Summary / Most Important Things

For improved accessibility, this newsletter is now also available in PDF form, here or here

• Integrity in Albany - it is so close and we have so much exciting work planned!

• Trail of Integrity is coming to life

• Word Travels pilot and project update

• Meetings, meetings and more meetings

• Plenty of resources coming to fruition

PROGRAM UPDATE: Workshops

2026 has a heavy focus on workshops, as we see them as a key tool for driving learning, growing our impact and sharing about Integrity Initiative whilst doing it all.

I have been busy putting together the framework for 8 primary workshops - all of which will be rolling out throughout 2026 (and each of which we already have planned pilots of!). These workshops include:

• Integral Language (what is and is not best practice when talking about mental health, and the nuance that comes alongside this).

• Word Travels (exploration of conscious care/ intentional disclosure through zine making as a medium).

• Compassionate Creation (reframing creativity as a tool and as an essential as opposed to a ‘nice to have’).

• Peers, Professions and Partnership (how to meaningfully and respectfully work alongside Lived Experience Experts in mental health practice)

• Stretch and Learn (the role of movement in mental health and the importance of a weight-neutral approach)

• Talk About Talking (how to have conversations about mental health, even when they are uncomfortable).

• Create, Critique, Collaborate (an immersive 6-hour workshop exploring creativity as a tool, the role of language, lived experience as an expertise and how to work alongside Lived Experience professionally).

• Grow Up! (meaningful, respectful and empowering engagement with young people)

You can see more information about all of these workshops here.

You can read the workshop handbook here

You can book a workshop here

Many of these pilots will be made possible through the Trail of Integrity, which is discussed in more detail below. This will bring community-based workshops that are free to attend for members of the community!

We have also started booking workshops with different organisations, which is exciting as it demonstrates the potential to use these as a way to get some money to cover our basic operating costs and to start offering paid opportunities for our volunteer team.

PROJECT UPDATE: Trail of Integrity

https://integrityinitiative.com.au/trail-of-integrity-26

As mentioned, many of the workshops that we are planning this year will be brought to the community through Trail of Integrity, possible due to a small grant through the City of Fremantle.

Over 2026, the main offerings through Trail will include:

• Word Travels in February - this is already planned and being advertised. You can register here. Please help us share this invite around.

• Stretch and Learn in April

• Talk About Talking on June

• Integral Language in August

• Compassionate Creation in October

These free, community-based workshops will be a fantastic space to learn and share, and to do so COMPLETELY FOR FREE. They will also help us refine the workshops and make sure they run smoothly.

Especially for those who are looking to work with Integrity Initiative through these modules or through custom engagements, this is a perfect opportunity to learn about us and our ethos in advance.

We want to make the most of the opportunity that we’ve been afforded through the Trail, but to do so we need YOUR help! Spread the word! Come along!

Registrations for these workshops will be advertised through our Eventbrite and through the Trail webpage with plenty of notice.

Again, you can register for our first workshop - Word Travels - which will be on Saturday February 14th from 10:00-1:00pm at the Walyalup Civic Centre.

Link to register here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/word-travels-fremantle-tickets-1980066775026

PROJECT UPDATE: Integrity Initiative in Albany

https://integrityinitiative.com.au/albany-2026

After countless months of hard work, planning, barriers and perseverance, it is official! Integrity Initiative is going to Albany! More significantly, the troop has assembled (ie we have finalised our team - Kieran Silvie, Joshua Porteus, Maeson Harvey, Jasmin Gardner, Lily Gresele and myself!).

From the 24th of February to the 4th of March 2026, six of our team members are making the trek to the Great Southern for a week filled with community events, workshops, care packages, activities and so much more. Not just sticking within Mental Health, we are reaching far and broad - getting out within communities and meeting them in the places they are at.

Our itinerary is now locked down, which means we can share the opportunities for community members to engage with us. The full suite includes:

• Meet and Eat Peer Networking event - a welcome dinner and discussion at the Premier Hotel

• Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service ‘Care in Practice’ creative workshop.

• WA Country Health Service Acute Psychiatric Unit ‘Peer Perspectives’ workshop

• Delivering 50 care packages to the Albany Acute Psychiatric Unit

• Neami step up step down ‘Compassionate Creation’ workshop.

• Delivering 15 care packages to the Neami Step Up Step Down service

• Leading a mini Compassionate Creation and ‘talking about mental health’ micro-learning at Great Southern Grammar school.

