FRSA Conference
Were you at the Family & Relationship Services Australia Conference? We wrote a paper to summarise our presentation for you. We hope you enjoy it. Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions. You'll find a contact link further down on this page.
A place-based co-design program for community wellbeing
Every community already holds deep knowledge about what its people need to thrive. Rivers of Wellbeing is a structured process for making that knowledge visible, naming it in community language, and building a wellbeing framework that truly belongs to the people it serves.
Developed by Sandi Phoenix, Rivers of Wellbeing brings together decades of expertise in psychological science, the Phoenix Cups® framework, and culturally responsive facilitation - and places that expertise in genuine partnership with community. The process is led by our team. The framework that emerges belongs to yours.
Currently active in Numbulwar and Katherine, Rivers of Wellbeing is available to communities and organisations ready to do this work together.
Pictured thorughout this page: Numbulwar NT Community, Playgroup, and FaFT during their Rivers of Wellbeing Project
Built from conversation, art, and storytelling.
A wellbeing framework that belongs to the Community.
Why Communities are choosing Rivers of Wellbeing
Mainstream wellbeing frameworks are built on research that rarely includes First Nations communities, remote communities, or communities whose language and culture sit outside the Western psychological tradition. For many communities, these frameworks arrive with answers that don't fit the questions.
Rivers of Wellbeing starts somewhere different. Communities choose this process because they want a wellbeing framework that speaks their language, reflects their culture, and was built by their people.
Organisations and services choose it because they want to work alongside communities in a way that is genuinely responsive, and because a locally-grounded framework creates consistency across every service that wraps around children and families.
Together, the work supports communities to:
- Name what wellbeing means in their own language and on their own terms
- Build a shared framework that can be used across family, community, health, education, and care settings
- Strengthen the connection between cultural knowledge and everyday practice
- Move beyond imported behaviour management strategies toward something that makes sense here
- Create a lasting resource that belongs to the community in perpetuity
A framework that flows from here
At the culmination of every Rivers of Wellbeing project, the community holds something that belongs entirely to them: a co-designed wellbeing framework, named in their language, grounded in their culture, and shaped by their knowledge.
This framework becomes a shared resource across every service and setting that touches community life. When a child moves between home, school, health, and care, the language of wellbeing moves with them.
The framework can be used by families, educators, and professionals in:
Homes and family environments
Schools, Early learning, and care settings
Health and child safety services
Anywhere children are held in care and connection
Every community knows what it needs to thrive. Rivers of Wellbeing makes space for that knowledge to take shape.
How we walk with communities?
We go to community. The work happens on country, in community spaces, at the pace community sets. We don't expect people to come to us, and we don't arrive with a framework already packed.
We hold our expertise lightly. Our team brings deep knowledge of psychological science, wellbeing frameworks, coaching, and culturally responsive facilitation. That expertise creates the conditions for good co-design. What emerges from those conditions belongs to community, not to us.
We slow down. Genuine co-design cannot be compressed into a single visit or a tight reporting cycle. Rivers of Wellbeing involves multiple visits over an extended period, building the relationship and trust that makes real collaboration possible.
We follow community lead. The framework that emerges reflects community language, community knowledge, and community priorities. Our role is to ask good questions, hold the space, and make sure every voice has room to be heard.
We are honest about complexity. Two-way working is not without tension. The systems surrounding this work, funding structures, reporting requirements, organisational hierarchies, are often still Western ones. We name that honestly and work within it as carefully as we can.
Each community sets the pace.
And throughout it all, connection remains the compass.
Pictured: Hilda Ngalmi, a strong leader with great knowledge of Wubuy language.
Here she is translating the English and Kriol from the Rivers into Wubuy, with her colleauge (linguist), Hamish.
If you are interested in exploring a Rivers of Wellbeing project for your community or organisation, we would love to hear from you.
Rivers of Wellbeing is currently funded through Communities for Children in the Northern Territory and the Child and Family Development Fund in Katherine. Phoenix Support for Educators is a fee-for-service organisation and does not hold independent funding for new projects. We will, however, work alongside you to develop a tailored project proposal and support a funding application based on your community's needs and preferred scope.
Want to see if it's the right fit for your place?