Masterchef… and men’s mental health

Screenshot from Instagram of Brent raising his hand

I’m a big Masterchef fan. I love food, I love stories, I love Melissa Leong’s choice in BIG earrings – what isn’t there to love?! So it was with some trepidation that I approached the last 15 minutes of tonight’s episode. Channel 10 had been promoting an emotional farewell all weekend. It was apparent that … Read more

Commission submissions

Jo quoted in the Royal Commission report

I have a list as long as my arm of blog posts I have been meaning to write of late, not least a reflection or two on the recent Royal Commission Report into the Victorian Mental Health System. Unfortunately, they are all on the backburner a bit as I focus on client work. In the … Read more

A year

Hand holds single pink-iced cupcake with a lit candle

A year ago this week, I made a brave and potentially very silly decision. I felt in my gut that there was a space for me to create a career and life I was proud of by combining my lived experience, knowledge of the mental health sector, and policy and evaluation skills. So I quit … Read more

Making inclusive choices

Four disabled people of color gather around a table during a meeting. A Black woman sitting on a couch gestures and speaks while the three others (a South Asian person sitting in a wheelchair, a Black non-binary person sitting in a chair, and a Black non-binary person standing with a clipboard and cane) face her and listen.

Last week, I was privileged to be invited to participate in a webinar organised by ARTD to discuss inclusive choices in evaluation, particularly in the context of Covid-19. By far the highlight for me was learning from the others on the panel – Julie Duong (Empowering Solutions), Therese Kennedy (Information Access Group) and Simon Green … Read more

Featured in Royal Commission report

Catching up on a bit of news from when my website was under redevelopment! Last year, I wrote a submission to the Royal Commission into Victoria’s mental health system. I was honoured when the Commission contacted me to feature my story in the interim report. You can read the full report here with my cameo … Read more

Fostering evaluative thinking

Evaluation is valuable, not just for working out if your project had an impact but for improving the overall quality of your intervention design. I have a blog up on BetterEvaluation about building evaluative thinking into your project from the get-go. It’s based on a presentation I gave with Caroline Tomiczek (from Urbis) at the Australasian … Read more