9:00 AM - 12:00 PMWorkshop A: Working collaboratively across sectors to assist people with complex needs to sustain tenancies
- Build integrated practice based on clear understanding of support and housing provider roles
- Prototype coordinated referral, tenancy and/or case management systems that prevent re-traumatisation
- Design tenancy sustainment frameworks for people with co-existing and complex needs
- Produce a practical implementation roadmap for your organisation
Facilitator:

Leah Watkins
Senior Advisor Supportive Housing Impact and Advocacy
Housing Choices Western Australia
9:00 AM - 12:00 PMWorkshop B: Breaking the cycle of homelessness and disadvantage with a data-driven approach
- Developing a data-driven framework to ending homelessness: fundamentals and key concepts
- Moving away from short-term siloed responses and focusing on long-term, systemic solutions
- Action planning and setting up an Advance to Zero initiative including a by-name list
- Leveraging real-time data
Facilitator:

David Pearson
Chief Executive Officer
Australian Alliance to End Homelessness

Kate Feeney
Director Community Impact
End Street Sleeping Collaboration
1:00 PM - 4:00 PMWorkshop C: Co-designing and integrating a culturally informed framework to outreach, case management and service delivery
- Apply culturally informed principles to redesign outreach, case management, and service delivery so that client interactions are safer, more inclusive, and aligned with the needs of First Nations communities and other culturally diverse groups.
- Integrate co-design methodologies by working with people with lived experience to identify system blind spots, redesign client pathways, and ensure programs genuinely reflect community priorities and cultural contexts.
- Develop a practical, organisation-ready framework that embeds cultural safety, trauma-informed practice, and relational approaches into day-to-day service delivery, workforce capability, and cross-sector collaboration.
- Strengthen accountability and outcomes measurement by identifying culturally relevant indicators and aligning service delivery with long-term housing stability, healing, and sustained tenancy outcomes
Facilitator:
Tina Ugle
Managing Director
Noongar Mia Mia
Elsie Blay
COO
RUAH
7:00 AM Registration opens
8:30 AM Welcome to Country
8:40 AM Opening remarks from the Chair

Jackson Hills
CEO
National Shelter
Morning Plenary: Practical system reform for a coherent housing and homelessness response
8:50 AM Ministerial Address: All Paths Lead to a Home: 10 Year Homelessness strategy 2020 – 2030

Hon. Matthew Swinbourn MLC
Minister for the Environment, Community Services
Homelessness, WA
9:00 AM Opening keynote: Regulating Australia’s rental market and protecting vulnerability
- Understanding how regulation is helping vulnerable cohorts
- Unpacking the policy framework
- What can the sector do to work with the regulators

Trina Jones
NSW Rental Commissioner
NSW Government
9:30 AM Case study: Preventing youth homelessness: guaranteeing housing pathways for care leavers through policy reform and corporate parenting
- Reframing care leaver homelessness as a preventable system failure, positioning housing as a core corporate parenting responsibility rather than a crisis response
- Understanding why care leavers make up 62% of homeless youth, and why extending care to 21, while critical, has not reduced homelessness without parallel housing policy reform
- Applying an evidence-based national housing framework, including the proposal to ringfence 5,000 HAFF homes for care leavers, drawing on international and Australian reform strategies
- Translating advocacy into legislative and policy change, sharing practical insights from the Home Stretch campaign on getting governments and philanthropy “over the line” through persistence, dialogue, and strategic reform architecture

Paul McDonald
Chief Executive Officer
Anglicare Victoria
Chair
Home Stretch
10:00 AM Panel Discussion: Breaking the cycle and ending the homelessness crisis: strategies in early intervention and prevention
- What is the data telling us: unpacking the trends and insights
- Understanding the lack of investment in prevention and early intervention
- Discussing programs that have worked and understanding what hasn’t worked
- Developing a co-ordinated, sustainable early intervention and prevention response
Panellists:

