Program Highlights

Below is a list of featured highlights at this year's conference to give delegates more detail about what to expect from the program. More items will be added as information is confirmed.

Pre-Conference Concurrent Workshops | Monday, 28 August 2023 (1.00pm - 4.30pm)

Carolyn Cousins

Beyond Self Care: The impact of empathy and connection on the professional and personal self

Exploring recent research implications in relation to emotional contagion, this pre-conference workshop will outline how new understandings of empathy are changing the focus of self care for those who do ‘helping' work. As well as exploring the personal and professional impacts and toll, it will take the implications beyond the individual, and consider how organisations can respond to ensure their staff are able to both survive and thrive in their work.

Facilitator: Carolyn Cousins


Amanda Tattersall

Our power is community: Strengthening the culture of collaboration in and across our community centres

This session will explore questions of power and relationships as key practices and principles for strengthening our work. This seminar style discussion will move through reflective conversations about our passion for community centres, and evaluate our work during Covid-19 as a way to ground how we see our strengths and our challenges. The session then moves through two substantive pieces of content - one on power and one on relationships. These concepts are explored using approaches drawn from community organising. The goal is to challenge how we look at relationships and power, but also to strengthen our skills for building power (power mapping) and relationships (relational meetings).

Facilitator: Amanda Tattersall