• Word Travels workshop at Albany Business Centre

• Integrity Initiative at Albany Pride Fair Day

• Integrity Initiative at the Boatshed markets

• Unfiltered film screening at the Town Hall

• Stretch and Learn - a breakfast and body neutrality micro-learning at Just Move fitness studio

• South Regional TAFE library pop-up

• Crafternoon tea and painting in the Park at Eyre Park

Out of these, many events will be open for the public (these are the ones that have eventbrite links respectively included above). We would love as many people to come join us, chat and share their ideas with us as possible. This trip is just as much for us to learn and understand how we can better meet the needs of folks living regionally as it is for us to share what we do (actually, even more so).

Here is a link to download a PDF public events itinerary.

Please let us know if you are able to help us spread the word and we can send access to our online advertising pack!

We need your help to get as many people along as possible as to make the biggest impact we can with this week of Integrity.

We ask that if you know people in Albany, if you live or work in Albany, and if you have any interest in Integrity Initiative, mental health, community building, grassroots leadership and beyond that you please help us spread the word and help us bring this work to life!

p.s. given that we leave on the 24th, you can expect the Feb newsletter a little early. I imagine having it published in advance of our trip! We will likely also have a newsletter specifically highlighting all that we did 😄

PROJECT UPDATE: UNFILTERED

https://integrityinitiative.com.au/unfiltered

Unfiltered has been gaining plenty of interest! We are starting to see supported screenings pop up here and there, with an upcoming one in Scarborough, one in Albany (as part of Integrity in Albany), and one through the City of Melville.

Currently, the you can register for:

• The Scarborough event here

• The Albany screening here

The Scarborough screening is being hosted and run primarily by Lily (How To Be Well), who is taking the reins with a movie night, crafty, casual event designed for folks to come together and have some fun.

The Albany event is a part of our week of Integrity in Albany, and hopes to bring Lived Experience voices into the public space.

There will be more information about Unfiltered coming out soon, including a youth week event and potential organisations collaborations.

I have also reinvigorated the programme which will be shared at our Albany event and there on out.

Both myself and Lily look forward to what Unfiltered will bring in the future.

Side note - if you are able to donate towards funding a second season of Unfiltered, you can do so through the Integrity Initiative Give Now with the note ‘Unfiltered’. Link here: https://www.givenow.com.au/integrityinitiative

Exciting times!

PROJECT UPDATE: WORD TRAVELS

Clarification - Word Travels is a workshop in itself, but it is also projected to exist as a regional tour in mid to late 2026. On top of this, the workshop is also being delivered through Trail of Integrity.

Word Travels as a workshop

Word Travels is a collaboration between Integrity Initiative and Maeson’s Soapbox that aims to support emerging advocates and those wanting to share their stories within their communities - everyone and anyone; all abilities; all experiences.

Word Travels uses creative zine-making as a tool, and participants can expect to take away not just skills, learning and peer connection but also their completed zine! We now own a portable scanner (nifty!) which will allow us to scan the zines at the workshops and add them to our digital collection.

Piloting our word travels workshop at Victoria Park Community Space

Word Travels has started to officially come to life, and it has been genuinely incredible to see this happen. We held a pilot at Victoria Park Community Space on Sunday January 18th with some Ambassadors from Neami’s Right By You program and we were also joined some incredible advocates and partners in the advocacy space.

Disappointed you missed out? Never fear - this is the first of many!! Again, you can join us on Saturday the 14th at Walyalup Civic Centre, where myself and Min I will be hosting a second run-through. Register here.

Word Travels tour

We currently have standing funding applications for a Word Travels regional tour. Whilst nothing is confirmed $ wise, we have high hopes that we can bring it to life (and for those who know me, you also know I’ll stop at nothing to make it happen!)

As such- we welcome any regional connections, ideas and suggestions to help us progress this piece of work!

Learn more about Word Travels

Be part of Word Travels

Send us an email and chat

COMMUNITY EVENT: MELVILLE YOUTH COLLECTIVE MARKETS

Immediately upon our return from Albany (don’t ask me why I do this to myself because I don’t know), Integrity Initiative will be hosting a stall at the Melville Youth Collective markets held at Goolagatup (Heathcoate). We will have some resources, educational materials and more! We will also hopefully be launching our integri-t-shirts (a very clever name that I came up with!!!!)

