A Providence team member supported the Department of Health to engage widely across government and the mental health sector to inform a parliamentary inquiry into access to mental health services in regional Australia. Working in a highly compressed timeframe, they led extensive consultation across mental health and suicide prevention divisions, Primary Health Networks and program areas, securing input from stakeholders with competing priorities. The role focused on drawing out practical insights, lived experience and examples of what was working on the ground, and translating this into clear, accessible case studies and evidence. This engagement approach ensured stakeholder perspectives were accurately reflected and aligned with policy and funding realities. The outcome was a well‑coordinated, credible submission that clearly represented the views of diverse stakeholders, strengthened the Department’s public narrative, and supported constructive engagement with the parliamentary inquiry process. The work was delivered on time and within budget under significant time pressure.
A Providence team member led a Catholic Social Services Australia initiative to engage social service providers, practitioners and policy stakeholders across metropolitan, regional and remote Australia to co‑produce a national picture of disadvantage. The work focused on deep, practical engagement with frontline organisations to capture lived experience and practitioner insight that was not visible in existing data. This involved workshops, structured conversations and collaborative sense‑making with service providers to identify indicators that reflected how disadvantage is actually experienced in communities. Stakeholders then worked with academics from ANU to coproduce a new postcode‑based mapping model covering economic, health, education and social disadvantage. The outcome was a nationally recognised resource that strengthened advocacy with policymakers, supported electorate briefings with federal and state MPs, and enabled service providers to plan and prioritise local responses and investment. By grounding the work in practitioner voices, the engagement process built trust, shared ownership and practical relevance, ensuring the outputs were used by stakeholders rather than sitting on a shelf.
A Providence team member joined with another consulting company to support the National Emergency Management Agency to engage Commonwealth, state and territory partners in the development of a national monitoring, evaluation and learning framework under the Second National Action Plan. The work involved developing a richer system understanding and bringing together agencies with different responsibilities and operating pressures to build shared understanding and agreement on how the national disaster system should be monitored and improved. Stakeholder input was actively shaped into a coherent framework that reflected real‑world emergency management practice rather than theoretical models. The specific contribution of the Providence team member was to contribute their expertise on systems thinking and mapping to enhance the design and delivery of this project by the consulting partner. The engagement process itself helped build trust, clarify roles and support ongoing collaboration across the disaster resilience system.
A Providence team member led national stakeholder engagement to inform the evaluation of community‑based Nurse Practitioner models across thirty sites in metropolitan, regional and remote Australia. The work involved engaging policy officials, health service providers, clinicians and consumers, including older Australians and people with complex mental health, dementia and early palliative needs. A tailored engagement approach was used to ensure vulnerable and hard‑to‑reach groups could meaningfully contribute, through site visits, interviews and structured consultations. The role focused on listening to frontline and lived experience as well as translating stakeholder input into clear evidence about how different models were operating in practice, including financial sustainability. This engagement provided a grounded understanding of what supported access, sustainability and quality of care in diverse communities. The outcome was strong stakeholder confidence in the evaluation process, richer evidence for decision‑makers, and findings that reflected real‑world service delivery rather than abstract policy assumptions. Insights from this engagement directly informed recommendations on policy, service design, funding and long‑term viability.
A Providence team member supported ten schools within South Australian Education Department to engage teachers and students facing high levels of disengagement across some of Adelaide’s most disadvantaged communities. The work focused on deep, practitioner‑led engagement, partnering with teachers and students to redesign classroom practice in ways that reflected local context and lived experience. Using participatory action research, teachers were trained and supported to work collaboratively with students to test new approaches, reflect on outcomes and share learning across school communities. Engagement was sustained over multiple cycles of design, implementation and reflection, building trust and shared ownership of change. This approach enabled meaningful participation from educators and students who are often excluded from system‑level reform conversations. The outcome was improved student engagement, stronger practitioner pedagogy, and locally grounded approaches to teaching that could be sustained beyond the life of the project. The engagement process itself built capability, strengthened relationships and ensured solutions were shaped by those closest to the classroom.
Adash is Providence’s CEO and is responsible to the Providence Board and Providence’s clients for ensuring the timely delivery of outcomes through advice, guidance and mentoring to Providence’s staff.
