We hope you are all enjoying the sunshine and longer hours that this time of year brings.

On behalf of Ali and all of us, we would like to extend our gratitude and appreciation to all of our members, and in particular those who attended our Annual General Meeting in Campbell Town last month. It was a great day and we saw the results of the elections for two Director positions on our board. We would like to acknowledge the contribution of outgoing ATDC Director Raylene Foster (Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre), and the re-election of Shirleyann Varney (Drug Education Network) on our board and welcome Damian Collins (Youth, Family and Community Connections) as a new ATDC Director. You can find more details on all ATDC Board members here, and read our 2020-21 Annual Report.

The discussions had at our AGM, around what you would like the ATDC to focus on in the next few years, will inform our next strategic plan. Rest assured though, there will be future opportunities to feed into this process. And we welcome it; even a phone call or email when you have time is a great way to have your voice heard. Thank you to Kym Goodes for your expert facilitation of these discussions.

Thanks also to Minister Jeremy Rockliff who launched our bright and shiny Lived Experience Advocate Service on the day. Along with Kyle Perry (Coordinator) and two Advocates (Kerrie and Ella), this was more than a launch. Kerrie and Ella shared their experiences of engaging with the service so far, demonstrating quite clearly the value of listening and involving.

So, now our service is launched, please get in touch with Kyle if you would like to find out more and have an advocate to come to your service. Meanwhile Greg Taylor has been supporting advocates to deliver workshops to organisations, and just this week Ella has delivered two in Smithton to member organisations.

I would also like to give a huge shout-out and recognition to the work that Dan Vautin and Cathy Gibson are leading – in the Sector Capacity Building part of our team. You will see the Navigating Client Complexity training is coming up, and there’s been some great foundation work geared to support the implementation of Cognitive Enhancement approaches across our sector next year. This area of our organisation is one to watch.

There’s more of course; Liz Knox our fabulous Communications Expert is a powerhouse behind the scenes and quiet achiever Scott Marshall continues his methodical march, getting us one step closer to a data system for our sector. Ruzina Dahal has joined us as Executive Support Officer most recently, and her presence is felt already.

Last week we farewelled Anita Parisella after the conclusion of the COVID Impact Project. A massive congratulations to Anita for her work on these reports over the past 10 months. Anita’s hard work and positive energy will be missed by everyone on the team.

Anyway, a big update for a big month and FYI Ali returns to the helm Monday 11 October,

Jackie

Dr Jackie Hallam
Policy Manager