May Advocacy Wrap-Up

We are pleased to announce that two new Young Consultants have joined CREATE’s Influencing Committee.

Jasmine Taylor-Harding: “It’s vital to hear children and young people’s opinions on systemic problems. Children’s voices have been treated that they’re not as important, when it’s the most important thing when it comes to the system.”

Tara Payne: “Ever since I first joined CREATE, I realised that I could make a positive change through advocacy, speaking up and using my voice as a kid with a care experience. Over the years as a member of CREATE I have seen and heard from many children and young people about just how hard their care experiences were, this coupled with my own care experience, showed me that that a lot of things in the out-of-home care system need to be changed.”

Both Jasmine and Tara are long term CREATE members and we are very lucky to have them on board to inform and advise on our advocacy and communications work.

We would also like to thank our outgoing members Tequeah Iglesias and Aaron Hutton for the valuable insights and contributions over the previous 6 months.

We’ve recently refreshed our Terms of Reference for the Influencing Committee to emphasise the important role this Committee plays in driving CREATE’s work nationally.

CREATE is also very pleased to welcome one of our new National Advocacy and Influencing Managers, Imogen Edeson.

Imogen brings deep experience of social policy, social innovation and reform across a range of service systems impacting children and young people. This includes 15 years driving reform efforts to create real system, policy and practice changes across mental health and child and family systems. Passionate about listening to and acting on the voices of people with lived experience, and with a commitment to inclusion and equity, Imogen is thrilled to join the team at CREATE and help drive our advocacy agenda to improve experiences and outcomes for children and young people with an experience of care.

Imogen will be the Advocacy and Influencing Manager for NSW, ACT, Victoria, and Tasmania, and she is gearing up for a number of important meetings with the sector over the next few months.

Imogen Edeson