The Taskforce members establishing how we will work together

Our focus

The Taskforce was action focused; it sought to identify innovative solutions to address housing insecurity; and recognised, valued and was guided by lived experience and peer contributions.

The Taskforce explored ideas addressing 4 key focus areas as identified from the Lived Experience workshops:

  • New Supply Models and Land Use
  • Private Rental
  • Services
  • Social Housing

In addition to the voices of lived experience, the Taskforce was guided by South Australia’s Plan for Ageing Well 2020-2025 (the Plan). The plan was informed by community consultation with 1,500 older people from diverse backgrounds and 400 people involved in co-creating the vision, priorities, and enablers for ageing well in South Australia.

Strategic Priority 1: "Home and community – There is no place like home" includes three key themes of action:

  1. Accessible supports that make existing homes more flexible to people’s changing needs and wants over time.
  2. Models and options to create homes that suit a greater diversity of needs and aspirations.
  3. Affordable and accessible homes.

The Taskforce drew on a range of methods to identify both preventative and responsive approaches to housing security for older women (55 years and over) in South Australia. A key deliverable for the Taskforce was to develop content to inform an implementation plan aligned to the three housing-related priorities in the Plan.

“Lived experience leadership is powerful, it is a key lever for transformative systems change that benefits everyone.”   LELAN Model of Lived Experience Leadership

Central to the Taskforce was authentic co-design guided by lived experience.

We would like to thank the Lived Experience Leadership and Advocacy Network (LELAN) for guiding our approach and discussions through the Model of Lived Experience Leadership.

As part of the lived experience workshops held in November and December 2022, the LELAN-facilitated discussion identified many reasons why it is so important to have the voice of lived experience guiding what we do, and being part of discussions and decision-making to improve housing security for older women. This included:

  • Consumer advocate – the more of our voices can be heard the better
  • Puts a face to an issue like housing insecurity – not stereotypical, many different women face insecurity
  • Informs decisions and is part of decisions that affect me or others like me
  • Provides insight into causes and needs, advocacy for solutions
  • Provides a practical voice – gives insight into how things might work when it's put into action (tests the theory)
  • Will give it (the Taskforce) teeth
  • Stand up for my mob

If you are interested in enabling lived experience or using your own lived experience for advocacy, we encourage you to check out LELAN’s website, www.lelan.org.au which provides a range of resources and promotion of events.

  • September/October 2022 – Setup: Set co-design expectations with government and non-government representatives, seek lived experience nominations for lived experience workshops.
  • October 2022- Lived experience nominations : Coordinate nominations and invitations to attend lived experience workshops.
  • November 2022- Lived Experience workshop 1 – Understand the role of the Taskforce, explore what housing insecurity means, identify challenges facing older women in relation to housing security.
  • December 2022 - Lived Experience workshop 2 – Ideas for the future and expressions of interest to join the Taskforce.
  • January 2023 – Kick-off:  Taskforce officially launched by Her Excellency the Honourable Frances Adamson AC, Governor of South Australia (read Her Excellency's speech), building on lived experience ideas to inform a workplan.
  • February 2023 - Draft workplan: Determine the activities of the Taskforce to feed into recommendations that will inform an implementation plan.
  • March 2023 - Workplan initiated: Activities of the Taskforce, to identify ideas for exploration and approaches to source data for recommendations, commences.
  • April 2023 - Workplan in action: Focus on identifying ideas to be explored, content needing to be sourced, and gaps to be addressed.
  • May 2023 – Workplan in action:  Focus on sourcing content based on research  and developing community voice engagement materials.
  • June 2023: Workplan in action: Commence community voice engagement via YourSay to seek feedback on how the community feels about what has been identified and what else needs to be considered.
  • July 2023 – Workplan in action: Consolidate outcomes of community engagement to incorporate into recommendations.
  • September 2023 – Workplan completed: Finalise recommendations.

On 7 September 2023, the Taskforce provided a recommendation report to the Minister for Human Services, to inform the drafting of an implementation plan to improve housing security for older women in South Australia.