
Fiona’s story
Fiona is one of the tenants at the Synapse Cairns Community Living. Before coming to the Synapse Cairns Community Living, Fiona was living in hospital in Townsville.
Read moreOur Community Living Initiative provides culturally safe support and promotes opportunities for tenants to live a life of choice; connected with the things that are important to their identity and hold meaning for them. This service is currently available in Cairns.
Our Community Living Initiative was specifically designed, with the intent of cultural safety integrated in the physical design, service model and delivery, workforce model, governance and systems of operation.
Our Cairns Community Living Initiative has eight units. The buildings physical space features areas that promote external living, external and internal cooking, yarning circles and a layering of private and public external spaces.
Our Community Living Initiative service aims to:
The Synapse Community Living Initiative Service Model acknowledges community and cultural knowledge as the cornerstone of culturally informed support.
As such, through meaningful dialogue and capacity building, an independent mentor works together with tenants and staff to strengthen practice, community connections and resolve issues that may have the potential to create barriers to personal achievement.
The mentor remains independent of the support team and also provides valuable insights and learnings regarding the barriers and opportunities to improve cultural safety for the workforce and individuals receiving services. The continued focus on listening and responding to the grounded experiences of those connected to Synapse Cairns Community Living Initiative, are strengthened through the role of the mentor.
Fiona is one of the tenants at the Synapse Cairns Community Living. Before coming to the Synapse Cairns Community Living, Fiona was living in hospital in Townsville.
Read moreJamen started working at the Community Living Initiative in Cairns two-months before it opened to tenants in 2017. His role is to mentor the team working at the Community Living Initiative and act as a conduit between the team and tenants.
Read moreCairns Community Living is a safe place of belonging for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples with a disability.
Read moreA housing model evaluation of our Cairns Community Living Initiative to systemically understand the outcomes of design decisions against the building’s performance in terms of user needs.
Read moreIf you’ve got questions or need advice, support or further information, get in touch with us today. We’d love to help