Mitchell Burney
Head of Children, Youth, Families & Housing Supports
Quantum Support Services

Shane Hamilton
Chief Executive Officer
Aboriginal Hostels Limited
Moderator:

Jackson Hills
CEO
National Shelter
10:40 AM Morning refreshments
Chair:

Fiona Caniglia
Chief Executive Officer
QShelter
11:10 AM Case study: Addressing the policy gaps and providing access and equity to a marginalised cohort
- Understanding the policy gaps and advocating to address them
- Providing nuanced and culturally safe support a marginalised cohort of women on visas
- Navigating the risks and mapping out next steps

Mariam Deng
Director of Client Services
Australian Muslim Women’s Centre for Human Rights
11:40 AM Case study: Developing sustainable, data-informed pathways out of homelessness for youth
- Unpacking the data: the state of youth homelessness and housing insecurity today
- Empowering and supporting youth to sustain tenancies through rental subsidies and brokerage supports
- Providing stable and secure housing to promote independent living

Di Kapera
State Director NSW/ACT
Mission Australia
12:10 PM Case study: Designing trauma-informed, community-led responses to domestic and family violence in homelessness services
- Designing refuge and crisis responses through trauma-informed, strengths-based practice grounded in women’s lived experience
- Co-designing programs with women and children to improve engagement, retention, and long-term outcomes
- Building wraparound, collaborative service models that integrate community, specialist services, and housing pathways
- Embedding First Nations leadership and Aboriginal women’s ways of working to deliver culturally safe, effective practice

Billie-Jo Williams
Team Leader, Domestic & Family Violence Services
Link Wentworth
Amanda Sweeney
Community Engagement Coordinator
Link Wentworth
12:40 PM Networking luncheon
1:40 PM Case study: Trauma-informed housing models and partnerships that enable women to thrive
- Trust as a deliberate, designable element of trauma-informed service delivery
- Recognise how community-building and peer connection reduce stigma and isolation, creating pathways to confidence and independence
- Challenge narrow KPIs (e.g. 12-month tenancy sustainment) and consider broader, more meaningful outcome measure
- Explore how partnerships between community housing providers and women-specialist organisations unlock outcomes that cannot be achieved in isolation

Libby Caskey
Senior Manager, Partnerships and Impact
Women’s Housing Company
2:10 PM Case study: The critical role of temporary supported accommodation in supporting people to transition safely from detox, sobriety, and rough sleeping into stable housing
- Explore how integrated housing and support models can address complex mental health, addiction, and social needs in high-density and transitional settings
- Learn how cross-sector partnerships between housing, homelessness, detox, and support services improve long-term sobriety, safety, and housing outcomes

Jamie Brewer
Regional Manager, Communities and Care
Bridge Housing
CEO
Detour House Inc

Cindi Petersen
CEO
Detour House Inc
Chair:

John Engeler
Chair
National Shelter
11:10 AM Case study: Developing and scaling culturally-informed housing in regional areas to drive healing, tenancy readiness and sustained outcomes
- Understanding how a culturally informed, relationship-based case management frameworks drives tenancy readiness, healing, and sustained outcomes
- Exploring the Gibber House model was built from the ground up to respond to the unique needs of Aboriginal men, centred on culture, safety, and trust
- Unpacking measurable outcomes, including supporting 120 men in 5–9 months, and the wrap-around supports that enabled this
- Next steps: scaling and replicating the model in regional and urban contexts while addressing funding barriers and sector challenges

Kristie Burge
Founder and Executive Director
Bunmabunmarra Services
11:40 AM Case study: Using AI to de-risk housing development: improving quality, capacity, and delivery in affordable housing
- How AI is being applied across the full development lifecycle to manage risk and improve quality assurance
- The efficiencies gained through reducing human error and accelerating due diligence, planning, and delivery processes
- How AI supports stronger governance, board decision-making, and investment confidence
- Practical lessons on building workforce capability and confidence through play-based AI adoption

