There has been a growing interest from people across the annual ChangeFest gatherings to continue to learn, connect and collaborate throughout the year. And so, the ChangeFest Learning Network now provides a regular opportunity for all of us across the movement to share practice and learn, to connect and build, and to take a deep breath and reflect.
The ChangeFest Learning Network will provide us all with the opportunity to listen and hear from each other in ways that will help us in our own work for community-led system change – whether it be in communities, government, large for purpose organisations and businesses.
April 2025 – Learning the Macleay: Building momentum for community action
Our first Learning Network event for 2025 will explore the story of Learning the Macleay, a community-led initiative that has taken big steps since its beginning only 2 years ago :
- From kick-off and making connections and building momentum at ChangeFest23
- To hearing the community voice through deep engagement
- To community action around key areas of priority including community governance
Join Jo-Anne Kelly (Partnership Lead) and the team as they share the outcomes of their community survey and engagement and together we will all explore the similarities and the differences across communities and our work.
Date: Thursday, 3 April, 2025
Time: 12.30 – 2.00pm (AEDT)
Location: by zoom
About Learning the Macleay
Learning the Macleay seeks to take action on three priorities:
- Racism – How might the issue of racism be approached in key critical areas such as policing and education and community members who want to engage but don’t see or feel its impact?
- Relationships – How might existing tensions between local Aboriginal community members and organisations and other organisations be held and processed to enable new ways of working together?
- Right Timing – How might Learning the Macleay hold competing tensions between the urgency for change and the time it takes to learn together differently?
About the presenters
Jo-Anne Kelly, Partnership Lead, Learning the Macleay
Jo-Anne Kelly is a proud Dunghutti woman who has worked across a range of government and Aboriginal community controlled organisations over the past 30 years. She has worked in education, training, cultural & heritage, governance, business planning, out of home care, family research, community development and capacity building.
She is a mother of two who are chasing their dreams as well and her son is a qualified primary school teacher who has a Master of Arts in Indigenous Social Policy, a Diploma in Project Management as well as a Diploma in Management.
Jo’s aspiration is to make her community a better one which builds on the legacy of both her parents and her siblings.
Jo loves to travel and explore and is eager to learn from other Indigenous cultures around the world. She has recently returned from trips to Canada and New Zealand with fresh ideas and inspiration from their First Nation’s People and their own challenges.
The ChangeFest Learning Network is a long-term plan – working developmentally to create diverse opportunities for learning and relationship building. In 2024 was a ‘try, test and learn’ phase and contained the following sessions:
December 2024 – The ChangeFest Statement in Action: What does it mean in your context
September 2024 – The Narrative: changing the story of catalytic events to mobilise a collaborative effort.
Reflect and Design – Learning Network 2025
As the Learning Network wraps up for 2024, it is time to turn our minds to 2025. It is time to collectively reflect and review how the kickoff to the Learning Network went in 2024 and what is needed next to expand the learning and influencing of the ChangeFest Movement.
This is an opportunity to engage and shape the Learning Network moving forward.
This is your Movement, and we need your voice, your views, your ideas.
This will be two meetings of up to two hours across late January to early February. The only pre-requisite is an interest in reflective practice (no experience necessary). If you attended the Learning Network – it will be great to hear your experiences; if you didn’t that’s great too – come with your ideas and a willingness to listen and learn with others in the movement.
Does this sound like you? If you are interested, or have questions, get in touch at changefest@changefest.com.au – we’d really love to hear from you.
Share your story
If you have a story or a challenge you want to share at a lunch time session – or build collective action around, please get in touch at changefest@changefest.com.au. We are particularly keen to highlight stories that embody principles of the ChangeFest Statement, namely:
- Shared leadership: between First Nations and other Australians
- Collaboration: recognising the roles we each play in changing the systems and the need to work together on complex challenges
- Power: that effective place based change is when communities are enabled to lead and work in collaboration with other decision makers and power holders.