Innovation

The Sunshine Model was co-designed over two-year action research project run in partnership with Ruah Community Services. The project arose as a result of the findings of the 100 Families Project which had identified ways that the helping system can often fail families experiencing complex challenges.  

Working closely with six families in the Kwinana/Rockingham region, as well as a range of local organisations, the team co-designed and tested different elements of support to enable families to get unstuck and grow their good life.  

Following an independent evaluation and promising outcomes, this model is now being scaled to enable a greater number of families experiencing difficult times to be supported through transformative journeys.  

With the generous support of our philanthropic partners, the ShiftLab team has been working to embed the Sunshine approach in key frontline services at both Anglicare WA and Ruah Community Services across WA. Sunshine coaches can now be found in Geraldton, Kununurra, Albany, Perth metro and Kalgoorlie. 

Service teams delivering Sunshine are equipped with resources to implement the model, receive ongoing coaching and support as well as opportunities to share learnings in a budding community of practice.  

Key elements so far have included:

• Providing recognition and respite for community members working hardest behind the scenes to keep families and the community strong.  

• Design and construction of a comfortable, landscaped outdoor space for traditional healers to deliver healing practices and train young healers.

• Investigating short to medium food security solutions with scope for longer-term solutions. 

Working in collaboration with the St Georges Cathedral, Holy Grounds is an approach to combatting social isolation and loneliness in the Perth CBD.  The Cathedral community played a key role in articulating a vision of establishing an operational community café space a low-barrier, safe and inclusive place for friendships and community to be formed. 

With generous philanthropic support, a community engagement role was able to be created to support the establishment phase and training of the community volunteer team. Following fit-out of a space in Cathedral Square, Holy Grounds opened in Oct 2024 and continues to develop.  

Several regular community activities such as a knitting group meet in the café, and growing group of regular patrons frequent Holy Grounds to meet for coffee or to use the co-working space. 

A small team of Cathedral staff support the cafe volunteers, who include older people wanting to connect with the local community as well as younger people keen to develop hospitality skills.  Work continues at Holy Grounds to track and enhance community impact and ensure the viability of the project long-term.  

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The Pilbara region of Western Australia faces significant challenges in youth mental health, including high rates of mental illness and self-harm, limited-service access, and geographical barriers. A new youth wellbeing service model, co-designed with the Anglicare WA Pilbara team, along with local schools, services and families, addresses these challenges with a focus on early intervention, family-oriented support, and culturally safe practices.  

Rio Tinto commissioned Anglicare WA to undertake the service design, engaging external consultancy ThirdStory (formerly Innovation Unit ANZ) to work alongside ShiftLab to design the model through a three-phase design process. Phase One involved research and engagement with organisations to understand the service's potential scope. Phase Two was a participatory design process with Pilbara community members, shaping the service model's principles, structure, and key elements. Phase Three detailed the final service model with journey maps illustrating the stories of two young people and their families. 

The final service model is outreach-based, working in homes, partner facilities, and the community. It provides practical wellbeing assistance to young people aged 8–13, offering flexible, wraparound support from the first point of contact, including help for families and caregivers. The service has secured 5-year funding for implementation in Karratha, with outreach support to nearby communities and plans for future scaling. 

We are proud to have had the opportunity to lead the Home Stretch WA trial with WA Department of Communities and Yorganop Aboriginal Corporation. This was a unique opportunity to design, develop and test a model for an extension of out-of-home care for young people aged 18-21.  

The initiative involved collaboration with many stakeholders, including young people, carers and community service organisations. It provided an exemplar of the benefits of youth participation in governance and decision making, a commitment to power sharing with the community services sector, and an ongoing dialogue between young people as service users and the future systems that will support them. 

The Home Stretch model has now funded and been scaled across Western Australia, with a community of practice among the various partners.