Charles Northcote
Chief Executive Officer
BlueCHP
12:10 PM Case study: Co-designing safe, youth-led housing to deliver better design and stronger tenancy outcomes
- Apply co-design to create fit-for-purpose youth housing that improves safety
- Translate lived experience into practical design solutions
- Design housing that supports long-term tenancy outcomes, not crisis cycling
- Strengthen housing supply outcomes through scalable, youth-informed design models

Rebecca Mullins
Chief Executive Officer
My Foundations Youth Housing

Jacqui Brooker
Youth Housing & Support Manager
My Foundations Youth Housing

Exvin Curnuck
Youth Homelessness Advocate

Lixen Peglar
Youth Homelessness Advocate

Alicia Gordon
Case Work Manager
YP Space MNC
12:40 PM Networking luncheon
1:40 PM Case study: Explore place-based, community-informed design to improve tenant wellbeing whilst reducing long-term operational costs
- Build internal development capability to move from aspiration to a funded delivery pipeline
- Establish in-house capability, governance and systems to confidently progress multiple projects from concept to construction
- Empower the boards to manage growth, risk and investment at scale
- Examine the operational, workforce and system changes required to effectively develop and manage higher density, mixed-tenure housing

Sharon Shearsmith
Chief Executive Officer
St Vincent de Paul Society Queensland Housing
2:10 PM Case study: Housing cooperatives and the missing middle: delivering permanently affordable housing through shared equity and community governance
- Housing cooperatives as a solution to the missing middle providing secure, affordable housing for households locked out of both social housing and private rental/ ownership systems
- Understand how long-term tenure, collective decision-making and tenant participation reduce housing stress, improve wellbeing and support sustained tenancies
- Identify pathways to grow and scale cooperative housing in Australia including policy settings, CHP partnerships and regional opportunities

Georgina Leader
General Manager, Corporate Services
Common Equity Housing South Australia

Nick Sabel
CEO
Common Equity NSW
Chair:

Shane Todd
Director Closing the Gap
ACHIA NSW
11:10 AM Case study: Unlocking sustainable housing funding: building the capital stack to scale affordable housing
- How to structure a capital stack using government-backed funding, ethical debt, private finance, and equity
- What banks, ethical lenders, and equity investors are actually looking for when assessing housing projects
- How housing providers can leverage their ethical and social impact credentials as a competitive advantage
- When and how private and institutional capital (including superannuation) can be engaged to support long-term housing delivery

Thomas Griffiths
General Manager, Strategy
BaptistCare NSW and ACT
11:40 AM Case study: Uncovering and understanding the data behind the biggest challenges facing the homelessness sector in order to better inform service delivery, investment and policy
- Overview of Specialist Homelessness Service Collection and key populations: unaccompanied children, family domestic violence, mental health
- Value add of integrated data in understanding the interconnectedness of service delivery: Specialist Homelessness Services, Alcohol and Other Drugs, Child Protection, Youth Justice
- Building a picture of multiple disadvantage: using person centric analysis to understand mortality outcomes

Anne-Marie Rushby
Group Manager Housing and Specialised Services
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
12:10 PM Faith-on-land: removing planning barriers, leveraging data, and activating community-embedded assets to deliver social and affordable housing at scale
- Rethinking zoning and planning to activate faith-owned land for affordable and social housing
- Understand how data-driven asset mapping can improve engagement and support
- Translate lessons from NSW to a national context, including scaling the mapping tool,
- Strategies to address stigma and community resistance
Moderator:

Voula Moutsos
Executive Leader NHIF CT
Housing Australia
12:40 PM Networking luncheon
1:40 PM Case Study: Social Impact Bonds to fund social and affordable housing: the good, the bad and the ugly
- Demonstrating success and gaining investment from private investors
- Lobbying for support and buy-in from government and other critical stakeholders
- Lessons learned: the importance of having commitments made from the outset

