This year’s conference program is packed full of essential conversations, including headline plenaries, concurrent panels and interactive workshops, along with networking sessions and the Victorian Homelessness Achievement Awards.
Share with and learn from lived experience experts, frontline workers, sector leaders, researchers, and key stakeholders from allied sectors.
Day One
Thursday, 27 November
9:30-10am – Registrations and morning tea on arrival
10am – Welcome to Country
Kellie Phillips – Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation
10:15am – Opening from CHP Chair
Celia Adams – Chair of Council to Homeless Persons
10:30 – 11:30am – Plenary Panel: Bring on the Build
Bring on the Build: The infrastructure and economic case for a social housing building blitz in Victoria
Location: TBC
For years Victoria’s housing peaks have called for a large-scale social housing build. But this year the State’s expert infrastructure advisor Infrastructure Victoria has joined the call, recommending the Victorian Government build 4000 additional social homes per year from 2026. In this opening plenary, our expert panel will discuss the infrastructure and economic case for such a build, as well as the factors that motivate governments to take action.
Facilitator: Deborah Di Natale – CEO of Council to Homeless Persons
Panellists:
Jill Riseley AM – Deputy CEO of Infrastructure Victoria
Dr David Hayward – RMIT University
Ryan Smith – Head of Government Relations, Research and Advocacy at St Vincent de Paul Society and former Victorian Minister for Youth Affairs
This session will also be available virtual on demand.
11.30-11.50pm: Ministerial Address
Address by Victoria’s Minister for Housing, the Hon. Harriet Shing.
This session will also be available virtual on demand.
12-12.45pm: Breakout Panels
Choose from three compelling panels:
Integrating Health and Homelessness Responses
Location: TBC
We know that homelessness has profound health impacts, and that the health sector is also an important intersection where early intervention supports can be delivered to avoid homelessness. So how do we better integrate health and homelessness services to deliver better outcomes for everyone.
Panellists:
Announcing soon!
This session will also be available virtual on demand.
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Lived Experience Conversation Hour
Location: TBC
Their experience. Their agenda. A panel of lived experience experts take the mic to discuss the topics that matter most to them right now in the work to end homelessness.
Panellists:
Announcing soon!
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Panel 3 – TBC
Location: TBC
Check back soon for more information.
12.45-1.45pm: Lunch + Parity launch
Enjoy lunch and, if you feel like continuing the Conference program, join us for the first Lunchtime Learnings session, starting at 1pm:
1-1:45pm – Parity launch event: A Fair Go For Regional Victoria
Location: TBC
The large distances in regional and rural areas can create challenges for service delivery, different from those experienced by agencies’ metro counterparts. Representatives from around regional Victoria join us to discuss what the “tyranny of distance” means for people experiencing homelessness, and the innovative, relational responses that are enhancing local coordination.
Panellists:
Announcing soon!
1.45-3:20pm: Breakout Panels & Workshops
Choose from two panels and two interactive workshops:
1:45 – 2:30: Ending First Nations Homelessness – Lessons from outreach and the access points (panel)
Location: TBC
How Victoria’s two new Aboriginal access points and outreach programs like Melbourne Zero are improving our understanding and response to First Nations homelessness.
Panellists:
Announcing soon!
This session will also be available virtual on demand.
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1:45 – 3:20: Beyond Four Walls: Therapeutic options for young people at risk (workshop)
Location: TBC
Explore the benefits of alternative therapeutic approaches to support young people who are at risk of homelessness, particularly those who may not be comfortable with traditional talk-based therapies. While evidence-based talk therapies remain valuable, trauma-affected young people often benefit from complementary or alternative modalities that engage the body, creativity, and environment.
Presenters:
Therapists from Melbourne City Mission’s Family Reconciliation and Mediation Program (FRMP) register
Young people with lived experience of these interventions
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1:45 – 3:20: Rigour Without Harm: Navigating impact measurement in trauma-informed practice and time-poor services (workshop)
Location: TBC
In today’s housing crisis, homelessness services face mounting pressure to demonstrate their impact while managing unprecedented demand with limited resources. In this environment, it is no surprise that outcomes measurement is often seen as a burden or even an unaffordable luxury. Yet when done well, it is a powerful tool for better practice. This workshop will explore why outcome measurement matters now more than ever and provide a collaborative space to discuss practical strategies to address common challenges.
