Current and Past Members

Dr Venkat Pulla, is a an accredited Practitioner of Social Work well recognised in Australia and overseas as a highly committed trainer of human values and strengths based social work practice frameworks for empowerment of clients and staff within the teams. Venkat utilises a process called ‘intentional perspectives approach’ (IPA) that focuses on ensuring survival -first; growth and development of pervasive consciousness -second. Venkat sees a great majority of people innocently, ignorantly or purposively leading veiled lives. Venkat’s tactical conversations cause gentle nudges for such slumbering humanity without sounding provocative. Venkat spent some 15 years preparing social work graduates and a couple of years in capacity development of public sector management through British Aid (DFID) Projects in Metros India. Venkat is a Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Social Worker, a Tata Dorabji Scholar and has a doctorate in the field of Community Development obtained in India. His work life includes positions as Head of the Social Work Department at the Northern Territory University, Darwin for three years and several years  in India in Teaching and Training at the College of Social Work, Hyderabad, and He has recognition in areas of training for performance measures, quality, change management, strength based child protection, family directed practice, trauma torture counselling and refugee resettlement. His policy consulting included health policy, urbanisation, poverty alleviation, social infrastructures, disability and aged care, wage reform, employee strategies, and industrialisation.

Since 1996 Venkat worked extensively with refugees and migrants being the Acting Coordinator of Brisbane Migrant Resource Centre. Within the Disability Services he held Acting Manager Professional and Specialist Services positions and currently holds a Senior Social Work position.

Venkat has extensive clinical as well as organisational experience across a wide range of service settings.  Until recently he has been the Vice President of the Australian Association of Social Workers, Queensland and is a member of the accreditation panel for schools of social work in Australia and Convenor, International Social Work Interest Group, AASW (QLD)

Venkat can be contacted at dr.venkat.pulla@gmail.com and on 00 61 422345982 or by snail mail to Dr Venkat Pulla, 5 Mandell Close, Coopers Plains, Qld, 4108 Australia

See more details and training capability statement at http://www.strengthsbasedpractice.com.au/training_programms.htm

Peter Binyon BSW (Hons), Consulting in: Strategic & Business Planning, Quality Management Systems, Human Service Management, Organisational development

Peter Binyon graduated with an Honours degree in Social Work from the University of South Australia in 1991.  He is a founding member and Vice-President of the Brisbane Institute of Strengths Based Practice, and is a member, and past Queensland state management committee member, of the Australian Association of Social Workers

Peter has worked in a diverse range of direct service, management and planning roles in government and non-government social services in Australia and the United Kingdom.  Peter has a particular interest in the application of the Human Services knowledge base to management practice in government, community and private enterprise.  Peter has worked in government in the areas of direct service delivery, management, strategic and operational planning and the design and implementation of quality management systems. 

Peter provides facilitation and consultation services in relation to strategic, business and service delivery planning, organisational development and quality management systems.

In addition to Peter’s direct social work and human service management roles he has years of experience from working in retail and hospitality.  Peter has applied his management practice in a number of government and community sector settings including, State Coordinator for Canteen – The Australian organisation for teenagers living with cancer and as the President of Brisbane’s leading community Musical Theatre company, Ignatians Musical Society since 2001, producing large scale musicals that have played to critical and popular success to ten’s of thousands of patrons.

Chris Montgomery has worked in the field of intellectual disability for the last 17 years. For the last 9 of these years he has become known and respected both nationally and internationally for his work convening the annual Sharing the Road conference for disability support workers in Queensland. Currently he is volunteering with the Ethnic Community Councils of Queensland to assist with the development of strategies to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS amongst men from CALD backgrounds.  Chris has worked as a direct support worker, a manager of support work and most recently in the development of statewide reporting systems. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to his role as Secretary of the Strength Based Strategies Conference 2006.

Christine Radke has worked as a support professional and manager in the field of intellectual disability support for over two decades and has been actively involved in welfare and community support for more years than she can remember. Chris has enjoyed a number of work roles, the majority relating to direct service provision to individuals with an intellectual disability who have high and complex support needs. This included working as a manager of Accommodation Support and Respite Services, a job role which she performed for 9 years. Chris lives in Ipswich, Queensland, where she is currently working as a Project Officer for Department of Communities in their Disability Services Queensland. As such, she coordinates activities associated with facilitating best practice in the accommodation support of adults with an intellectual disability, a job role which she particularly enjoys. Chris was invited to the Brisbane Institute of Strengths Based Practice, as its founding member.