Chris Burns
CEO
Hutt St Centre
2:10 PM Case study: Diversifying income streams to address the funding challenges and cultural influences on the operation of the housing continuum to close the gap
- Understanding the importance of Aboriginal communities developing their own responses & service models that respond to the nuances of the housing continuum
- Adopting an approach to tenancy management that goes beyond compliance to drive better outcomes
- Exploring different income streams from profit-for-purpose, industry partnerships, philanthropy and government funding

Lisa Sampson
Chief Executive Officer
ACHIA NSW
2:40 PM Afternoon refreshments
System coordination, prevention and sustainable pathways
3:10 PM From Investment to Impact: Government-led system coordination to deliver sustainable housing pathways
- Outlining the scale and intent of current Victorian housing investment and how different programs work together across the housing continuum
- Explaining how planning powers, redevelopment, and mixed-tenure approaches are being used to accelerate delivery and support prevention and sustainable pathways
- Highlighting collaboration with housing providers, homelessness services, and Aboriginal housing organisations, including opportunities for better system integration
- Providing insight into what’s next over the coming 5–10 years, and how the sector can better engage with government, funding cycles, and partnership opportunities

Simon Newport
Chief Executive Officer
Homes Victoria
3:40 PM Roundtables
Roundtable 1: A strategic, policy-driven approach to ending homelessness
Facilitated by:

David Pearson
Chief Executive Officer
Australian Alliance to End Homelessness
Roundtable 2: Developing a case management framework for homelessness
Roundtable 2: Housing First in 2026: The benefit and challenges
Facilitated by:

Leah Watkins
Senior Advisor Supportive Housing Impact and Advocacy
Housing Choices Western Australia
Roundtable 3: First Nations housing and tenancy reform
Facilitated by:

Lisa Sampson
Chief Executive Office
ACHIA NSW
Roundtable 4: Designing tenancy support for clients with complex needs
Facilitated by:

Paul Wright
National Manager of Policy, Advocacy & Government Relations
Mission Australia
4:40 PM Putting First Nations People Before Property - Practical Pathways to Home Ownership
- Transformative collaboration: presenting an innovative partnership model with the Aboriginal Housing Office, focused on mutual collaboration and shared policy goals
- Empowering First Nations home ownership: showcasing how strength-based partnerships enable First Nations households to build their capacity and achieve home ownership, prioritising dignity, agency, and self-determination
- System-wide social and economic impact: examining how promoting First Nations home ownership can alleviate the pressure on social housing, foster long-term stability and financial security, and create positive ripple effects throughout homelessness and housing systems
- Leadership and cultural safety at the core: highlighting proven, replicable models that place First Nations leadership, cultural safety, and empowerment at the heart of home ownership, paving the way for intergenerational stability and meaningful systems change

Karen Walsh
Executive Advisor Strategy and Sustainable Housing Solutions
Head Start Homes

Pam Jackson
Executive Director - First Nations Collaboration
Head Start Homes

Debbie Avery
Manager, Home Ownership
Aboriginal Housing Office (AHO)
5:10 PM Closing remarks and end of conference
8:30 AM Registration opens
8:50 AM Opening remarks from the Chair

Karen Walsh
Executive Advisor Strategy and Sustainable Housing Solutions
Head Start Homes
Integrated system design and future accountability
9:00 AM Keynote: The challenges of boosting fit-for-purpose housing stock and strategies to overcome them
- Navigating current and future challenges including aging-in-place, climate change and growing need for place-based supports
- Optimising aging assets
- Adopting Modern Methods of Construction

Michael Wheatle
Head of Housing Portfolio
Homes NSW
9:30 AM Successfully navigating HAFF
- Developing a strategic approach to growth and looking beyond bids and contracts
- Setting the organisation up for greater complexity: from building capacity and skills set to having the right governance structures in place
- Uplifting service delivery by putting the customer at the centre