Presenters:
Claire Coxon – National Homelessness Specialist, The Salvation Army
Stefano Verrelli – Research Analyst, Centre for Mission Impact, The Salvation Army
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2:35 – 3:20: Redefining Local Government’s Role In Ending Homelessness (panel)
Location: TBC
Victoria’s 79 councils are the closest level of government to communities across the state. This panel will explore the evidence, opportunities and challenges for local government in responding to homelessness, with input from research, metropolitan and regional councils, and community collaboration leaders. It will invite delegates to consider new ways of partnering with local government to build knowledge, skills and alignment across sectors.
Panellists:
Announcing soon!
This session will also be available virtual on demand.
3.20-3.50pm: Afternoon Tea
3:50 – 4:50pm – Plenary Panel: What a Difference Lived Experience Makes
Location: TBC
Lessons in the transformational power of lived experience expertise, and how to integrate it throughout a sector, from allied sectors and international homelessness sectors.
Facilitator: Kathy Wilson – Director of Lived Experience, Council to Homeless Persons
Panellists:
Announcing soon!
This session will also be available virtual on demand.
4:50-5:30pm: Victorian Homelessness Achievement Awards
Celebrate the exceptional efforts of workers, consumers and organisations within the homelessness sector, with the Victorian Homelessness Achievement Awards. Who will take home the awards this year?
The Victorian Homelessness Achievement Awards 2025 are generously supported by Sacred Heart Mission.
5:30-6:30pm: Networking drinks
Join us for drinks and nibbles, as you continue the conversation with your colleagues in the sector. And take in CHP’s Walk In Her Shoes exhibition, displayed in the venue for the duration of the Conference.
Day Two
Friday, 28 November
9am – Welcome to Day Two
9.10-10:10am – Plenary Panel: Beyond Silos
Beyond Silos: Building transformative partnerships to end homelessness
Location: TBC
Ending homelessness requires more than programmatic solutions – it demands coalitions that cut across government, philanthropy, and grassroots community leadership. This plenary will explore what it takes to move beyond silos and cultivate authentic collaborations that shift outcomes for people experiencing homelessness. Drawing on lessons from the homelessness sector as well as successful models in allied fields, it will consider how local government, philanthropy, and community organisations can work together to create systemic change.
Facilitator:
Shankar Kasynathan – Manager of Advocacy, Council to Homeless Persons
Panellists:
Announcing soon!
This session will also be available virtual on demand.
10.10-10:40am – Morning Tea
Generously supported by Victorian Zero, sponsored by the Victorian Alliance to End Homelessness.
10:40am-12:15pm – Breakout Panels & Workshops
Choose from four panels and one linked panel & interactive workshop:
10:40 – 11:25: Safe at Home – Preventing homelessness through early intervention with households experiencing family violence (panel)
Location: TBC
Explore the process of codesigning and implementing a new ‘Safe at Home’ trial in the Geelong and Barwon region, that aims aims to shift the default system from one whereby women have to leave their homes to escape violence, to one where women, children and young people are supported to stay in their own homes while the violence is disrupted and the needs of each family member are individually addressed (including ensuring accountability and support for the person using violence). Panellists will discuss discuss the challenges, opportunities and early lessons from the trial, highlighting why this is more than just a program, but rather a response that challenges us to be open to different ways of thinking and working if we are to solve the significant social problems of homelessness and family violence.
Panellists:
Announcing soon!
This session will also be available virtual on demand.
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10:40 – 11:25: Bay Views for All – the fight to save Barak Beacon (film screening and Q&A) (panel)
Location: TBC
Film screening of the documentary “Bay Views for All – The Fight to save Barak Beacon”. Shot over two years, the story follows seven residents from when they receive news that their homes are to be redeveloped, through to the eviction of the last remaining resident.
Panellist:
Jeannie Erceg – public housing tenant and participant in the film
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10:40 – 12:15: Worker Safety and Wellbeing – Regulation & practice (linked panel & workshop)
Location: TBC
This essential panel and workshop combo will provide a critical update on new regulations on worker safety and wellbeing, followed by a workshop leading participants through practical strategies to nurture psychosocial safety in the workplace.
Panellists and Presenters:
Dr Deb Batterham – post-doctoral research fellow in the Housing, Homelessness and Urban Studies (HHAUS) research group, Swinburne University
Swagata Bapat – Director of Workforce Development and Innovation, Council to Homeless Persons
Ella D’Abbs – Lived Experience Engagement Specialist, Research, Evaluation & Data, Launch Housing
More panellists announcing soon!