More information to come soon, but we would LOVE to see you there!

SECTOR NEWS AND OTHER WORK:

Kieran and Rachael prepare for DESS

• Kieran and Rachael are presenting ‘Create, Critique, Collaborate’ at the Drug Education Support Service (funded through the Mental Health Commission) on February 3rd at Perth City Farm. This will be an all-day workshop divided into three core segments

  • Create: an opportunity to create and form personas, get expressive and begin reframing creativity in a new, productive light.

  • Critique: a space for non-judgement in which people can explore, learn, unpack stereotypes and examine current prejudice which will walk through the history of mental health, disability models, and epistemic injustice.

  • Collaborate: an opportunity to work together, explore Lived Experience as a profession and commit to genuine, meaningful partnership.

• This workshop will become a part of Integrity Initiative’s core offerings and fit nicely into our offerings for 2026 and beyond!

Rachael speaking for Consortium for Research in Eating Disorders webinar

I will be speaking on Friday the 6th of February on behalf of Integrity Initiative at the Consortium for Research in Eating Disorders’ digital webinar. I am excited to share my experiences of Peer work in the eating disorder-specific space here in WA (or the lack thereof) and my thoughts on the importance of a specific, designated Peer workforce for Eating Disorders.

I am excited to be drawing from Butterfly Foundation’s “An Eating Disorder-focused Peer Workforce: Needs Assessment Research Findings”, commissioned through Kantar Public and released in 2022.

Register via link here - even if you don’t attend, you will still have the recording of the session sent through!

Rich Mind WA Trusted Partners project complete

I can’t say too much about this project… but I will share a few nuggets. Over the past few months I have been involved in an eating disorder specific project with Rich Mind WA where I have been representing folks with lived and living experience of eating disorders. The group has come to a close for the time being, however I want to reflect on what a fantastic opportunity it has been and how truly hopeful I am to see where this work goes. I look forward to a future with less closed doors and traumatic treatment experiences for eating disorders.

Rachael announced as a speaker in the Finding North digital webinar

Register here

I am thrilled to be continuing my advocacy with Finding North (through Mental Illness Fellowship of Australia) as a speaker on the first day (March 17th) of the Perspectives 2026 e-conference. It is FREE to attend, and registering will also ensure the recordings are sent out to you following the event. I am excited to be sharing a presentation entitled ‘Reimagining Community Through the Lens of Integrity’, which will discuss “community” beyond traditional perceptions - as something that is complex and deeply personal, especially for people with lived and living experience of mental health challenges. I will share how this has changed through Integrity Initiative, led by young people with lived experience across mental health, disability, homelessness and AOD use,and deep dive into some of the realities of grassroots, community-led change (both successes and challenges).

Current involvement opportunities/ calls for help

Current ways you might be able to help include:

1. Help us organise our storage unit (please!). This would really really really be appreciated. Anyone free on a weekend that would like to give me a hand, please reach out!

2. Help us by reviewing and refining print materials - proofreading and grammar checking!

3. Spread the word about our events and engagements!

4. Come to our Trail of integrity events and help share our workshops around

5. Have us facilitate a workshop at your school, workplace, community or other!

Partners

Massive thank you is owed to Neami National and the Right By You Ambassadors, who helped bring to life the Word Travels pilot on Sunday the 18th January.

Thank you also to the City of Melville and to Mental Illness Fellowship of Western Australia (MIFWA) who have shown a great deal of support for Unfiltered

Resources

The Christmas break (well, I use the term ‘break’ lightly) was busy with workshop development

A lot of these are still under wraps (stay tuned - we hope to have more information on this front shortly), however this month’s resource is… the completed Word Travels zine! a zine about and promoting a zine-making workshop? Ama-ZINE!! (sorry, that’s appalling). It is truly beautiful!

Team spotlight

Big love to the team coming to Albany - Kieran, Josh, Maeson, Lily and Min. I endlessly appreciate you all and I look forward to making lots of memories with you all xx

Slay Takeaways

I recently discovered that Sanity sells frog bandages, so instead of a frog fact this month, you get to witness this glory.

I mean… look at them! What can’t they fix?

Random side note

I now have a Microsoft Surface Pro because my MacBook Air decided to kick the bucket. It is not designed to handle the number of tabs I constantly have open. I know it’s bad for the computer, but you gotta do what you gotta do. I will not change.

Take care froglets,

• Rachael and the Integrity Army