Shifting Systems through Community Led Engagement in Health Outcomes

What happens when communities lead change?

In health, community engagement is often framed around consultation, co-design, or outreach. That’s definitely part of the system of change, but we need to go further. Community members, activists, academics, and more have long recognised that real transformation means shifting power, resourcing communities to define priorities, drive solutions, and hold systems accountable. This conversation invites health professionals, lived experience advocates, policymakers, students and community leaders to reflect on how community-led engagement can really be achieved in practice.

Featuring Dr Andrew Brown from Deakin University

Dr Brown has led groundbreaking work in improving health outcomes through community leadership and participatory models. Now teaching social work and public health with a focus on systems thinking and community development, he brings deep insight into how complex systems can evolve when community wisdom is centred. His perspective will help us explore and understand how to build power in communities to shift systems.

A space for honest dialogue and bold thinking

Join us as we share stories from the field, challenge the limits of traditional models, and consider how to embed structures that truly value cultural knowledge, lived experience, and collective care. Whether you’re working in service delivery, systems reform, public health, or community advocacy this is a chance to listen, connect, and reimagine our social systems.

Date: 26th July 2025

Time: 11am to 2pm

Venue: ValueLabs Spaces, Level 2/673 Bourke Street, Melbourne VIC 3000

Light lunch provided with coffee and tea

FREE ENTRY (But please RSVP!)

Children aged 6 and over welcome with notice (you must RSVP so that a space can be prepared)