Palani Thevar, BSW ( University of Queensland)  was born in the small village of U. Pudukkottai to an agricultural family near the Madurai district of Tamil Nadu.  Palani has always been deeply impressed by the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi’s work and has worked extensively in the community sector throughout India. He obtained his Masters degree in Peace Making from the Madurai Kamaraj University and completed a Master of Philosophy at Gujarat Vidyapith (founded by Gandhi in 1920). Since 1996, Palani has lived in West End, Brisbane. A proud father of 3 children, Palani has worked in Australia for the Australian Red Cross, Community Aid Abroad and in the area of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and the Centrelink mental health support. Presently Palani is employed by the Communities department at Oxley Disability Service Centre.  Outside of his paid employment Palani is working extensively with local Tamil communities.

Dragan Bombek, is a media development and creative publisher who designs for many not to profit companies their web sites, all conference material for International Conferences. Dragan is on the Board of Directors of the Brisbane Institute since its inception. Currently he is also associated with Canhelp Australia Wide Inc, (takes great pleasure in designing artwork for DVD Conquering Cancer. Screens design, Mailer, DVD Cover and Label). From 2001 - 2004 graphic design, DTP, photography and articles for Zena 21 (Women 21) - Project of NGO from Sydney supported an granted by STARTTS  www.startts.org and Federal Department of Family and Community Services.

 Brisbane, Dream Band Club Inc - Multicultural Night – Performance for
people from former Yugoslavia, music, lyrics … Throughout 2005 and 2006 – 14 community functions with 200 to 400 visitors.

Dragan has previously designed: 1993 – Vienna, Austria – Art Exhibition in
Gemenshaft Bih Wien,; worked on the Opening night – Simon Wiesenthal, Pavo Urban – speech- that had over 350 visitors, including major TV and mass media presence for 10 days.  – with several thousands of people visiting.

Essen, Germany, Internationaler Kreis der Freunde BvH Libero e.V., co-organisation and coordination of the first satellite broadcasting to Bosnia since war started, with help of the Eurovision Geneva.
1991 - 1992 Editor-and-chef of magazine Libero, scenario and director of the short movie Sarajevo is ...Sarajevo,  ...

Consultants

 Wayne McCashen is author of the books The Strengths Approach: A strengths-based resource
for sharing power and creating change and Communities of hope: A strengths-based resource for building community; and co-author of the card-based resource Name the Frame: Reminders for building respectful socially just decisions. Presently he is Education and Training Coordinator for Family and Community Services in the Northern Territory, Australia, and was until recently the principal trainer and consultant for St Lukes Anglicare (Bendigo, Australia) in strengths-based practice to a diverse range of organisations throughout Australia and New Zealand. He is a leader in the articulation and development of the strengths approach to working in the human services. He has written material on strengths-based ways of working with individuals, families, groups, communities and organisations that is used nationally and internationally. Wayne has 30 years experience in the human services including youth work, family work, community development, training and professional development, staff supervision, and management. His qualifications are in the fields of social work and community development. He was part of the original team at St Lukes, Bendigo, which initiated work to develop the strengths approach. He has carried this work forward with others at St Lukes and elsewhere in Australia and New Zealand through a range of innovations such as 'client-owned recording' and the development of a range of practices.

The Strengths Approach (Paperback) by Wayne McCashen (Author), Karen Masman (Editor) Editorial Reviews - amazon.com Relief and gratitude have replaced the anticipation and barracking over the many years that 'Wayne's book' has been in the making. And yet there are no surprises in Wayne McCashen's book, The Strengths Approach. It's not the latest text heralding the latest research to support the latest in therapeutic effectiveness. In his foreword David Epston has described The Strengths Approach as 'modest but remarkable'. This could not be higher praise. Most of our clients .... Read More

Communities of Hope is about something very precious. It is about a community's capacity to learn, to change, to grow - and to build that most invaluable of commodities - respectful connectedness. This is a step-by-step blue-print for a 'strengths-based' approach to community capacity building.

John Armstrong has worked in government, non-government and in consultancy roles since early 70’s as a teacher, principal, adviser and team leader. He helped establish one of the early regional disability teams in Victoria providing family and service supports including arrangements for housing and educational supports for people leaving the St Nicholas Hospital. He has also held statewide training roles – specifically associated with matters of fundamental service practice. He was for eight years a member of the Victorian Intellectual Disability Review Panel.

Having been introduced to Social Role Valorisation in the early 80’s, he went on to train and receive recognition as a Senior SRV Trainer with Dr Wolfensberger and the Training Institute in Syracuse NY. Since 1991 he has worked as a self-employed consultant across Australia and New Zealand conducting training, consultancy and evaluation. He has evaluated many human services and provided detailed verbal and written reports that agencies have continued to reference even years later. He also writes material for various newsletters and journals, and conducts workshops and provides keynote presentations at national and some international conferences. John has a particular interest and provides training and articles related to the factors that promote the welfare of people and reduce the potential for neglect and harm.