Laurie Leigh
CEO
Bridge Housing
10:00 AM Leadership Panel: Futureproofing systems, building capability and forming critical partnerships to address the systemic challenges facing the housing sector
- Addressing the challenges faced by short-termism in funding and the focus on bricks-n-mortar vs. services
- Driving the internal changes necessary adapt to greater complexity; including governance and capacity building
- The focus on partnerships: what do effective partnerships look like and how they can be leveraged to unlock greater outcomes
- The role of leaders play in finding solutions to the sticky problems – from low stock, limited funding and much more
Panellists:

Shari McPhail
General Manager, Homelessness and Housing
Wayss

Penny Kaleta
Chief Executive Officer
Habitat for Humanity Australia

Jason Juretic
Chief Executive Officer
Stepping Stone House

Deborah Di Natale
CEO
Council to Homeless Persons
Moderator:

Luke Achterstraat
Chief Executive Officer
Community Housing Industry Association (CHIA NSW)
10:40 AM Morning refreshments
Chair:

Fiona Caniglia
Chief Executive Officer
QShelter
11:10 AM Case study: Mobilising and engaging communities and volunteers to strengthen housing outcomes
- The role of community-based, volunteer-led services in rebuilding trust with people experiencing homelessness and acting as a gateway to housing and support pathways
- Practical strategies for mobilising volunteers and the broader community as advocates for housing solutions, particularly in the face of growing NIMBYism and community pushback
- Lessons from large-scale volunteer engagement models to strengthen community buy-in, collaboration, and local legitimacy for housing initiatives
- Reframe community engagement as a system enabler of Housing First outcomes through dignity, and connection

Shayne Herriott
Director of Operations
OrangeSky
11:40 AM Case study: Youth Foyers - inspiring possibility through Advantaged Thinking
- How Advantage Thinking reframes young people as agents of change with strengths, talents, and aspirations
- How the Youth Foyer model applies this philosophy through housing, education, employment, and life-skills supports
- What the national Youth Foyer outcomes framework tells us about impact, learning, and continuous improvements
- The role of lived-experience leadership in shaping effective youth homelessness responses

Corin Moffat
Co-Chief Executive Officer
Foyer Foundation
12:10 PM Case Study: Home to Work an update 2 years in: how stable housing is improving employment outcomes and tenancy progression opportunities
- Home to Work: navigating differences across states and other challenges
- Developing relationships to provide wrap-around services for early intervention and to prevent re-homelessness
- Building operational readiness for the transformation and developing risk mitigation strategies
- Collaborating with the private rental sector to support Home2Work exits and tenancy progression

Annalisse Wirtz
National Housing Specialist
Workskil Australia
12:40 PM Networking luncheon
1:40 PM Case Study: Understanding emerging climate risks, reshaping public messaging, and preparing the sector for the next decade
- National Climate Risk Assessment as a framework for supporting people experiencing homelessness
- Building preparedness for the scale of climate impacts for rough sleepers and people across the spectrum of housing insecurity
- Integrating climate risk assessment and emergency responses into homelessness practice

Jon Swain
Manager, Homelessness
City of Sydney
2:10 PM Case Study: Understanding the root cause of hoarding and squalor to aid the development of strategies to address it and break the cycle of disadvantage and homelessness
- Unpacking the research and understanding underlying and independent factors
- The impacts on and of isolation and mental health
- Strategies to address hoarding and squalor and sustain tenancies
- The cost of inaction driving system pressure

Stacey Northover
Executive General Manager, Housing
Believe Housing Australia
Chair:

John Engeler
Chair
National Shelter
11:10 AM Case study: Unlocking greater housing stock through innovative meanwhile use models
- Collaborating with private sector partners such as landlords, developers, aged care and developers
- Navigating and making sense of changing planning regulations and red tape
- Garnering innovation funding to bring meanwhile use housing to life

