FREE TO BE ME

Before you explore

Acknowledgement of Country


Sovereignty was never ceded. No treaty was ever signed. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are the Traditional Custodians of the lands and waters on which this work is made, and that does not become less true with time, legislation or silence.

FREE 2B ME acknowledges Elders past, present and emerging. This body of work exists because systems cause harm when they ask people to become easier to accommodate. No community in this country has been asked to do that more often, or for longer, than First Nations peoples.

We hold that as a matter of practice, not sentiment.

For organisations

Good practice has to survive real organisations.

Build an organisation where people can contribute without disappearing inside the effort.

Good ideas do not matter much if the systems around them cannot hold them. A practitioner can be excellent and still be defeated by a roster, a form, a supervision gap or a policy nobody has read since it was written.

The person is not the only one expected to learn. Support should be able to change. So should the practitioner, the environment, the service, the workforce, the documentation, the technology and the organisation.

Tanya Hicks speaking into a microphone on a panel in front of a Women Changing the World Awards backdrop
Panel · Women Changing the World Awards

At a glance

How working together works.

  1. Who it is for

    Services, workplaces and organisations that want good practice to survive real rosters, forms, supervision and policy.

  2. What happens

    It usually starts with one visible problem. Together we look at where the work needs to land: learning, implementation, supervision, review, documentation, technology, governance or design.

  3. What you take away

    Clarity about who is responsible for what, understanding of what people are being asked to carry, and a way to repair what isn’t working. That includes the people doing the supporting.

  4. Next step

    Start a conversation about the problem in front of you.

Scope, delivery and fees are agreed with you. Professional responsibilities still stand throughout, and so does the support clients need.

Start a conversation Print the practitioner question card
Where the work sits

Eight places organisational work actually lands

Workforce learning

Building capability across a team, not certifying individuals and hoping it spreads.

Implementation

The distance between a policy and what happens on a Tuesday afternoon, and the time, resources and assistance it takes to close it.

Supervision

Reflective practice with enough structure to change what people do.

Evidence & review

Checking what is actually happening, including whether the people affected say it helped, rather than assuming something works.

Technology

Systems people can use under pressure, that make the accountable path the easy one.

Documentation

Records that are true, useful and readable by the person they describe.

Governance

Knowing the practice is being carried properly, and being able to show it.

Organisational design

Roles, scope and decision rights that match who is actually responsible, with room for the person affected to disagree.

Workforce

Neuroinclusion as part of how the business is built.

Not an adjustment bolted on once somebody discloses. A condition of the design.

What would we build differently if neurodivergent people were expected to belong here from the beginning?

Tanya Hicks and other panel guests seated together in an ornate Paris salon
Two questions

Two questions to bring to your own organisation.

What does our practice require the person to become?

Does this leave room for the person to be themselves?

Neither is a compliance question. Both become visible on a Tuesday afternoon: in a roster, a form, a supervision session, a meeting, or a policy nobody has read since it was written.

Working together

How this usually starts

Most organisations start with one visible problem and find it is attached to three invisible ones. That is normal and it is workable.

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