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Current and Past Members
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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
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. Currently, he is co-owner and
co-editor of The
Queensland Indian newspapers.
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, ... |
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Consultants |
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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.
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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
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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. |
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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 |
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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 |
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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. |
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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
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Duncan Williams
identifies himself as an aboriginal person. 'Mura Ama
Wakaana' literally means 'people working together’.
Duncan has put together a wonderful training
package that sensitises public servants in
Queensland to the history of the aboriginal
communities in
Australia.
Duncan's mother was instrumental in seeing
that Duncan
kept his contact with his nativity, culture and his
people from his father's side.
Duncan's maternal heritage is
part Irish. Duncan Williams is employed as a Senior
Programme Officer in the Indigenous Employment and
Training Directorate, which is part of the Department of
Employment and Training.
Duncan is one of the founding
members of the Brisbane Institute of Strengths Based
Practice. |
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Indira Novic is a
registered clinical psychologist, psychotherapist, and
Reconnective Healing™ practitioner,
who have worked for mental health services such as
STARTTS (Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of
Torture and Trauma Survivors) and TMHC (Transcultural
Mental Health Centre) for the last 10 years, Indira has
specialised in working with clients who experienced
various traumatic and stressful events, or suffer from
anxiety and panic attacks, depressed mood, psychological
disorders as well as numerous physical illnesses and
ailments which are often psychosomatic reactions to
stress in our everyday life.
As a transcultural mental
health clinician, she is a specialist consultant to
other service providers and health practitioners,
identifying and clarifying cultural and historical
issues and their impact on the client’s functioning and
mental health state.
Indira Novic is also a
Reconnective Healing practitioner, facilitating healing
the energy imbalances underlying numerous emotional
problems, psychological disorders, but also physical
illnesses and ailments. These amazing frequencies help
people to heal on all levels of mind, body and spirit. |
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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. |
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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.
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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. |
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