosystem (SAGE)

Co-created community resources and practices for capacity building

SAGE, as a volunteer-run, community-centred grassroots collective, will spend time with South Australian changemakers who advocate for environmental, societal and political change, to explore what strengthens and sustains their mental health and wellbeing.

Community-led insights will inform the co-creation of resources and strategies designed to support the wellbeing of changemakers. Resources and findings may be shared with other communities in the hope that they may benefit and build upon this work.

Miish33 (Happiness) Through Music

Build community capacity through connection, learning, and the  power of music.

Mariposa Trails, spent time with their community building relationships and listening to what is needed for appropriate, culturally informed approaches and spaces that create connection to people, culture, strength and safety to share and seek support.

They held community learning circles, connected through music and dance, and developed a working party where community members tested and developed new ideas and resources with their community.

Mariposa Trails are currently a Discovery Grant Partner expanding on their learning form Spark to develop with community three components Safe space, Peer to Peer Practice, and Growth of a community based movement.

The Best Of Our Culture. Steps To The Future

Strengthen sense of identity, family, kinship and culture.

Umoona Tjutagku Health Service intend to strengthen community resilience by supporting opportunities for members of their community to collect knowledge of their heritage, culture, language, and ceremonies.

Through tracing their family trees, knowing who they are connected to, strengthening ties to the land and capturing the stories, the dance and the language of the elders they hope to strengthen cultural pride within their local Aboriginal community and support a sense of belonging and social and emotional wellbeing.

Building Together Tumby Bay

Demonstrate how capacity building can create a strong and healthy community network.

Beacon of Hope explored with their community opportunities and ideas that will support preventative & sustainable approaches to improve mental wellbeing and what is needed for everyone in their community to thrive. 

  They spent time in schools, with community groups, and in individual conversations to develop community insights about what people are experiencing, and the role they could play in bringing community together for improved wellbeing. 

  Beacon of Hope are establishing a safe and welcoming community space, and working with their whole community to build a culture of connection, support, acceptance and belonging across their whole community.

The Rainbow Dog: A Positive Mental Health Initiative For The LGBTI+ Community

Capacity building, connecting Rainbow Community, identifying positive mental health strategies.

Rainbow Hub SA listened to the stories of LGBTI+ elders who experienced a sudden illness and or a life changing event to explore the impact of this on their mental wellbeing and sense of identity.

This project initially managed by the Rainbow Hub as part of COTA SA, was transferred to the newly independent Rainbow Hub SA in July 2024 for the project’s completion. Rainbow Hub SA wishes to acknowledge and thank COTA SA for all their support.

Through this journey, Rainbow Hub SA developed an understanding of the many different ways this is personally experienced and the impact that past personal experiences, connection with community, and the quality and inclusion of health care make on people’s support and wellbeing during this time.

Rainbow Hub SA has a strong community consultative group who have journeyed and advised since the project inception and are continuing to engage to take action to build new connections, resources and support informed by their shared learnings and experiences.

Exploring prevention and wellbeing with Parents for Parents

Capacity building, empowering, connecting, educating and supporting parents/carers.

Parents for Parents worked to identify opportunities to recognise strengths in families and the vital role that parents play in the wellbeing of their children.  

Aiming to reduce harm from poor mental health/suicidality in South Australian children/young people, Parents for Parents sought to better understand what successful preventative approaches to mental health across all stages could look like, within a context of parents/carers 'first fitting their own oxygen masks'.

Now And Beyond

Build a deeper understanding and organisational capability with their community.

Youth Options spent time listening and learning with their community to understand what preventative supports they could develop and provide that would help young people understand and learn to manage their own wellbeing independently.

Youth Options are continuing to build on what they heard during Spark to develop a suite of learnings, tools, and resources that young people can develop and implement during their time with them that build the conditions for wellbeing.

Breakthrough Mental Health worked with community to understand and unravel the minefield of accessing mental health support when experiencing distress and identify what might be missing in terms of current pathways and responses.

