WA ACHO sector gathers for the first time at Perth summit

The mood was high at Burswood on Swan at the first WA Aboriginal Community Housing Organisation (ACHO) Sector Strengthening Summit.

Held on Tuesday, July 18 and Wednesday, July 19 2023, the event was organised as part of Shelter WA’s ACHO Sector Strengthening Project, funded by Department of Communities (DoC). A key deliverable of the project is to identify and connect with each WA ACHO and support their peer connection. To date, 28 ACHOs have participated in the project. Common issues captured by this project to date include a lack of peer-to-peer connection and support, and a need for more collaboration and advocacy for the sector as a collective.

The Summit, co-hosted by Shelter WA, DoC and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Association (NATSIHA), was held in response to these insights. High turnout and enthusiastic engagement from the ACHOs was further confirmation of the need and support for more collaboration and bringing together of the sector. A total of 37 participants attended the Summit from the sector, representing 23 ACHOs collectively servicing every region of the state.

Day One

The event was held on Whadjuk Noongar Boodjah and therefore Day One began with a wonderful Welcome to Country performed by Daniel and Johnny Garlett, who shared stories of their experience growing up by the Derbal Yerrigan (Swan River) and welcomed attendees with songs and music.

This was followed by opening addresses to set the scene of the event by Justin Noel (Summit facilitator), Tina Ugle (Managing Director of Noongar Mia Mia and WA Representative on Board of NATSIHA) and Kath Snell (CEO of Shelter WA).

Formalities complete, the rest of the morning was spent with a workshop and breakout sessions on the key challenges and shared principles of the WA ACHO Sector, topics including the difficulty of accessing maintenance in remote areas, lack of quality stock and the need for culturally appropriate housing design.

Dr Jess Bunning (Principal Policy Officer, WA DoC) delivered a presentation on behalf of the Department providing an overview of the opportunities for strengthening the ACHO sector in WA in partnership with Government. The afternoon then saw a World Café session led by various teams within the DoC: Community Housing Registration, Housing Policy, North West Aboriginal Housing Fund, Remote Communities Fund and the Remote Maintenance Contract Review. ACHOs found these sessions useful to demystify the Department, given its huge size.

Day One finished off with a networking event, when ACHOs were joined by key stakeholders and decision makers from Government including the DoC, Department of Health, Department of Justice, Water Corporation, Horizon Power and InfrastructureWA.

Day Two

Following an action-packed Day One, ACHOs gathered again on Wednesday, 19 July for Day Two which focused on peak bodies and the potential development of an Aboriginal Housing peak body in WA. This began with a panel discussion with ACHO peak body leaders from other states – Lisa Sampson (CEO of ACHIA NSW), Skye Thompson (CEO of Aboriginal Housing Northern Territory) and Rob Macfarlane (COO of NATSIHA).

Taking lessons learned from other states and territories on their journey to the formation of an ACHO peak body, ACHOs then broke into groups to discuss how a WA Aboriginal Housing peak body could look, and the steps needed to make it happen. This was a practical session that yielded many tangible actions for the sector.

Ivan Simon, CEO of NATSIHA, then delivered a presentation on the history of NATSIHA, their focus areas, and how they are supporting their ACHO peak partners in states and territories across Australia. The Summit concluded with follow-up discussion facilitated by NATSIHA on the next steps for developing the sector, including development of a peak body to increase collaboration and representation of the sector.

Overall, the Summit was a great success thanks to the attendance and enthusiastic participation of ACHOs, and wonderful facilitation of Justin Noel. The sector collectively indicated a need and desire for regular in-person peer-to-peer meetings and workshops to build on the work achieved at the Summit.

Insights shared throughout the event were expertly captured by graphic recorder Emma Shumack, who created series of visual illustrations of the challenges shared, actions agreed and connections forged at the summit.

Shelter WA was proud to co-host this event with DoC and NATSIHA. Travel reimbursement funding provided by DoC assisted 10 ACHOs to travel from regional and remote areas – a scheme that contributed directly to the level of attendance and participation from all regions of WA. With community housing registration a key issue for the sector, the next key project milestone is to deliver a Template Library resource to assist registration in late 2023. We look forward working alongside the DoC to support the sector to continue their collective development.