The day started with a cup of tea and getting to know each other a little better, and in particular what everyone was hoping to get out of the time together. There was generosity in sharing about projects, community hopes, what everyone had to offer and share with others, and a strong desire to learn from each other in this journey.
Representatives from two of our 2022 Discovery Projects, Ukash Ahmed from MCCSA Men’s Community Connections Project and Dr Michele Jarldorn from the University of South Australia with Seeds of Affinity Lindabot App Project joined us to share their experiences, learn from our new partners, and to collectively build knowledge, insights, and community evidence for change.
The morning conversation explored what was different about the Discovery opportunity compared to past funding experiences and how this supports organic learning and development with community. Some of the key differences that our partners value are the ability to:
Stay true to the intention of the project and what community wants, without being bound to specific deliverables, timelines, or predetermined outcomes.
Follow the learnings, change, expand,and adapt the scope of the discovery journey to community priorities.
Develop community agency, personal and collective development and connection, and engage in new experiences that open doors and ripples of change.
Take the time to do things in a community way, with community member experience at the heart, including pausing or slowing when community has other priorities, or needs, navigating structural processes that aren’t built to support working with community, or for community to find their own way in understanding the project, what might be possible and setting the direction as they build confidence.
As the day went on, and conversations deepened into the details of everyone's work; their values and approaches, our partners recognised a shared desire to use their experiences and learnings during this journey to collectively influence policies and systems to better support community led work.
We are different organisations, with different communities, different priorities and different approaches but we are all the same in that we believe that we need to do things differently for better outcomes for community.
Through this get together, our partners were able to recognise their common values, and form insights about current barriers and opportunities, to take forward in how they work individually and collectively during Discovery. Some of these insights were:
The move from an idea to activation is messy and it takes time, it requires space and freedom to experiment and get it right before implementation or scaling.
Local activation that is relationship focussed, has an emphasis on good process, and responds to gaps and community priorities is common sense in how we make meaningful change and ensure systems support people. However this isn't common practice, or widely supported.
By sharing this experience together, and with others, our partners can learn, share and support each other in staying true to this way of working and developing evidence of its impact.
We look forward to sharing more about this journey as it progresses. In the meantime, learn more about our Discovery partners below.
African Women's Federation of SA
Through community conversations and research, they will explore all aspects of maternal care, birth trauma and its impact on CALD women in South Australia guided by a passionate Reference Group of CALD women, community leaders, and birth trauma and wellbeing advocates. AWFOSA's commitment to person-centred, lived experience and culturally informed perspectives will drive the work, with the goal of shifting systems and practices to better meet community needs.
Our great hope will be for the voice of CALD women and their birthing experiences to be heard. We hope to discover and document their cultural understanding of trauma in birth; what it means to them and how they want this understanding to be heard in the community and medical sector.
Mariposa Trails
Mariposa Trails will work with their community by focusing on three core components: Safe Space, Practice, and Growth for cultural safety, healing, connection and shared expertise. Building on community activation and cultural approaches tested in Spark, Mariposa Trails is committed to creating a strengths-based community movement of compassion and reciprocal support without judgement, whilst advocating for change within mainstream services.
Our hope is to grow our movement of community members who are trained and confident to create a space of connection for people through shared stories and experiences, that is built on compassion and enables people to feel hope, and see opportunity in how to move forward with community and formal support where needed.
Neighbourhood Node
This initiative not only looks to strengthen community bonds but also to enrich lives by fostering shared learning, growth, economic participation, and civic engagement. With a strong understanding of social determinants, the project focuses on building community, purpose, and possibility. Drawing on their long-established community network and social enterprise, the Minor Works Project takes a "learning by doing" approach, committed to testing and trialling at small scales to uncover key principles, a replicable model, and system-wide insights.
We hope the Minor Works Program will spark a cultural shift in how we work together as a community—empowering individuals, building capacity, and transforming the way we approach collective action. By fostering collaboration and shared purpose, we aim to create a neighbourhood where everyone feels confident to contribute, where our collective efforts drive meaningful change, and where individual and community wellbeing thrive in unison.