Real Stories of Change
See how our Champions are helping people in their community. These are real stories of change from people across the Wide Bay Burnett and Central Queensland regions.
Our Champions and Expert Advisory Group members speak for themselves. They do not speak for Wide Bay Advocacy. Only people Wide Bay Advocacy has given permission to can speak for the organisation.
Emery, Fraser Coast
Emery has lived on the Fraser Coast for around 14 years and has lived experience of disability, alongside a professional role in the care sector. Emery believes support for people with disability works best when it combines lived experience with sound, evidence-based knowledge.
When Emery first entered the disability support system, it was overwhelming. Emery did not know what supports were available, what was possible, or where to turn. An early support arrangement went badly wrong and left a lasting impact. What changed things was not a formal service. It was peer support. Another person with lived experience noticed something was not right, listened, and helped Emery find safer ground. Emery has said plainly that this help was the ground everything else was built on.
That experience is exactly why Emery wanted to become a Foundational Supports Community Champion. Emery knows the difference between being handed a system and being genuinely supported by a peer who has been there. As a Champion, Emery focuses on connection and presence: noticing people, listening, and helping them feel less alone.
The program has also sharpened what Emery brings. Emery describes growing in confidence and developing a clearer picture of unmet need across the region, particularly among people with psychosocial disability who fall outside formal supports. That understanding shapes how Emery approaches the role, with a focus on connection, listening, and reaching people who are easy to miss.
Emery’s story shows why peer connection matters, especially for people who are hard to reach or who sit outside formal supports. The wins are often human and specific. A conversation that helps someone feel seen. A moment where someone realises they are not on their own. In a tight-knit community, Emery believes, if you talk to enough people, someone will know someone who can help.
Tina, Childers
Tina has lived in the Childers and Bundaberg region for four years, after moving north from Brisbane with her husband to build a life on a rural property. She works in the disability and community sector, and she has spent more than two decades in government and community roles. Her working life has been spent close to the systems people rely on when they need help.
Tina does not have personal lived experience of disability. Her connection to this work comes from a different place. Over many years she has seen how hard the support system can be to reach, both in her professional roles and within her own family. She has spoken about a time when, even after decades working inside government, she could not find a support pathway for a family member who needed one. That experience stayed with her. It shaped a firm belief that finding support should not depend on knowing the right people.
That belief is what drew Tina to the Foundational Supports Community Champions program. As a Champion, her contribution is connection. She listens. She takes time to understand what a person is actually looking for, rather than deciding it for them. In her words, it is not your journey, it is their journey.
The program has given Tina a chance to see familiar issues through a different lens. She values the connection with other Champions and the lived experience they share so generously. It has also reminded her of something simple. To stop, to listen, and to let the solution come, rather than listening only to reply.
Tina’s story reflects a quieter side of the program. Not everyone comes to it through lived experience of disability. Some come through years of seeing how hard it can be for people to find help, and wanting to be part of something better. Tina champions through the people she connects with. In her workplace, in her community, and alongside the other Champions. Her hope is a simple one. That people looking for support are met by someone who will take the time to listen.
More impact stories and case studies coming soon.