CoP governance
The Knowledge Manager - CoP
The role will work closely alongside Program Delivery, Evidence and Innovation, and Program Leads. The role will drive stakeholder engagement to ensure that the ADF is able to understand the diverse and differing local needs, issues, and priorities of LDATs and the different levels of engagement of individuals in the CoP. This includes the facilitation of the formal, semi formal activities and access to the innovation hub and resource libraries.
The role holds responsibility for leading the work in Knowledge Management priorities as detailed in the ADF Knowledge Management Framework and the CoP workplan for internal and external audiences.
The CoP Advisory Council
The CoP Advisory Council is made up of LDAT members. The role of the council is to monitor LDAT needs and advise the ADF on the direction and effectiveness of CoP activities. This group is managed by the Knowledge Manager – CoP.
The members of the Community Advisory Group are:
Chair
Sophie Bourchier – Chair- SA
Sophie is the Project Officer of Substance Misuse Limestone Coast (SMLC) and has been involved in with the original working party for more than 6 years.
Sophie is the leading collaborator with community groups, Government, and non-Government agencies, in planning, developing, promoting and delivering events and programs for Substance Misuse Program in the Limestone Coast, South Australia.
She is a highly motivated Community Worker with more than 20 years’ experience in community development and engagement together with youth and adult drug and alcohol counselling. She has a diverse background in both statutory and community- based organizations in government and non-government sectors, with experience in management, administration, adolescent and family counselling, crisis triage and health promotion.
She holds a Graduate Diploma in youth mental health from the University of Melbourne and is a member of the Australian Community Workers Association.
As a member of the St Kilda Football Club Sophie has outstanding resilience!
Valentina Angelovska – CAC Deputy Chair- Victoria
Valentina is the CEO of 2Connect Youth & Community, an award-winning grassroots NGO in Sydney, NSW, which empowers people to create change for positive futures. As a strong social justice advocate, she prides herself on over 30years experience in inspiring Social Work, including a specialisation in leading organisations for culturally and linguistically diverse young people and families. This includes drug harm prevention work and alcohol/other drugs clinical work. She is the Lead of the St George NSW LDAT which fosters strong and connected communities within Multicultural families and is the Deputy Chair of the LDAT National Community Advisory Committee.
She is also an avid Salsa and Bollywood dancer and enjoys mindfulness and meditation.
Mitchell Robson – CAC member -Tasmania
I am Mitch (my pronouns are he, him, and his), as mentioned I am the Youth Development Officer at the Huon Valley Council. I have a background in counselling and mental health, working in the university sector and non-for profit community groups.
My role sees me working with a range of youth (12 to 24 year olds) in different townships and locations in the southernmost council in Tasmania. My work is mostly focused on relationship building with youth as individuals and in groups, where I aim to be a role model/mentor to help them identify their needs and understand healthier ways of taking care of themselves. I also work with many parents, where I help them navigate the hurdles that come with raising teenagers.
Being part of the LDAT program has allowed me to be able to host programs that are more focused on engagement and fun, that honest conversations about alcohol and drugs can take place at in a non-judgemental way.
Fahim Hashimy- CAC member- SA
Fahim Hashimy, an award-winning Afghan/Australian filmmaker, has journeyed from Afghanistan to Australia 2009 and since that time he is filming and researching the journey of Cameleers step by step in order to meet these far-flung countrymen and document the story of their return journey as they go back to Afghanistan with their Aboriginal wives to see for themselves the origins of their forbearers, and maybe even to meet some new relies. His documentary was broadcasted from SBS and NITV.
As all refugees, in Australia Fahim has started from zero. Fahim worked 2011 - 2015 with a group of Asylum Seekers to find their way and help them integrate in Australia way of life, worked with Life Without Barriers as a Cultural Support Worker.
Recently Fahim has joined Community Access and Services South Australia as Community Educator and Mental Health worker, make all attempts to help his community with problems they are facing regarding Mental Health, Drug and Alcohol and Disability. Unfortunately, this is very big in Afghan community due to all uncertainty and suffering.
In his spare time Fahim is Chairperson of an Afghan organisation (Farda Association) Treasures of Afghan Soccer Team (Maiwand Soccer Club) and running a weekly TV show (Farda TV) on C44 television for last eleven years (2009 - 2022) in Adelaide. This is to help reach community in wider capacity, inform, and deliver the news and current affairs that they need the most in their languages.
Fahim has degrees of International Relationship (Adelaide Uni), Diploma of Media production (Art SA) certificate of Community Development (TAFE SA) and Mental Health.
