Subject: How your collaboration is shaping the AAPW, member spotlight, and some opportunities to get involved
In this edition, we introduce a new 'Member Spotlight' segment as we start to share stories from our membership and work towards building a connected peer community. We also reflect on our first 'Co-lab' experience and update you on Cert IV advocacy.
Read on for more...
That’s a wrap! Our First Collaboration (Co-Lab)
Why we started with collaboration
The AAPW are building a national voice and membership body for mental health and suicide prevention peer workers, and there’s only one way to do that… with peer workers at the table. Our first ‘Co-lab’ was how we started to put our principles into practice, and bring the peer workforce in.
At the AAPW’s launch, we did not yet have an established membership, so Co-Lab participants were nominated by organisations across the sector. The group we assembled represented a broad range of peer worker perspectives, including First Nations, mental health consumer, family carer and suicide prevention peer workers.
How it worked
The Co-lab met fortnightly across eight sessions, from June to October 2026. The group's first task was to codevelop a working together agreement for safe enough collaboration that was grounded in curiosity, respect for different perspectives and expertise, culturally safe ways of working, and a culture of learning. In each session, our 'Co-Labbers' explored set questions through group conversation and online tools. After each session, we summarised emerging themes and checked back that we had heard everyone correctly.
What came out of it
The Co-lab explored membership categories and the shape and form of member services: an Advice and Referral Service, Member Chapters and a Mentoring Program. Their input has already shaped the membership categories available today, and it is now shaping the proposed model for the Advice and Referral Service.
Thank you (you know who you are!)
We simply could not have done this on our own. The diverse experiences and creativity in the room made for expansive conversations about what is possible, while staying grounded in the realities of the systems we work within. Even when perspectives differed, the group met each other with respect and curiosity and grappled with complexity with genuine care.
Co-Labbers - You have our unending gratitude.
What happens next
First: The Advice and Referral Service. We have summarised and themed the Co-lab's input, and a draft service model is now being reviewed internally. To stay accountable, we will keep sharing its development with Co-Lab members so they can see their input, and themselves, in the design. When it is firmer, we will share it with all members too! We expect work on the Member Chapters and the Mentoring Program to kick off in the new year.
This is not the end, and we are excited about the future of Co-Labs. Stay tuned for opportunities open to all members to help shape the future of AAPW, including expressions of interest for our next Co-Lab.
Member Spotlight | Walking alongside mob: Culture, connection and the value of peer work
Name: Kendi Reardon
Country/Community/Mob: Malyangapa mob, with a lifelong connection to Wilyakali Country, Broken Hill, NSW
Role: Aboriginal Mental Health and Wellbeing Peer Worker, Far West Local Health District (FWLHD), NSW Health
Yarn From the Workforce
We are the experts in our own right
As an Aboriginal Mental Health and Wellbeing Peer Worker with Far West Local Health District (FWLHD), I’m passionate about the difference peer work makes, not only for the people we support but for our families and communities as a whole.
Every day I go to work, there can be a fear of hearing a comment or receiving a request that devalues the peer worker role and the expertise we bring. I remind myself that I’m in this role because I struggled, and if I’d had someone like me or a peer worker beside me back then, I might not have had to struggle so much or feel so alone. Our support has a positive ripple effect throughout our communities. Sometimes, we just have to keep swimming.
Having a mentor who I can go to for absolutely anything has made a huge difference. She has been my rock, and I believe everyone needs at least one person like that in their corner. I’ve also found it incredibly uplifting to see our local peer workforce grow and to connect with other peer workers who understand the work we do.
I also want to acknowledge the support I’ve received in my own workplace. I’ve been supported in my substantive role to complete my Certificate IV in Mental Health Peer Work and my Aboriginal Health Practitioner qualification, become an Aboriginal Mental Health First Aid Facilitator, act in a Senior Peer role and take on higher duties as a manager at the Mental Health Prevention and Rehabilitation Centre (MHPARC), among many other opportunities. I’m now being supported to complete the Peer Leadership Skillset through the Mental Health Coordinating Council (MHCC).
These opportunities have helped me grow both professionally and personally, and I’m genuinely grateful to work in an environment where I’ve been encouraged to learn, develop and step into new challenges. I love my workplace and the opportunities it has provided me. I think it’s important to recognise what can happen when peer workers are supported to grow, trusted with responsibility and given genuine opportunities to lead.