Annabelle Daniel OAM
Chief Executive Officer
Women's Community Shelters
11:40 AM Case study: Delivering new stock on time and within budget: An exercise in effective project management, risk management and governance
- Best practice in building and maintaining relationships with developers and builders
- Strategies to be successful in a high-risk environment with the right controls and mitigating factors
- Lessons learned and next steps

Scott Bacon
Group Executive Manager of Strategic Assets and Growth
Home in Place
12:10 PM Case study: Maximising the impact of housing investment across the continuum through different models and partnerships
- Exploring how targeted funding models and innovative models like youth foyers and core and cluster are delivering meaningful outcomes for women and children escaping domestic violence, young people, and First Nations communities
- Showcasing the partnerships and cross-jurisdictional collaboration between state and territory governments and the housing sector that are turning significant investment into real, lasting change
- Identifying how we can collectively solve shared challenges and build a stronger, more responsive sector to meet the diverse needs of people at every stage of the housing continuum

Voula Moutsos
Executive Leader NHIF CT
Housing Australia
12:40 PM Networking luncheon
1:40 PM Case study: Place-making for young people leaving care to build belonging and bring together sustainable housing with timely coaching supports to prevent homelessness
- Designing and scaling tiny homes as transitional housing for youth leaving care with a community focus
- Working in partnership with young people to enable agency and decision-making
- Providing on-site and wrap around supports to support the transition to independent living in quality sustainable housing
- Integrating education and employment to support young people to realise their aspirations

Sean Lappin
Head of Impact
Junction Australia
2:10 PM Case Study: Optimising council land to increase the supply of affordable housing: the opportunities, challenges and lessons learned
- Increasing stock across the housing continuum including emergency housing, transitional and affordable housing
- Unpacking the social returns and how affordable housing can also achieve an economic and public purpose
- Leveraging data to understand the local context and how housing is central to a thriving community and economy

Ellen Bridge
Affordable Housing Officer
Central Coast Council
Chair:

Shane Todd
Director Closing the Gap
ACHIA NSW
11:10 AM Case study: Mobilising the community, fostering partnerships and navigating funding challenges to drive better outcomes for people facing homelessness and housing insecurity in regional Australia
- Identify practical strategies for engaging local businesses, volunteers, industry and community members to co-produce essential support
- Explore how a homelessness hub model can address immediate needs while also creating pathways to longer-term supports
- Identify how partnerships with health services, universities and community organisations can extend service reach without formal funding arrangements

Shannon Booth
Youth and Family Services Manager
Roseberry Qld
11:40 AM Case study: Pathways to Home Ownership for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander community in Victoria
- From Social Housing to Homeownership : Enabling Wealth Creation through Aboriginal Housing Victoria’s Renter Home Purchase Program Pilot
- Identify how community-led housing initiatives can address housing insecurity and build intergenerational wealth, offering a scalable model for Community Housing Providers seeking to expand ownership pathways
- Partnerships, schemes and grants that support First Peoples transition into homeownership

Daniela Davis
Manager Housing Pathways
Aboriginal Housing Victoria
12:10 PM Case study: Developing a culturally safe framework that supports Aboriginal self-determination and long-term housing outcomes
- Understanding the importance of authentic leadership
- Adopting a place-based approach
- The focus on language
- Embedding the framework across case management and other tools

Carla Leversedge
Alliance Senior Manager
Adelaide North West Homelessness Alliance
12:40 PM Networking luncheon
1:40 PM Case study: Embedding cultural authority and First Nations leadership in responses to Aboriginal housing and homelessness
- Reframing Aboriginal homelessness through colonisation, kinship, Country, and displacement
- Challenging deficit thinking and the misuse of “co-design” in government and mainstream services
- Embedding cultural competency and accountability at every organisational level, not just the frontline
- Restoring cultural authority to Aboriginal people to design, lead, and deliver programs for their communities