Rowena Wylie – CAC member - Vic
Rowena is a project officer with Southern Grampians Glenelg Primary Care Partnership (SGGPCP) in southwest Victoria. She has been the lead with the Healthy Glenelg LDAT since it was established in 2017.
Rowena has extensive experience in partnership development across sectors including health, local government, education, police and employment and in managing collaborative work to address complex issues. The LDAT’s goal is to reduce AOD harm in the community, particularly among young people. Rowena brings an integrated systems approach to build protective factors and, with the LDAT, supports collaborative work in youth mental health, education attainment, support for LGBTIQA+ young people and youth mentoring.
Rowena has considerable experience working in community program and policy development in state government, community development and engagement, health promotion and capacity building to strengthen the skills and confidence of partners and community.
Jenny Han – CAC member – Queensland
Hi, my name is Jenny and I am from South Korea. I’m the Program Support Officer at ECCQ (Ethnic Community Council of Queensland) and currently working with Korean Community in Brisbane Australia with the LDAT project. Before I start my journey in Australia, I’ve been working as a customer service manager and provided interpreter service to customers from overseas at the international airport.
It was a great pleasure that I can be a support for those who have language and cultural barriers in my role. But I’ve desired to expand my career as a helping professional and here I am! I studied Social Work in Australia and working with diverse communities was always the first priority in choosing my specialty as being able to be empathetic to the differences was my passion. As a trained critical social worker, who has an ethnic background, I believe I have a unique ability to bring cultural awareness and to bridge the gap between migrants and the mainstream world.
I hope I can be a help for CALD people to make healthy lifestyle decisions and ultimately, I wish I can make a change toward a more inclusive society. I am enjoying the journey heading to the positive movements.
Marni Ford- CAC member – Victoria
Marni Ford is the Senior Health Planner at the City of Casey where she is responsible for the development, implementation and evaluation of Council’s Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plan. The City of Casey is the second fastest growing Local Government Area in Victoria and one of the fastest growing LGA's in Australia.
During her time in Local Government she has worked in partnership to address key health and wellbeing issues in the City of Casey including alcohol harm, healthy eating and food security, mental wellbeing, family violence and physical activity. She was also involved in the development of Casey's first Gender Equality Action Plan. For the last three years she has facilitated the Casey LDAT, which has had a focus on working with young people in Casey to co-design local projects.
Marni has a passion for working with stakeholders, both internally and externally, to understand complex health and social issues and identifying local solutions to address these issues.
Peter Burnheim – CAC member – Northern Territory
Following on from studies in Biomedical Science, Peter worked across a wide variety of areas both in Australia and overseas before settling in Darwin on beautiful Larrakia land for the past 17 years, having relocated from his hometown of Brisbane with his partner Felicity. For the majority of his time in Darwin, Peter has been working in the health and social services sector in program development and project delivery roles. He has worked with a real focus on the AOD sector for about the last 6 years having undertaken roles in sector design and commissioning before moving into his current role, as the Executive for the Northern Territory AOD Peak body. He has worked in this role for just over two years and loves the challenge of supporting the sector and advocating for change.
Peter has a strong passion for harm reduction and started the Darwin LDAT with a focus on bringing new initiatives to the NT. The Darwin LDAT has just been successful in having our CAP approved to adapt and deliver the DanceWize program for Darwin and I’m really excited to see this opportunity grow.
On a personal note, my partner and I just welcomed a little boy (Wally B) into the world in August 2021 and he has rapidly changed our world and added to our family (which previously was us and our two, very dependent, wolfhounds).
Teegan Tompkins – CAC member – New South Wales
Jesse Taylor- CAC member – New South Wales
Jesse Taylor currently works as the MNC Regional Community Development Officer with Mission Australia across 1500 social housing properties where he fosters and creates the conditions that reduce inequalities enabling people to thrive. Jesse lives on Gumbaynggirr Country on the Mid North Coast of NSW in Coffs Harbour. Jesse has worked 20+ years with complex, high-needs/risk communities in the youth and adult comorbid AOD/MH, homelessness, and CALD sectors nationally and across NYC.
Jesse has extensive experience in AOD service accreditation through ACHS and ISO, has designed national and state-wide (NSW and NT) AOD service models, co-chaired the Mission Australia AOD Community of Practice, was a member of NADA's Practice Leadership Group, and has a Master in Public Health Degree from The University of Sydney. Jesse is interested in reducing climate change vulnerabilities, monitor and evaluation frameworks, effective communication, and scalability.