The Future Leaders Program is a professional development initiative, grounded in community advocacy and social change, designed to build the capability, knowledge and confidence of natural lived experience leaders in community. This initiative will seek to ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of the lived experience of suicide movement.
The purpose
The purpose of the Future Leaders Program is to create a collaborative, equitable and inclusive space where individuals with a lived experience of suicide can explore, strengthen and develop their skills, unique attributes and qualities of leadership, specific to creating social change in the context of suicide.
The Program recognises leadership as a justice-orientated practice, requiring self-reflection around power, privilege and intersectionality, in ways that support participants to actively participate in open dialogue and explore concepts as emergent and shaped through collective leadership and mutual learning,. This is so a sustainable ecosystem of purposeful lived experience of suicide leaders are deeply rooted in a collective effort to promote social justice, reduce emotional distress and save lives.
The Program will be place based and will run as a self-paced, interactive program (which may include face to face sessions) across a 6 month period with 10 participants.
This initiative will draw on a diverse range of subject matter expertise from various organisations and communities for content and delivery. A key aspect of this program will be the development of self and co-reflection skills, which will be facilitated by skilled peer workers.
At the final phase of the Program, participants will develop a community engagement project that aligns with the core principles and will be connected with mentors to support this process.
Our pilot of Future Leaders will be based in East Melbourne and will run as a self-paced, interactive program including face to face sessions from June-December 2025. Places are strictly limited to 10 participants, so please consider whether you are able to commit to the full program before applying.
The first step into the Future Leaders Program is to participate in our Voices of In-Sight workshop…
If you live in the East Melbourne area and are interested in becoming a part of the Future Leaders Program, there are two available Voices of In-Sight workshop dates you can attend. These will be followed by a program briefing session where participants will be able to express their interest in continuing with the program.
Option 1: Friday 21 & Saturday 22 February, 2025, 8:30am – 4:30pm (local time) – Workshop now complete
Option 2: Friday 4 & Saturday 5 April, 2025, 8:30am – 4:30am (local time) – Workshop now complete
Briefing session: Tuesday 6 May, 2025 – 3 hours (local time)
We’re honoured to be partnering with Eastern Melbourne PHN, Ananda Training & Consulting, Black Dog Institute, Monash University, TACSI, Beacon Strategies & Switchboard to bring you the Future Leaders Program.
