Subsidise six SHAC staff to attend the the Australian Homelessness Conference 2026, convened by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), to be held on October 7-8, 2026, at the Darwin Convention Centre. The conference is Australia’s largest event of its kind, gathering professionals from all sectors to share new ideas, best practices, and ...
Shelter Housing Action Cairns
Opportunity in a career lifetime: staff participation in the National Homelessness Conference
GOAL
$14,185
Australia > QLD > Regional
Field of Interest
- Housing and homelessness
Target Population
- People experiencing or at risk of homelessness
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
Shelter Housing Action Cairns
Shelter Housing Action Cairns (SHAC) has been supporting Cairns families who are homeless or at risk of homelessness on their path to a secure future for the past 37 years.
We offer a comprehensive package of wrap around support services to our clients including: supporting families to sustain at-risk tenancies, providing temporary supported accommodation and short term holiday accommodation to homeless families, providing support services to homeless families we cannot accommodate, and providing no interest loans and financial counselling services to our target group.
Our vision is to eliminate family homelessness in Cairns by supporting families to get and/or keep secure housing.
During 2024/2025 SHAC formally supported over 1,750 adults and 1,700 children and many more through the provision of informal supports, information and referrals. Across all programs over 80 per cent of our clients are First Nations people.
Project Summary
Subsidise six SHAC staff to attend the the Australian Homelessness Conference 2026, convened by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), to be held on October 7-8, 2026, at the Darwin Convention Centre.
The conference is Australia’s largest event of its kind, gathering professionals from all sectors to share new ideas, best practices, and opportunities for system reform. The last AHURI National Homelessness Conference was in 2022, so this is a rare opportunity. The conference theme is “Homelessness: disrupting the narrative”. Conference presentations will include people with lived experience.
Project Outcomes
Ultimately, attendance at this conference is expected to improve housing and non-housing outcomes for our clients by enhancing staff knowledge, skills and connections.
In particular, it is expected attendance at the conference will:
- Assist staff to understand the most effective, evidence-based case management approaches
- Gain insights into better recognising the expertise of people with lived experience of homelessness in case work
- Build professional connections beyond Cairns to include peers across Australia
- Provide professional development opportunities to learn about innovative initiatives and approaches, and how to apply them in their work.
- Facilitate access to new service delivery related resources promoted/shared at the conference.
In addition, it is expected that leadership staff will learn:
- Leading policy ideas and opportunities for organisational and overall system reform
- How to build service collaboration ventures operating elsewhere in Australia.
Ultimately, the knowledge, skills, connections and resources gained at the conference are expected to help staff improve the long-term housing and non-housing outcomes for their clients.
Budget Breakdown
TOTAL BUDGET: $18,985
FUNDING
| Funding source | Amount |
|---|---|
| Shelter Housing Action Cairns | $4,800 |
| Funding Gap | $14,185 |
EXPENSES
| Expense item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Flights | $4,735 |
| Conference Registration | $8,400 |
| Accommodation | $4,100 |
| Meals | $950 |
| Taxis / Ground transport | $800 |
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