The first of a series of Peer Connect Conferences took place on Tuesday 5th December at the City of Salisbury’s Gallery Venue, held in partnership between JFA Purple Orange, Families4Familes and the City of Salisbury.

21 people attended, including invited speakers from the host organisations who spoke of their experience of belonging to peer networks. Mikaila Crotty from JFA Purple Orange facilitated the event together with Jennifer and Michael Farnden (Families4Families) and Mike Taggart (City of Salisbury).

The plenary session provided an overview of the concept of peer support, how a peer group or network differs from other groups and the benefits peer support group members have reported from involvement in existing peer groups. Jennifer and Michael detailied the history of Families4Families and Geoff McConnell described his experience as a F4F Group Leader across Adelaide’s Northern area and Yorke Peninsula.

Mike Taggart provided his insights into peer support, including ways that peer networks can build confidence and capacity in group members and influence community change. Lastly, Maria Catanzariti spoke of the support, understanding and camaraderie that exists between members of the peer group “Disability Elders of all ages” which is hosted by JFA Purple Orange.

Some small group work was carried out in the final section of the conference, allowing attendees to chat to one another about the factors for consideration of “doing peer support” within their local areas and circumstances. A few hot issues emerged for further contemplation, including:

  1. Identifying the needs within a local area, such as:
  • The need for peer groups to be as inclusive as possible 
  • The need for peer groups to cater to the physical needs of members, particularly understanding of fatigue factors, or health symptoms not readily observable
  • The importance of venue selection, to ensure that it is as accessible as possible for members
  1. Marketing and group membership retention, such as:
  • The need for commitment from group members
  • Consideration that majority of people have work or personal commitments
  • Possibility of utilising roles within the NDIS to allow links between potential members (eg Local Area Coordinators could assist)
  • The value of utilising local council/library programs as a marketing method to attract new members to groups
  1. Factors related to establishing a new group, such as
  • Anchoring the group to something meaningful beyond simply social benefits, such as skills development, advocacy, or working action groups on disability-related matters
  • Funding issues and opportunities
  • Possibility of securing wages for facilitators to assist
  • Establish roster so that facilitation and coordination activities are evenly distributed across group members

All up, attendees reported that they had enjoyed themselves and considered the program elements very useful. We look forward to the next one!