11 October 2020 |
The transformational potential of cross-sector collaboration
ECA Alumnus Kelli Anderson is a founding member of the Toowoomba Leadership Alliance, a group focused on developing and supporting personal and community leadership and creating positive social change in the Toowoomba region. This work has included many small and large projects over the last five years, involving leaders from the government and non-government sectors as well as community members. Currently, the group is focused on the implementation of the Toowoomba Regional Council’s Youth Strategy.
Listen now to the sixth episode of Leaders Matter, featuring Kelli Anderson, Principal Program Officer at the Department of Youth Justice.
ECA’s Transformation Academies are offered to undertake real-time, placed-based regional change work and grow a network of committed local leaders. To find out more, visit our website or contact us.
The initial conversations leading to the establishment of the Toowoomba Leadership Alliance in 2016 were about how leaders could create opportunities and connections in the region, particularly for young people, as well as for members to develop their own leadership through the work.
“On that first day, we met a local elder, and he asked us to think about how we could lead by walking beside our youth, even those walking a little bit crooked,” says Kelli. “Over the years, every time we’ve become a bit lost, we think about that original statement or challenge the elder gave us. This has helped us consider what we really want for tomorrow, our preferred future, what’s worked in the past, but also what it would actually take to create significant change.”
The Alliance began their exploration of local issues by listening to people from the youth and family sector. It emerged that the region had over 100 services working with young people and their families. “It quickly became obvious that there were opportunities for better connections and coordination of those services,” says Kelli. “And that would then allow young people to use those services in in a more coordinated way, and to develop their leadership as well.”
In 2019, the Toowoomba Regional Council launched a Youth Strategy, with Alliance alumni being deeply involved in its development and implementation. “One of our alumni, Bec Schroeder, is a Team Leader for Community Development at the Toowoomba Regional Council,” says Kelli. “She really helped us understand at a deeper level what was going on for young people in the region.”
“We rallied together and worked in partnership with Council, the regional Youth Advisory Group, and the University of Southern Queensland,” says Kelli. “Over 700 people across the region were interviewed over about six months by our Youth Connect team and youth leaders. We now have the Ipswich Council interested in what we’ve been doing.”
The impact of collaboration has taken hold, with the Toowoomba Leadership Alliance alumni group expanding and attracting more and more people motivated to create change. “It’s really meaningful,” says Kelli. “For us personally, it’s not really about job descriptions. We all live and work in the Toowoomba region and it didn’t take us long from that initial meeting to commit to the community development work for the long term.”
The work of the Toowoomba Leadership Alliance is truly collaborative, with no organisation leading or mandating the community development work the Alliance is fostering. This is not without its challenges. “It is hard to sustain collaborative work,” says Kelli. “Initially, we had an authorising environment, but over time organisational priorities change and at times we have found it difficult to navigate strategic and operational barriers. Things like recent bushfires in the regions have created a barrier for us to stay connected. As this work has become part of our personal lives, fitting in catch ups before and after work and staying connected has been really important.”
What has sustained the connection and the work is the deep commitment of the Toowoomba Leadership Alliance to bringing about social change and the trust and support they give one another as they do this work together. “As leaders, we realised that we didn’t really need the permission to do great work in our community,” says Kelli. “And we had a group of alumni who trusted each other and had an intrinsic motivation to challenge the status quo. So it really is community development work with a touch of activism. And we all reflect and use these opportunities in our personal and professional lives to advocate for social change. So we stay connected, we have that specific purpose of building and maintaining our friendships, and supporting each other’s leadership journeys.”
For Kelli, there are some core concepts that have sustained the Alliance on its journey. The first is being very clear on purpose, even as that might shift over time.
“Our why and our purpose is something that we have constantly had to review over the years,” says Kelli. “Naming it has been really important, because you can become lost or overwhelmed. Really knowing your why is critical when you’re doing this work.”
Unsurprisingly, being an Alliance of individual leaders, deliberately nurturing relationships is essential. Part of that is meeting people where they’re at. “There’s been times where people have had to tap out when we’ve had some crises in our organisations, whether it be fires, floods, or COVID-19,” says Kelli. “Timing is essential, and it’s important to wait for people. You can’t walk alongside people if they’re not ready.”
Finally, as a group of leaders, the Alliance is playing the long game. “You have to maintain perseverance,” says Kelli.
“You have to be really resilient in this work. It’s absolutely a marathon. And for us, we’ve committed to this lifelong journey.”
Listen now to the sixth episode of Leaders Matter, featuring Kelli Anderson, Principal Program Officer at the Department of Youth Justice.
ECA’s Transformation Academies are offered to undertake real-time, placed-based regional change work and grow a network of committed local leaders. To find out more, visit our website or contact us.
About Kelli Anderson
Kelli began her career at the Westbrook Correctional Facility in 1998, facilitating wellbeing programs for long term inmates. In 1999, she moved into a youth worker role before starting as a caseworker with child safety in Toowoomba, later moving into Youth Justice in North Queensland. She’s held several roles within Youth Justice and for the past 13 years, has worked in various leadership positions.
In January 2016, Kelli moved into a restorative justice project officer position for the southwest region of Youth Justice. Her role was to support the region in implementing the return of court ordered conferences. Having not had a background in restorative justice, Kelli took a very different approach to implementing this initiative. Because of her background, she was able to see opportunities to apply restorative practices to other areas of the organisation.
In June 2016, Kelli facilitated a workshop at the Brisbane youth detention centre with a view of expanding and enhancing restorative practice in the youth detention environment. Within two years, the organisation had appointed two permanent restorative practice positions dedicated to this work in both Queensland youth detention centers in 2020. There are five positions within the organisation, and restorative practice has been integrated into the framework.
This work has been recognized both nationally and internationally, which has led to supporting several Northern Territory, Victorian and New Zealand youth detention centers to also implement restorative practices as a response to behavior management.
Within the Toowoomba community, Kelli is a founding member of the Toowoomba Leadership Alliance, a leadership group which is focused on connecting young people in that community. The group has a focus on developing and supporting leadership and creating greater connectivity of young people across the region. This work has included many small and large projects over the last five years, and these projects have involved leaders from the government and non-government sectors and local young people. Currently, the group is focused on the implementation of the Toowoomba Regional Council’s Youth Strategy.
