Training

Team Supervision

Managing & Facilitating Community Projects

Organisational Consulting

Conferences & Events

Books and Resources

About Us

LIGHTHOUSE RESOURCES is an initiative of Kyabra Community Association Inc., established in late 2004, having grown out of Kyabra's commitment to supporting the development of learning cultures in human service organisations. To find out more about Kyabra Community Association please visit www.kyabra.org.

Lighthouse Resources is committed to promote the development of these cultures through provision of training, professional supervision and consultancy services, drawing on strengths-based practice, and solution-focussed and narrative approaches.

Our Vision is that Lighthouse Resources is a best practice learning enterprise which aspires to build on the strengths of workers and organisations through the provision of high quality practice development opportunities. We are committed to enhancing the capacity of human services to achieve strong and fair communities.

The Lighthouse Resources Team

Our staff are experienced human service practitioners with extensive experience in client contact work, having worked as counsellors, social workers, teachers, welfare workers, community support workers, team supervisors and community development workers. They also have many years of experience in providing training and consultancy to human service workers and organisations. Our staff have a shared commitment to the values of respect and social justice, and believe that training and consultancy should be both enjoyable and relevant to participants' experiences of practice. Our staff are strongly committed to a strengths approach to human services work.

Mark Lynch moved from New Zealand to work as a trainer/consultant for Lighthouse Resources. Mark has an extensive history of working in the human services sector specifically within social work and education. Mark’s practical experience includes working as a Service Manager as well as a social worker practitioner and counsellor in New Zealand as well as the United Kingdom. In his private practice work Mark has provided supervision to individuals and teams as well as undertaking training and development work with variety of organizations in the public sector and Not for Profit Sector. A strong interest in developing post modern practices especially narrative ways of working has become a key focus for Mark in developing collaborative endeavours with individuals, families and communities. Mark has presented at conferences in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom on the development of narrative practices in community development initiatives.

Paul Montgomery has been immersed in “strengths” and narrative approaches throughout the past eighteen years. For nearly ten of these years he has worked in a variety of roles at Kyabra Community Association Inc. He has worked with individuals, families, groups & communities facing the effects of abuse and violence, substance misuse, disability and a host of other tricky issues. He continues to find great enjoyment and learning in direct practice. Paul has extensive experience in providing professional supervision and service management in ways that are congruent with a strengths/narrative approach. In his training and facilitation work, he seeks to provide fun and collaborative ways into the ideas that he has found most inspiring/animating of his own practice.

Liz Price (BSW, BA, MAASW) is the Coordinator of the Community Partnerships Program at Kyabra Community Association. Over her 13 years with Kyabra she has occupied a variety of roles, providing her with opportunities to develop strengths and narrative approaches to working with individuals, families, groups and communities. She has worked with community members around issues such as intimate partner violence, parenting, trauma, and a range of other issues. As well as being a big fan of the St Lukes “seriously optimistic” tools she is an avid creator, co-creator, collector and user of other objects and images in her practice. She is keenly interested in releasing these objects and images from her collections so that they may act as emblematic reminders for people of their knowledge, dreams, discoveries and preferred developments. She is delighted to be able to support others in their journey to incorporate tools into their practice in ways that are congruent with strengths and narrative approaches. In addition, her therapeutic work draws on the use of art, poetry, music and conversation as tools for expression, exploration, acknowledgement and reflection. In her training and facilitation work she brings the same playfulness, humour, and curiosity that can be found in her direct practice. Liz was one of several project workers involved in the creation of the Illuminations Cards.

Linda Ray has 20 years social work experience in roles such as organisational change consultant, professional supervisor, social researcher, evaluator, trainer and policy worker. Her diverse working background includes periods in government and non government agencies and in private practice in the youth, child protection, family support, housing, domestic violence, community development and disability sectors. Linda has lectured and tutored in social work (UQ), social sciences (QUT) and in community services (TAFE). She is currently managing her own private practice. Linda enjoys working in ways which provide opportunities for people and organisations to reflect on what is working and what could be different. Her practice framework has been significantly shaped by post structuralist approaches and in particular strengths based, solution focussed and appreciative inquiry approaches to practice and organisational change. Her early work as a community development worker fostered a strong interest in community development and community capacity building. She maintains an interest in the application of strength based and asset based approaches in community contexts. Linda views supervision as a critical tool for ongoing professional development.

Simone Silberberg has worked in a variety of welfare positions for the past 15 years including roles such as youth worker, family case worker, family & relationships counsellor, researcher, project manager, community consultant, community planning & development officer, lecturer and trainer. She has worked predominantly with marginalized families and communities, and has in this work been committed to practices that embrace a strengths-based approach. Simone has explored and applied strengths-based practice to program development, project management & evaluation, research, team-building, group work, community development, and training. In particular, she has specialised in strengths-based community development and has worked as a community consultant for ATSIC, NSW Premiers Department, Communities for Children Initiatives and numerous NGOs. She is an experienced trainer and lecturer in strengths-based family and community practice, and has contributed to the development and authorship of numerous strengths-based resources, including Our Scrapbook of Strengths and the Resilience Identification Resources Kit.

David O’Toole is the Chief Executive Officer at Kyabra Community Association Inc. He has been involved in the development of organisational structure and practice that is congruent with both community development and strengths based approaches. David worked early in his career as a community development worker before applying the same principles and beliefs to his role as manager of a number of human service organisations and services. David has embraced the challenge of seeking ways of giving life to values of respect and justice in organisational life and practices.

Dr Dyann Ross is Adjunct Senior Lecturer at ECU and is currently writing in the area of corporate social responsibility and community voice. Her background has been in social work education influenced by more than 30 years of social work practice in mental and community health settings as well as staff training and development. Being involved in professional education and supervision, Dyann has taught in fields related to research, community capacity building, anti-oppressive practice and counselling. Dyann completed her PhD on the ethic of love in social work education. This enabled some exciting synergies when, for example, she had the opportunity to head up a University/Industry research collaborative project in south west Western Australia. She is currently writing a book with a colleague on the impact of a multi-national mining company on small adjacent rural communities. Sustainability issues, corporate responsibility, relational & organisational ethics and the role of universities in public affairs are key areas of scholarship for Dyann. Research methodology and research ethics are an area of ongoing interest. Dyann is also principal consultant for Professional Services Facilitator and in this capacity has had the privilege of being involved with Lighthouse Resources during 2008. This has allowed Dyann to appreciate the extent to which strengths ideas and processes work in a range of projects and also in clinical practice in a mental health facility on the Sunshine Coast.