Cathy Hope is a Senior Research Fellow in the Health Research Institute, University of Canberra, overseeing public space activation and community engagement for the Connect Up 2617 project – a preventative health research project connecting 18-30 year olds in Belconnen and Bruce. Cathy’s work operates at the intersection of community development, placemaking and research. She has co-facilitated numerous projects with and for the Canberra community and produced multiple government and industry reports to improve people and place outcomes. Cathy led the 2019 national award-winning Haig Park Experiments with a cross-sector consortium, which transformed the once unsafe and unused Canberra green space into a loved community hub.
Kim Huynh At a carer consultation early this year, author and academic Kim Huynh suggested that the new National Carer Strategy should include A Statement from Australias Carers, and that it should be inspired by the gentle and powerful Uluru Statement from the Heart. He said that the language in the Carers Statement should shimmer and help bring the nation together around its three million caregivers. Months later, Kim was commissioned to write the Statement. Through a discussion of the drafting process he will explore the trappings, barriers and necessity for poetic words to transform politics and the bureaucracy. Kim is a politics lecturer and Deputy Director of the Humanities Research Centre at the ANU and an ABC Radio Canberra presenter.
Barbara Walsh is a Senior Research Fellow at the Health Research Institute, University of Canberra, as the project lead for Connect Up 2617 – a preventative community health research project connecting 18-30 year olds in Belconnen and Bruce. Barbara is an educator, researcher and communication and engagement strategist with a long and varied experience in professional communication in the UK, Sydney and Canberra, and in education and research at UC’s Faculty of Arts and Design.
Jessica Kirkness is a writer and academic from Macquarie University. She is the author of The House With All The Lights On, a memoir about growing up with two Deaf grandparents. Her research straddles the intersections of life writing, health, and disability studies. She teaches nonfiction writing, and her current research explores the lived experiences and subjectivities of carers, especially women who care for an intimate partner.