Templates, checklists and integration code to show Strategic Self-Advocacy meets policy expectations.
Use this form to register someone for referral. Identifiable data is optional — users can remain anonymous for learning materials.
Read our latest posts about grant readiness, strategic self-advocacy, and our progress with pilot implementations.
If you're thinking about starting a charity based on your lived experience—whether that's mental health, disability, homelessness, addiction recovery, or any other challenge you've faced—understanding what the law means by "charitable purpose" is absolutely crucial. It's not just legal jargon; it's the foundation that determines whether your organisation can become a registered charity and access the benefits that come with it.
A step-by-step guide to registering your charity, from choosing the right structure to meeting ACNC requirements and setting up governance.
In the ecosystem of Australian not-for-profits, the label Public Benevolent Institution (PBI) carries both meaning and opportunity. For advocates, service providers, funders and policy-makers alike, understanding what a PBI is—and why the classification matters—can clarify a range of issues: purpose, compliance, tax status, public trust, and strategy.
Turn public concern into change with this strategic advocacy guide. Avoid 5 common campaign mistakes using proven frameworks for power mapping, SMART objectives, policy timing, team alignment, and impact measurement. Includes free tools and resources
Crafting key messages that stick: strategic messaging for advocacy using clarity, framing, and visual storytelling to influence change.
A practical guide for autistic individuals navigating workplace challenges, including bullying, discrimination, and sensory issues. Learn how to document incidents, communicate effectively, advocate for accommodations, and protect your rights at work.
Sustainable advocacy: prevent burnout with evidence-based strategies on setting boundaries, building support, focusing on impact, self-care, and managing expectations.
Discover how grassroots advocacy transformed community frustration into health policy reform. Learn how data, storytelling, and local champions secured $12M for mobile clinics and increased public awareness by 45%.
Use this 30-minute checklist to identify the most common accessibility issues on your website and ensure compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
A gentle guide to discovering your voice and reclaiming your power as a person with disability. Learn practical strategies for self-advocacy even when you think it's impossible.
The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing wants your feedback on a new program to support individual disability advocacy. Your voice matters in shaping the future of disability support in Australia.
In public affairs, persuasion isn't about shouting louder; it's about speaking to the right people. Knowing who matters—and who moves them—is the difference between a campaign that sparks headlines and one that shapes policy. Audience mapping is the architecture behind influence. When done strategically, it reveals where to focus effort, how to tailor messages, and who can carry them further than you ever could alone.
Strategic advocacy goes far beyond traditional lobbying. It’s a deliberate, evidence-driven process that aligns knowledge, networks and narrative to create durable systemic change. By understanding power dynamics, engaging stakeholders, and telling compelling human stories, organisations can influence policy in ways that last.
Test your knowledge with the EduLinked Advocacy Quiz – a quick, engaging way to learn about educational advocacy, policy, and student empowerment.
A lot of exclusion happens quietly, inside documents — school policies that sound neutral but block access, service agreements that shift responsibility onto you, and codes of conduct that punish disability or trauma responses. Inclusion Radar helps you scan for red flags, highlight barriers, and ask sharper questions — supporting your own judgment instead of replacing it.
A comprehensive framework for measuring advocacy impact using a blend of data analytics, storytelling, narrative analysis, and community insights.", "keywords": "advocacy impact measurement, strategic advocacy, influence metrics, storytelling, community evidence
Learn how to map power and influence in Australian policy. This guide reveals the hidden architecture of decision-making and provides strategic advocacy levers for high-impact results.
Understanding Royal Commissions in Australia
Royal Commissions are Australia’s most powerful public investigations. They expose patterns, failures and possibilities for repair — and
they help us understand how systems can better support the people within them.
Discover the top 5 common mistakes organisations make when running advocacy campaigns and learn practical fixes to avoid them. Improve your advocacy strategy with evidence-based approaches, stakeholder mapping, message testing, and impact measurement
A comprehensive guidance on recognizing, tracking, and advocating around their invisible labour. The examples help people identify work they might not have considered "trackable," and the usage tips help them turn their data into actionable workplace conversations!
A plain-language guide for self-advocates on using AI tools to lighten the workload, clarify your message, and support your voice without replacing human connection or choice.
One-on-one coaching sessions that build self-advocacy skills through strength-based mentoring and personalised check-ins. Learn to communicate needs clearly and participate in planning processes with confidence.
Strategic advocacy drives lasting policy change through evidence, networks, and narrative. Discover the framework for impactful, systemic reform.
Is your organisation eligible—and ready—to be recognised as a PBI? The checklist below reflects the key interpretive tests used by the ACNC and ATO for assessing whether a charity qualifies as a Public Benevolent Institution.
Get an ABN in Australia with this free, step-by-step guide for community groups, charities and small organisations. Includes Easy Read, worksheets and tips to avoid common mistakes.
Your guide to NDIS self-advocacy: know your rights, communicate your way, prepare with confidence, and find support. Empower your journey
with practical tips and resources.
Self-advocacy is about speaking up for yourself, knowing your rights, and getting the support you need. This guide will help you become a
confident self-advocate in your NDIS journey.
New platforms. New frameworks. New reforms.
We call it progress — but what if the same systems are simply rebuilding the walls they promised to tear down?