Patricia Cotton
Chief Executive Officer
Aboriginal Sobriety Group Indigenous Corporation
2:10 PM Case Study: Removing barriers and strengthening community-led responses to address Aboriginal overrepresentation in homelessness, rough sleeping and overcrowding
- Understanding the lived realities and systemic barriers driving Aboriginal homelessness in Greater Darwin
- Demonstrate how community-controlled, place-based models respond to complex regional and remote challenges
- Identify scalable reforms to improve access, safety, and long-term housing outcomes
- Inform policy, funding, and service design through Aboriginal community-led solutions

Scott McKeen
Chief Executive Officer
The Council for Aboriginal Alcohol Program Services
2:40 PM Afternoon refreshments
Mental Health and Housing Insecurity
3:10 PM Panel discussion: The interdependence of housing and mental health: How CHPs, Mental Health Services and Department of Health collaborate to break the cycle of homelessness through continuity of care and providing better supports to those with complex needs
- Understanding the link between housing and mental health
- Explore strategies for seamless care transitions across sectors, including disability, aged care, hospital, and community mental health services
- Identify opportunities for cross-sector collaboration and resource optimisation to amplify impact and improve accountability in housing and health services
Panellists:

Maria Woods
Director of DV & Community Services
HousingPlus Group

Kylie Ella
Deputy Chief Executive Office
TeamHEALTH

Margaret Maljkovic
Chief Customer Officer
Link Wentworth

Elsie Blay
COO
RUAH

Marianna Wong
Vocational and Housing Program Manager, Mental Health Drug & Alcohol
Northern Sydney Local Health District
Moderator:

William (Bill) Campos
Chief Executive Officer
ICLA
3:50 PM Beyond Goodwill: Integrating Housing, Disability, and Mental Health Supports for Sustainable Outcomes
- Understand the importance of integrated, person-centered care that connects housing, disability, mental health, and community supports
- Explore practical strategies to strengthen tenancy sustainment and prevent homelessness through proactive, coordinated interventions
- Identify approaches to move beyond goodwill and ad hoc solutions, embedding sustainable, scalable models within existing funding and policy frameworks
- Recognise the value of cross-sector collaboration, relationship-building, and shared accountability to improve outcomes for people with complex needs

Jeramy Hope
Chief Executive Officer
Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) Alliance

Giancarlo de Vera
Chief Executive Officer
BEING – Mental Health Consumers
4:30 PM Closing remarks and end of conference
7:00 AM Registration opens
8:30 AM Welcome to Country
8:40 AM Opening remarks from the Chair

Jackson Hills
CEO
National Shelter
Collaboration, coordination and transformation for system integration
8:50 AM Keynote: Embedding housing expertise in family services to deliver integrated, better housing outcomes
- Embedding housing specialists within family services teams to improve housing access and outcomes
- Delivering multidisciplinary, integrated practice that reduces system complexity for clients
- Structuring roles and workforce supports to sustain integrated models and retain staff
- Using outcomes tracking and comparative data to evidence impact and inform service design

Camila Aldred
Client Services Manager – Housing and Homelessness Programs
YFS Ltd

Katie McDonald
Insights, Evaluation and Innovations Manager
YFS Ltd
9:20 AM Panel Discussion: Co-designing services with lived experience to fix system blind spots
- Identify gaps caused by designing programs without end-user input
- Learn how lived experience leads to better outcomes for people fleeing domestic violence, youth, and First Nations communities
- Reduce system friction by aligning design with real client journeys
- Discover co-design techniques used successfully across Specialist Homelessness Services and mental health services
Moderator:

Jackson Hills
CEO
National Shelter
Panellists:

Tess Power
Strategic Projects Manager
Juno

Madelyn Fox
Lived Experience Advisory Group
Juno

Rachel Adams
Peer Practice Lead, Safe and Secure Housing Program
Neami National
10:00 AM Morning refreshments
10:30 AM Toward Home Alliance: How alliancing models can improve system transparency, innovation and funding parity for Aboriginal people and communities
- Alliancing principles: A collective impact approach to delivering specialist homelessness services
- Wardli-ana: Challenging system inequities through Aboriginal funding parity, Aboriginal-specific service delivery and improved outcomes

