Summary / Most Important Things

• Looking for volunteers and army members!

• Integrity Initiative in Albany

• Incorporation and partnership!

• Upcoming events - Stretch and Learn, Unfiltered at AH Bracks Library

• Presentations and speeches - Neurodiversity Celebration Week, Perspectives

• Lots of external advocacy!

Volunteer for Integrity Initiative

Submit an EOI here

Living in Perth, Western Australia? Passionate about mental health, human rights, and social justice? Hoping to use your Lived Experience to drive positive change? We would love to have you join the Integrity Initiative team!

We have two types of roles open, each with a different level of commitment:

1. Join the Integrity Army - become a core member of the operational team. Commitment looks like semi-regular meetings, learning the ropes of Integrity (and how to pitch it) and occasional paid opportunities. You will be the first to hear about opportunities and will have more scope to lead your own projects, help coordinate volunteers and shape the work we do as we grow.

2. Join the volunteer pool - whether it is for one-off event assistance, showcasing your art, or being another voice to help share the message amongst your communities. The volunteer pool is a more flexible commitment and offers a fantastic space to connect and learn the ropes of lived experience advocacy.

More information:

• Currently, these roles are volunteer-based. Integrity Initiative will aim to remunerate you for your time where possible and offer paid opportunities. For instance, there may be opportunities for you to co-facilitate a workshop or help manage an event that is paid as an honorarium.

• If you are not sure what suits you, we’re more than happy to chat!

• Integrity Initiative is restructuring our volunteer base as we begin incorporation. With this, we can better utilise such diverse skillsets and allow you to contribute in a way that feels right. Maybe you are interested in web design? Maybe you are better suited to event coordination? Maybe you are interested in putting together care packages? Whatever it may be, we have a role for you!

If you are interested, you can complete the volunteer EOI here or contact Rachael (rachael@integrityinitiative.com.au)

Integrity Initiative in Albany

It’s no secret that Albany has been a HUGE piece of work this year, and this has taken up a lot of mine and my volunteers’ capacity this month.

I’ve already written extensively on this project, and I genuinely think that if I talk about it much more my head might explode, so I’ll link all of the recaps and highlights for you to explore as you please 🥰

Good news story

Final report

Webpage and gallery

Integrity Initiative is incorporating!

It is with an indescribable amount of joy that I officially announce Integrity Initiative is starting incorporation! An absolutely massive amount of work and a brand new, majorly terrifying chapter… but one that’s a massive step in becoming sustainable and operative not just as a community group but as a real organisation!

We have been successful in a grant that will support the development of a volunteer strategy, a strategic plan, a constitution, a board and a new website that meets our needs and is much more functional (I am WELL aware that our current site serves as not much more than a holding space for a sea of information, certainly not the most user-friendly or accessible).

With the development of a new website and refinement of our policies, procedures and whatnot, we are also looking to formalise partnerships and messages of support from organisations and individuals.

If you would like to discuss partnership or provide a statement that we can use on our website, please reach out to rachael@integrity.com.au.

Caring With Integrity

Caring With Integrity made a massive SPLASH in Albany, delivering 165 care packages.

I know I said I wouldn’t rattle on about Albany more than I already have, however I’m going to highlight some of the beautiful feedback we got and share what it means to me.

This is the first time I’ve felt like a human in weeks.

I can’t wait to have a shower tonight with these beautiful products, I can’t tell you how good it is going to feel to be able to scrub the hospital off me. I’ve felt like I haven’t had a proper shower in weeks. Just the fact of being able to look forward to a shower now – I can’t tell you how significant that feels. This hasn’t ‘fixed’ everything, but it has certainly made a crack.

I can’t tell you how grateful I am.

This is why I started Integrity Initiative. To give that basic dignity. Because I KNOW how it feels to not have it.

In the scheme of things, I don’t care about accolades or formal recognition or money or what-have-you. I care about people like me who are experiencing (one of) the shittiest things a human can endure, feeling worthless. I care that in a world designed to convince them they are the problem, they know that they are not and that they are not alone in whatever that makes them feel. I don’t care about finding a ‘fix’ to prescribe, I care about showing them they don’t need one. I care about existing alongside their experience.

If you represent an organisation and would like to discuss a Caring With Integrity delivery, you can complete the EOI form here

Upcoming Events

Trail of Integrity: Stretch and Learn

Saturday, 11th April 9am - 12pm

Earth Point Evolution, Fremantle

For the next workshop making up Trail of Integrity, we’re changing the pace - we’re bringing you Stretch and Learn, a yoga session (led by Elaine Ashurst) paired with a mini informative workshop (led by Rachael Burns) that explores weight neutrality and dissects diet culture, all complemented by a guilt-free breakfast.

Register here

• A guilt-free continental breakfast

• A screening of the short (10-minute) Lived Experience documentary ‘Sick Enough’

• Mini interactive workshop led by Rachael Burns exploring Health At Every Size, body neutrality, and the history of diet culture

• Guided gentle yoga Lived Experience leader Elaine Ashurst.

