March/April Recap

Building a movement for change through intentional relationship building and networking.

These last few months, we have had more wonderful connections and conversations with other like-minded people interested in building strong healthy communities and exploring new narratives about suicide and suicide prevention.

Firstly we held our inaugural gathering of “Change Makers and Treasure Hunters” — a group of people working locally in Collective Impact-style approaches to change-making.

So far this group includes Thriving Queensland Kids Partnership (TQKP), Cairns South Together/ Mission Australia, the Cairns Collective Impact on Family and Domestic Violence (CCIDFV) and, of course, the Life Promotion and Suicide Prevention FNQ Collaborative.

Instantly we found commonality. So, how do you explain this “backbone” role? How do you describe or account for how long this sort of process will take? Whose “wins” are the “wins”?

And then came the excitement of shared ideas, practices and opportunities. One of the things that's so exciting about this coming together is the synergy and the intersection of community issues we each work on. We have imagined some form of Community of Practice, a framework in which we share practice, explore the things that challenge us and map ways of working.

We will meet again!

We went on to meet with the effervescent Patricia O’Neill CEO of the Chamber of Commerce Cairns. We know the business community plays a major role in all aspects of creating viable and vibrant communities, so connecting with the Chamber of Commerce has been on our “need to connect with” list for a while. We were delighted to catch up with Patricia.

The Chamber of Commerce is a membership-based organisation servicing the Cairns business community. As a member organisation, it is clear that part of the role of the CEO and her team is to hear members' challenges and to offer a listening ear and wise advice.

When we bring up suicide prevention, often someone’s first thought is “oh no, that’s not my thing”, but what we explored with Patricia is that it can be those small acts of extra attention and listening that can make a difference. It can also be in the way we carry out our day-to-day business. We look forward to more conversations with The Chamber of Commerce in Cairns.

We were also very happy to meet up with Sharon Kinchela, Project Lead at Yarns Heal from the Queensland Council for LGBTI Health. Her project work includes education, training, peer support, sexual health and safe talk with a focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, specifically the LGBTIQ+, Sistergirl and Brotherboy people. Sharon described herself as an ally and an advocate.

We spoke about vulnerabilities and challenges for young First Nations people exploring their sexual identity in safe and culturally appropriate spaces, as well as what it might take to create those safe spaces.

This project work is crucial for our Life Promotion and Suicide Prevention FNQ Collaborative. We look forward to welcoming Sharon to one of our future events to connect with everyone.

Each of these meetings is part of our priority to build a movement for change through intentional engagement and networking.