Apart from a long involvement in Citizen Advocacy, he is the inaugural chair of Citizen Advocacy Australia – a national fund raising body for Citizen Advocacy programs in Australia.

In addition to standard SRV and PASSING training, John conducts training and consultancy for agencies on request, that can be tailored to their requirements. He also regularly conducts service reviews or will organise and lead official evaluations of a program or service. More about John HERE

Michael D. Clark (MSW, LMSW) is a Consultant, Trainer and an Addictions Therapist. Currently
the Director of the Center for Strength-Based Strategies, United States, Michael is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT). He has provided training and/or onsite technical assistance to mental health, criminal justice and child welfare organisations throughout the United States, as well as Europe, Canada, the Caribbean and Micronesia. With over 20 publications on Strengths work to his credit, Michael has important information to share about motivating challenging clients.

More about Michael HERE

Peta Fitzgibbon  MSocAdministration. She has more than thirty years of experience as a social worker practitioner, lecturer and a senior manager working for many years as a social worker in the Department of Social Security, a senior manager in both Centrelink and the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. Peta’s areas of experience included National Management positions within Social Work, Youth programs and services, Workforce Participation and social and community recovery.

Since leaving the Australian Public Service, Peta has worked in India with a human rights Non-Government sector and back in Australia as a strategic adviser within a regional community services organisation in the ACT. Most recently she is working in Centrelink managing an innovative Place Based Services Program aimed at providing more integrated service delivery within disadvantaged communities.

Peta has maintained an active role in the Australian Association of Social Workers for many years, served on the Board and Committees in Tasmania and the ACT. She was the National Conference Convenor for several years. Her social work areas of interest and experience have included child welfare, youth homelessness and family support, social policy development particularly income support and poverty alleviating, welfare reform and service delivery innovation.

Lesley Chenoweth BSocWk, MSocWk, PhD is the foundation Professor of Social Work at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia. She has more than thirty years experience as a social work practitioner and academic, twenty of these in the disability area. Her current research interests span disability issues, human services and rural communities and welfare reform. Lesley has conducted research on disability policy analysis, deinstitutionalisation, families, violence and abuse and delivering human services to people in rural communities.  She is a regular consultant to government and community organisations and has served on numerous boards and committees for disability, legal and family welfare agencies. Lesley is a regular invited speaker at conferences both in Australia and overseas. Currently Lesley is facilitating development of the programme and sponsorships for the Coping and Resilience Conference, Dubrovnik 2009

www.griffith.edu.au/health/research-centre-clinical-community-practice-innovation/staff/professor-lesley-chenoweth

Rita Kugler is a Chartered Accountant with nearly 20 years experience in the private, public and community sectors. Early in her career Rita joined the international firm KPMG where she gained valuable experience and training in auditing, systems assessment and process improvement both in Australia and USA. Managerial roles awakened in Rita the desire to increase her skills in understanding human behaviour. To this end Rita has completed Master practitioner level in Neuro linguistic Programming (NLP) and other personal and group development processes. Rita is passionate about self-development and the importance of values based studies/programs in understanding and shaping behaviour. She is also passionate about raising awareness about the environmental and sustainability issues faced by our planet today. Rita was born in Argentina and migrated to Australia with her parents and sister in 1977. Rita was invited to the Brisbane Institute of Strengths Based Practice, as its founding member and fulfilled the role of treasurer for 2 years and since her move to New South Wales, continues to be an advisor on financial and general management to the Institute.

Ram, mainly known as Mr. Karuppiah Ramanathan, an accountant by profession,

with over two decades of foreign exchange busienss acumen.

Ram has received best Business Excellence awards in Queensland for his

turnover and rapid expansion of his business called Remox Exchange.

Ram is a socially conscious businessman who volunteers a large amount of his time for

community causes. Ram has been the Treasurer on the board of management for two 

years 2008 and 2009  Ram is a member of the National Institute of Accountants in Australia.

Coralie Graham has worked as a Registered Nurse for many years in addition to also recently completing her study to become a Registered Psychologist. She has worked in a diversity of settings including industrial and domiciliary nursing, as a Psychologist in a mental health unit and conducting health and psychological assessments for Centrelink. She is currently completing her PhD at the University of Southern Queensland which examines which Psychological Strengths Older Australians living in the community use in maintaining their health. Coralie has an interest in researching in the area of positive psychology, including the impact of resilience, adaptability and spirituality on health.

She also has a keen interest in cultural diversity and is involved in a research project to develop of a cross cultural teaching tool. Another area of interest for Coralie is equity issues for people with a disability, and she is proactive in advocating for people with a disability. Coralie currently works as a lecturer in Nursing at the University of Southern Queensland, where she teaches into her interest areas, in addition to her role of International Student Support in the Nursing Department.

Hyderabad

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Dubrovnik

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Bosnia

Workshops

Brisbane

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