Queensland's Quiet Reckoning — examining transparency and systemic inequities in health service funding and oversight within Queensland’s advocacy ecosystem.
AI Tools for Advocates – justice-first, access-led tools that translate bureaucracy into plain language, empowering carers, advocates, and people with lived experience. Explore free, trauma-informed AI support for NDIS, education, and strategic advocacy.
Practical guide to building effective coalitions with clear purpose, inclusive governance, and accessible practices. Includes free templates for MOUs, meeting trackers, and accessibility checklists.
Discover how storytelling transforms advocacy—learn the narrative strategies that forced action, restored $500,000 in NDIS funding, and made change impossible to ignore.
Strategic Self-Advocacy (SSA) empowers marginalised individuals to navigate complex systems with precision, using documentation, institutional language, and lived experience as tools for change. Discover the SSA™ Handbook — a field guide for changemakers.
Step-by-step guide to making NDIS complaints. Learn how to contact the NDIS Commission, use AAC complaint cards, get advocate help, and protect your rights as an NDIS participant
Too often, advocacy is led by people who consult, research, and theorise, but haven’t lived the experience. That gap matters. Because no amount of theory can replace the precision and urgency that comes from surviving a system and still choosing to help others through it.
Before it was a framework, Strategic Self-Advocacy™ was a coping mechanism. It came from a simple but deeply human place: the need to be heard without being harmed. For those of us navigating systems built without us in mind, 'speaking up' was never just about raising our voices. It was about survival.
The Gatekeeper Problem: How well-meaning advocates can block change—and what to do when those who claim to support you become barriers to progress.
Strategic Self-Advocacy does not yet have a signed First Nations partner. We are committed to a funded co-design pathway: we will appoint a First Nations engagement lead, co-design a First Nations pathway with ACCO partners, and sign an MoU before pilot start. This work is budgeted in our pilot plan and will be delivered under ACCO leadership.
This section demonstrates how Strategic Self-Advocacy meets the requirements of the new Commonwealth individual disability advocacy program policy framework.
Individual disability advocacy definition: SSA provides one-on-one professional advocacy to prevent or address unfair treatment and abuse, matching the National Disability Advocacy Framework 2023–2025 definition.
Focus on at-risk individuals: Our triage system (score 1-5) identifies and prioritizes people at serious and immediate risk of harm, with automated referral pathways for urgent cases.
Outcomes-focused approach: Built-in monitoring tracks real results - harm prevention, rights protection, and systemic issue resolution - not just service counts.
3-6 year funding readiness: SSA's sustainable model supports organizational stability with scalable infrastructure and advocate retention programs.
Network capability: Our webhook system enables formal referral protocols between organizations, supporting both geographic networks and cohort-specific collaboration.
Cultural safety commitment: First Nations engagement lead position budgeted, co-design pathway planned with ACCO partners, MoU before pilot start under ACCO leadership.
Outreach to most in need: Targeted outreach to segregated settings, rural/remote communities, and people with intersecting inequalities through our intake system.
Disability-driven: SSA governance includes people with disabilities in leadership and decision-making positions. Our curriculum is co-designed with lived experience experts.
Independence: Clear conflict-of-interest policies separate advocacy services from other organizational activities. Advocates act according to client will and preferences only.
Relationships & Partnerships: Formal partnerships with ACCOs, Migrant Resource Centres, and other advocacy organizations for intersectional support.
Data capabilities: Comprehensive data collection and reporting system supports monitoring, evaluation, and evidence-based service improvement.
Operations excellence: Triage, waitlisting, and referral process with clear scope of practice and advocate support systems.
Workforce development: Priority recruitment of diverse advocates, meaningful professional development, and wellbeing support programs.
Referral protocols: Our webhook system provides seamless bidirectional referral with the National Advocacy Helpline, ensuring appropriate local follow-up.
Complementary services: SSA's strategic advocacy model complements short-term helpline support with longer-term individual advocacy capacity.
Technical compliance: JSON-based referral system meets technical standards for government integration with proper authentication and error handling.
Training priorities aligned: Curriculum includes cultural safety, trauma-informed practice, supported decision-making, managing vicarious trauma, and disability rights history.
Peer learning & mentoring: Built-in mentorship programs and reflective practice spaces for advocate professional development.
Evidence-based improvement: Data-driven approach to service improvement with client experience feedback and outcome measurement.
Webhook integration: Production-ready referral webhook example demonstrates compliance with government technical standards.
Data standards: JSON Schema provides structured data format for referral submissions with validation and error handling.
Security & privacy: Consent-based data sharing with appropriate privacy safeguards and audit trails.
Accessibility: AAC-friendly intake, multiple communication methods, and disability-accessible user interface design.
Strategic Self-Advocacy demonstrates comprehensive alignment with the Commonwealth's new disability advocacy program framework across all three funding streams. Our evidence-based approach, cultural safety commitments, and technical infrastructure position us as a capable partner for delivering high-quality individual disability advocacy services.
Download the waiting-list JSON Schema here: waiting-list-schema.json
Technical integrators: the page JS uses the referral webhook URL stored in site settings. The webhook must accept JSON POSTs and respond 200 OK on success. See the referral-webhook example in the attachments.