WorkUP Queensland

We fund WorkUP Queensland, which was founded by the Healing Foundation, in partnership with Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS).

The Healing Foundation brings Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership, cultural awareness and healing to improve the way services interact with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients.

WorkUP Queensland aims to support and grow the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce in the sector and develop the sector’s capacity to provide responsive services.

ANROWS brings leadership in the development of Knowledge, Translation and Exchange (KTE) in Australia as applied in preventing and responding to violence against women. This KTE practice involves synthesising the results of research and developing resources and communication strategies to support the transfer of the evidence to policy and practice.

WorkUP Queensland offer practice studios, knowledge circles, professional development and workforce planning.

Practice studios

Practice studios bring current evidence, research and knowledge to life in real world settings. They give services the opportunity to lead the way to discover what it takes to implement evidence in practice.

Using action research (action, evaluation and critical reflection leading to changed practices), host services will take evidence based resources and strategies and ‘road test’ or refine them for implementation. Lessons learned and resources developed will be shared across the sector.

Knowledge circles

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities have utilised the framework of knowledge sharing and exchange for thousands of years. Knowledge systems have ensured that community structures remained strong. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have always shared wisdom and knowledge through their stories.

WorkUP Queensland invite Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sexual assault, domestic and family violence and women’s health and wellbeing service workforce to engage in knowledge circles to:

  • better understand the workforce
  • help shape workforce plans
  • support a strong and skilled workforce
  • share practice and learning.

Professional development

By offering diverse and flexible professional development approaches, WorkUP Queensland support all learning styles and encourage workforce participation creating real practice change.

The programs offered are delivered through:

  • coaching and mentoring
  • webinars and self-paced modules
  • facilitated action learning
  • resource development.

WorkUP Queensland works in partnership with the sector to deliver innovative and tailored professional development solutions responsive to regional needs. If you want to explore possibilities or opportunities for your region, please contact WorkUP Queensland to share your ideas.

The professional development that WorkUP Queensland will deliver over the next 12 months covers a range of topics and purposes. There are some common elements that are carefully threaded throughout all their learning programs to ensure they make a significant impact and support transformational change. These include approaches that are:

  • self-directed—they will be delivering learning in areas directed by the sector
  • extended over time—they will deliver programs that build in time for thinking and practice of new skills to help embed learning
  • inclusive—they will create learning environments where participants feel safe to stretch, enabling participants to question their thinking and test new skills
  • reflective—they will ensure that critical thinking is built into their programs to support continuously learning and improve participant’s skills back in the workplace
  • collaborative—they will embed opportunities to collaborate into their programs, where possible, to enable participants to be both challenged and encouraged by their peers to learn.

Learning activities that apply these types of principles can seem like a bigger commitment—and they may be—however they are designed to teach about a topic and support the development of a learning culture that can be applied within your own organisation for lasting benefit.

For more information:

Workforce planning

Workforce planning is a powerful tool organisations, sectors and regions can use to make sure they have the workforce they need now and for the future.

Workforce planning ensures the right people, with the right skills, in the right numbers are in the right location at the right time. It also ensures staff are organised and interacting in the right ways and ready to deliver the right services for better wellbeing and care for the community.

Local services, in partnership with WorkUP Queensland, have developed regional workforce and statewide workforce plans. These plans will help shape the workforce of the future and what WorkUP Queensland delivers over the next 5 years.

Last updated:
1 July 2022