They heard that current pathways to accessing support aren’t meeting the diversity of people, experiences, their geographical location and needs and that there are barriers to access such as timeliness, the provision of clear, simple or culturally informed information, or local responses. The pathways that do exist aren’t presenting people with adequate choice, agency or opportunities for preventative, person centred, and compassionate support.

They’re looking to explore sector partnerships and work with community and people with lived experience to understand how accessibility, information, and options can be developed in a context that is supportive, respectful, simple, and compassionate and doesn’t provide further harm and distress.

Murray Mallee GP Network explored the viability of a social enterprise for the purpose of creating opportunities for meaningful activity and connection to address social determinants contributing to poor mental health for their community.

Murray Mallee GP Network were able to use their Spark Grant to boldly explore and test ideas that were coming from community in a way that respected grassroots knowledge and personal experience. One of their major learnings was that for community members being asked, listened to, and actively involved in shaping what they would like to see for themselves and their community felt powerful and validating. During their Spark journey they learnt not only that community supported the idea but wanted to be involved and contribute to building a community place of connection, purpose and most importantly, hope.

During Spark they unearthed what was most important to get right for its success, developed a basic operating model, gathered community and stakeholder support, and learnt from other social enterprises. They are looking to get started and build their social enterprise over time.

Talk Out Loud worked alongside young people to explore and design what resources might support them during times of emotional crisis or distress.

During Spark, Talk Out Loud engaged with their community and with healthcare professionals and heard that there is a strong calling from all perspectives for young people to be provided with supportive, empowering information, and hope and connection to those who can listen and walk alongside them through recovery. Talk Out Loud heard that what this looks like is different for different people, but that connection is vital. The support offered by organisations such as Talk Out Loud is in high demand, and it is going to take a networked approach to shift how we support young people in emotional crisis, rather than a simple solution within any one organisation’s control.

Talk Out Loud are building on what they heard to expand their offerings, locations, and ways of connecting with young people to provide hope in moments of distress. They are working alongside their broader community and networks to explore what it takes to shift from service or solutions, to empowering, connected, and strengths based offerings.

St. John's Youth Services (SJYS) worked alongside those accessing their services to explore what they would like to see offered as pathways to support their wellbeing.

In partnership with the Lived Experience Leadership and Advocacy Network (LELAN) they learned from the young people accessing their services about what opportunities, conditions and relationships would support their holistic wellbeing. These insights informed eight recommendations ranging from greater opportunities to socially connect, the nature of their relationship with workers and the desire for services to be by, for, and with young people.

SJYS are now looking to explore how they might incorporate some of these ideas and co-create them with their community throughout all levels of their organisation.

Tribes United Fitness engaged with community members to design a strength-based approach for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women to come together on Country to reclaim power and heal.

Through Spark, Rikki Wilson of Tribes Unites Fitness nurtured safe spaces and drew on the strengths already present in community to delve deeper, past labels, to listen and build a way of being, connecting and learning together with people from all different roles and life experiences.

Together, they shared through stories and conversations what heals and provides strength and created opportunities for community to own and author the path forward.

Through this listening a model was developed in a cultural way, in language, that community can identify themselves in. The program covers history, language, and dreaming stories, to be connected to culture and belonging. Tribes United Fitness are developing this model and offering to run healing retreats. They’re also looking at how it can inform or be adapted into mainstream services to provide safe and culturally informed support.

Plaza Youth Centre engaged with their community to determine new pathways for connection that address the root causes of social isolation experienced by young people in Whyalla and Port Augusta.

During Spark, young people shared that they want opportunities and safe places to spend time and have fun without being defined by labels or having to be a certain way. By creating avenues to be heard, peer leaders were nurtured and developed events, programs and activities for young people with huge turn outs. By connecting with broader community groups, it was heard that people want to support young people but didn't know how - Plaza Youth has weaving together connections and avenues for the community to support young people in ways they want to be supported. 

Plaza Youth has gone on to receive government funding to support their outreach, and community activities and to further develop their youth peer leader program. Their young leaders are continuing furthering their education, and developing confidence to better support and advocate for other young people in their community.