At the same time, I know this isn’t always the experience of peer workers everywhere. We aren’t always recognised for our worth and expertise. Sometimes peer workers are treated as a fill-in when a clinician doesn’t have time or are asked to take on tasks that don’t reflect the purpose of our role, such as simply acting as a taxi driver. Peer work is much more than that. Our lived experience, relationships, connection and ability to walk alongside people are valuable in their own right.
I’d like to see stronger cultural support in workplaces, including senior people who can provide guidance, safe spaces for peer workers to yarn and debrief, and clearly defined roles and models of care. Peer workers shouldn’t be left with the message, “We had funding, so we filled the position. We don’t know what you do, so you figure it out.” We deserve clarity, support and recognition as skilled members of the workforce.
"...we shouldn't have to leave home to be heard, to progress or to lead"
Keep reading Kendi's story here
Career Pathways in Peer Work: Register now!
Monday 23 November 2026 | 5:00 to 6:30pm AEST | Online via Microsoft Teams
Are you interested in exploring the various careers available as a peer worker and the pathways you can take to get there?
There are a range of designated lived experience roles that are focussed on system design, policy, leadership, service design, research, education and more.
Peer work is a broad and growing profession. For this webinar, we’re exploring the professional opportunities and career pathways available to peer workers.
We're bringing together a panel of peer workers who have experience in frontline support, and who are now working across diverse areas in designated roles, to share what they’ve learnt along the way.
This event is for 'full' and 'student' members only.
Register now
Please note: We'll also make a recording available after the event via our Resource Hub, accessible to all members, including 'Friends of the AAPW.'
AAPW Members Advocate on the Mental Health Peer Work (Certificate IV) Review
Certificate IV review: Making space for peer worker voices
The Certificate IV in Mental Health Peer Work has been an important foundation for peer work education in Australia for a decade. Its first review, led by HumanAbility, is an opportunity to ensure the qualification reflects peer work values, practice and the diversity of our workforce.
When the draft modules were released in early October, AAPW reviewed them and provided an initial submission drawing on our team’s feedback. With a short consultation window, we also advocated for more time and accessible opportunities for members to contribute their experiences and perspectives.
Our submission highlighted the need for education on peer work specific approaches to responding to distress related to suicide and a dedicated First Nations Peer Work stream.
HumanAbility responded by:
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Extending consultation by a month, allowing more time to review the materials and provide feedback.
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Partnering with AAPW to hold three member consultation sessions, attended by 58 members. Two were open to all members, and one was specifically for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peer workers.
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Removing the original suicide prevention module and committing to further work on a peer work specific module on responding to suicide, alongside a First Nations peer work module for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.
What comes next
We appreciate HumanAbility’s willingness to respond to this feedback and thank the members who shared their knowledge and experience.
We have captured the feedback from the consultation sessions and will update our initial submission to reflect the perspectives and priorities members raised. As the review progresses, we will keep you informed and continue advocating for a qualification grounded in peer work values and principles, shaped by meaningful input from the workforce it supports.
You can also contribute directly. Email tpd.communityservices@humanability.com.au to request access to the Mental Health Peer Work Review Consultation Portal, where you can read the draft modules and submit your own feedback.
13YARN's new Text and Type services are live
13YARN has launched two new ways to connect, so mob can reach crisis support in the way that feels right for them. Alongside the 24/7 phone line, folks can now text or type to a trained Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Crisis Supporter.
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Talk: call 13YARN (13 92 76), 24/7
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Text: 0447 13 92 76, 4pm to midnight, 7 days a week
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Type: chat online at 13yarn.org.au, 4pm to midnight, 7 days a week
We know that not everyone wants to pick up the phone, so having more ways to yarn really matters.
Please share this with the people you walk alongside, your colleagues and your networks.
You never know who might need it.
Find out more about 13YARN
Have your say: digital mental health tools in practice
Researchers at Orygen Digital and the University of Melbourne are running a survey to understand how confident and capable psychologists and other mental health practitioners (including Peer Workers) feel about integrating digital mental health tools into their practice, and they wanted your voices to contribute to this data.
The findings will inform training to help the workforce prepare for an increasingly digital present and future.
Everyone who completes the survey can enter a prize draw for a chance to win one of five $100 vouchers.
Take the survey
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