Jessie Neal
Team Leader, Toward Home Alliance,
Wardli-ana
Baptist Care

Isaac Hannam
Manager
Aboriginal Family Support Services,
Wardli-ana THA, AYCAm Tika Tirka, ReConnect
11:00 AM Supportive Housing: Evidence, Policy and Pathways to Scale
- What the evidence tells us
- How policy is driving consistency and reform
- From advocacy to delivery
Moderator:

Jackson Hills
CEO
National Shelter
Panellists:

Rob Molhoek MP(Southport)
(Southport)
Queensland Government

Danielle McAllister
Deputy Director General, Policy, Performance and First Nations
Department of Housing and Public Works, Queensland
11:40 AM Case study: Adopting strategic, collaborative approach to community development in social housing to create a foundation for meaningful, long-term impact
- Empowering teams and communities is essential to achieving sustainable social impact
- Addressing issues rooted in intergenerational trauma demands empathy and a strengths-based method to build trust and deliver meaningful programmes
- Building strong partnerships with organisations that provide specialist expertise are critical, while upskilling local people and fostering community leadership ensures lasting change
- Supporting staff to manage psycho-social demands, promoting resilience and emotional well-being. Together, these strategies

Steve Neale
Community Development Manager
CHL
12:10 AM Networking luncheon
1:10 PM Case Study: Exploring how a single point of access is improving coordination, visibility, and client experience across homelessness
- Understand how a centralised intake model works in practice, particularly in a geographically dispersed and regionally diverse context like the Northern Territory
- Identify the tangible benefits of a single, shared system, including better client experience, improved referrals, and clearer pathways into accommodation and support
- Navigating the challenges including recruitment, service alignment, and managing demand when supply is limited
- Unpacking learnings from collaboration, data visibility, and continuous improvement to strengthen intake, assessment, and referral processes
Panellists:

Susan Richards
Executive Manager Families and Community Services
LutheranCare

April Robinson
Senior Manager Homelessness – NT
LutheranCare
1:40 PM Launch Pad - Strengthening care transitions with a dedicated housing program to reduce homelessness for young people leaving care
- Strengthen tenancy stability with a dedicated housing team to generate smoother, safer transitions for young people leaving care
- Map care‑leaver journey with a real client case study to generate visibility of system gaps, touchpoints, and redesign opportunities
- Integrate transition planning with Launchpad’s TCP ready flexible staffing to generate stronger relational continuity and reduced service fragmentation
- Redesign youth housing pathways with evidence informed, developmentally appropriate options to generate longterm stability and improved wellbeing outcomes

Zak Davidson
Manager Youth Services
Meli
2:10 PM From Plan to Place: Delivering accommodation through collaboration with State Government
- Working with Government and local communities to rapidly transition services for high risk and vulnerable cohorts to ensure service continuity and improve care quality

Marie Louise Carroll
General Manager – Strategic Growth and Partnerships
Mercy Care

Jennie Burns
Executive Director – Family and Community Services
Mercy Care
2:40 PM Afternoon tea break
3:10 PM Mini Workshop: Embedding lived experience into case management and service delivery to uplift accountability and client outcomes
- The challenges of introducing lived experience into the homelessness and domestic & family violence space
- Educating teams and gaining buy-in and engagement
- Mapping out and standardising processes and positions and ensuring sustainability
- Accounting for intersectionality

Rachel Adams
Peer Practice Lead, Safe and Secure Housing Program
Neami National

Mubera Hadzic
Acting Service Manager, Safe and Secure Housing
Neami National

Cassi Strauss
Lived Experience leader
Neami National
4:10 PM Building Resilience and Upskilling Staff

Marie Louise Carroll
General Manager – Strategic Growth and Partnerships
Mercy Care

Jennie Burns
Executive Director – Family and Community Services
Mercy Care