The event is open broadly to community members, especially those with an interest in how to support someone experiencing an eating disorder or wanting to improve their own relationship with food and their bodies. It is most suitable for clinicians and allied health professionals working with people experiencing eating disorders or at risk for developing an eating disorder.

The event is also being promoted on the National Eating Disorders Collaborative website!

Unfiltered for Youth Week

Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 7:00 PM

A.H. Bracks Library

Register here

See the accessibility guide here

As part of Youth Week 2026, Integrity Initiative will be holding a screening of Unfiltered and a panel discussion with Eva Cocks, Zoe Diakoloukas, Lily Gresele and Jake Gaitskell.

Whilst the event will take a lens focusing on and celebrating the work of young people (in line with 2026 Youth Week theme, ‘Strength in our Stories’), the event is open to all community members of all ages, backgrounds and interests and will offer an opportunity to come together, watch ‘Unfiltered’, learn and share.

We have also recently started reaching out for stalls who would like to come to the event and be part of the community - both those that sell local goods/ crafts AND those to raise awareness/ share a message.

If you would like to host a stall, send an email to rachael@integrityinitiative.com.au or complete the stallholder EOI here

Presentations

Finding North Perspectives

On Tuesday the 17th, I spoke for the Finding North Perspectives e-Conference, talking about the many meanings that community has had throughout the course of my life and in particular through Integrity Initiative.

I commend the team at Finding North and MIFA for making this such a smooth, supportive and empowering experience. I have loved each and every project I’ve done with the team and I look forward to many more to come.

Neurodiversity Celebration Week at Perth Children’s Hospital

On Wednesday the 11th, I was honoured to speak for Perth Children’s Hospital at the inaugural Neurodiversity Celebration Week, where I spoke about language surrounding mental health and neurodivergence, how to make care and communication accessible, and how charity-focused, pity-based language can be disempowering

You can see the post recapping the event here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rachael-burns-0bab68309_today-i-spoke-at-perth-childrens-hospital-activity-7437429410120560640-xYO8?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAE6o8I4BE3ZB8gR3dFNKZlJxNbNBMiyn0iw

Imagined Futures Community of Practice

On Friday the 20th, I spoke to folks from across the Southern suburbs in youth wellbeing spaces about Integrity Initiative, what we’ve been up to and how to get involved in the future. It was a fabulous space to connect, reflect and celebrate the heart, passion and power that is still very much alive and well within the sector.

Thank you to Karen Silverthorne from Imagined Futures for inviting me along! Shout out also to their incredible work on the Where is The Door project helping young people navigate services in the Cockburn/ Melville/ Fremantle area!

Kintsugi Heroes podcast interview

At the beginning of the month, I chatted with John Milham from Kintsugi Heroes for an episode of their podcast - stay tuned!

External Projects, Advocacy, and Upcoming Work.

I have been a busy bee, and involved in several new and exciting projects, including

• 18 and Up survey is an intergenerational, longitudinal study that I am on the consumer advisory group for. Thanks to Lived Experience Australia and Sharon Lawn for bringing the opportunity to the community. This is a piece of ongoing work!

• Orygen Global Ready AI youth advisory group, which is proving to be a very interesting space to discuss all things ethics and morals around the current AI landscape and making it safe. It is a group filled with very different and endlessly interesting perspectives that I look forward to exploring, challenging and sitting with. I will be travelling to Melbourne very soon for an in-person partner meeting!

• Healing Kids, Healing Families through The Kids Institute is one that I am finding deeply resonant. In its early stages, it is developing measures for children and carers to report experiences of trauma in hospitalisation in line with the principles of trauma-informed care.

• I will also be co-facilitating a workshop at the International Women Deliver conference, which is being held in Naarm, the first time the conference has been held in the Oceania-Pacific region. I will be attending alongside some of the team from the ASEAN-Pacific Fellowship I completed last year!

• I also recently received some very very very very exciting news about the International Association for Youth Mental Health conference in Dublin in November! Stay tuned!

• Another (actually two) super secret project is in the works that I can’t talk about (yet) ☺️

Resources

We have officially launched some free resources on our website - stay tuned within the next few months to see more resources and avenues for accessing them.

For now, I’m pleased to share the latest zine I’ve created: The Activist’s Unofficial Guide To Effective Advocacy.

Slay Takeaways

What actually is the difference between toads and frogs?

The primary difference between frogs and toads is that frogs have smooth, moist skin and long legs for jumping, while toads have dry, warty skin and shorter legs for hopping.

Frogs live near water, whereas toads are more terrestrial, inhabiting drier areas.

Technically, all toads are a subset of frogs within the amphibian class.

Some frogs are definitely not toads, but there are some frogs which are called toads without following any rigorous definition.

(courtesy of a deep dive down the ‘Today I Learned’ subreddit)

In short, we like frogs… but, beware of the subset that is toads

Take care froglets,

Rachael and the Integrity Army