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11:30 – 12:15: Ballarat Youth Frontline: Partnerships for prevention (panel)
Location: TBC
Ballarat is on the frontline of youth homelessness prevention – and local collaborations are delivering results. This panel will highlight programs that respond directly to young people already experiencing homelessness, while also working upstream to intervene early and ultimately prevent homelessness in the first place. Featuring a panel of service providers, community health partners, and young people with lived experience, this conversation will illustrate how a regional city can, in real time, deliver innovation through partnership, collaboration and prevention-first thinking.
Panellists:
Announcing soon!
This session will also be available virtual on demand.
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11:30 – 12:15: Older People’s Housing Conditions and Precarity: a national snapshot (panel)
Location: TBC
Exploring the findings of new research, conducted by Housing for the Aged Action Group in collaboration with Swinburne University of Technology, that quantifies the extent of housing precarity among older adults in Australia by examining key dimensions such as housing affordability, financial hardship, housing conditions and quality, overall housing satisfaction, tenure security, and mobility.
Panellists:
Fiona York – Executive Officer, Housing for the Aged Action Group
Dr Piret Veeroja – Research Fellow, Swinburne University
And a lived experience expert
12.15-1:15pm – Lunch + Victorian Zero Launch
Generously supported by Victorian Zero, sponsored by the Victorian Alliance to End Homelessness.
Enjoy lunch and, if you feel like continuing the Conference program, join us for the first Lunchtime Learnings session, starting at 12:30pm:
12:45-1:15pm – Launch of Victorian Zero
Location: TBC
Launching Victorian Zero, sponsored by the Victorian Alliance to End Homelessness, the new statewide association of Victorian Zero projects.
Panellists:
Announcing soon!
1:15-2:50pm – Breakout Panels & Workshops
Choose from four panels and one interactive workshop:
1:15 – 2pm: Developing a Lived and Living Experience Workforce within the Homelessness Service System (panel)
Location: TBC
With reforms underway in the homelessness service system and the need for a new Victorian homelessness strategy, we have a unique opportunity to advocate for investment to embed meaningful leadership and involvement of people with lived and living experience throughout the SHS. How can we enhance the capability of the homelessness and community housing sectors to recruit, develop, and support a Lived and Living Experience Workforce? What valuable insights can we draw from our colleagues in mental health and AOD sectors? Where are there strong examples of lived experience leadership already in practice, and how can we leverage these learnings to create positive change across sectors?
Panellists:
Announcing soon!
This session will also be available virtual on demand.
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1:15 – 2pm: Partnering with ACCOs to Deliver Better Outcomes: learnings from Sacred heart’s J2SI program (panel)
Location: TBC
Learnings in partnership development from Sacred Heart Mission’s collaboration with the Ballarat and District Aboriginal Cooperative (BADAC) and Uniting Vic/Tas Ballarat to deliver their Journey to Social Inclusion (J2SI) program. Panellists with share details about the project, along with insights from the challenges, learnings and successes encountered along the way.
Panellists:
Representatives of Sacred Heart, BADAC and Uniting Vic/Tas – full details announced soon
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1:15 – 2:50: A Zero Project in Our Region – Let’s do it (workshop)
Location: TBC
This workshop will provide tangible resources, processes and practical advice to unpack needs and systems requirements to get a Zero Project established in attendees’ local regions. Covering issues of place, rationale, participants, resources and funding, attendees will leave with three pieces of gold to support your plan to get you started.
Presenters:
George Hatvani – Head of Systems Change and Advocacy, Launch Housing
Alastair Vick – Geelong Zero lead, Neami National
Michelle Twigger – Regional Homelessness Network Coordinator, Central Highlands Homelessness Alliance
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2:05 – 2:50: Supporting people at the intersection of homelessness, family violence and immigration (panel)
Location: TBC
Explore the complex intersections facing people experiencing homelessness in the context of family violence and insecure immigration status, and how multi-agency collaboration and trauma-informed practice can foster pathways to safety and stability. The session will discuss the importance of culturally responsive, client-centred approaches and systems advocacy in supporting people with intersecting vulnerabilities.
Panellists:
Announcing soon!
This session will also be available virtual on demand.
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2:05 – 2:50: Coercive Anti-Homeless Measures at Local Government Level: Building a cross-sector collaboration to advocate for housing first and human rights-based approaches (panel)
Location: TBC
Amid heightened gentrification coupled with our deepening housing and homelessness crises, coercive measures are increasingly being used to target people sleeping rough at the local government level from Victoria to Queensland. This includes the introduction of private security contractors being engaged to protect “community safety” and assist local laws officers in the execution of their duties, as well as tightening of and increased reliance on anti-camping bylaws. Advocates from community legal centres in impacted local areas of Victoria, together with a lived experience expert, will discuss the current wave of anti-homeless measures, and how we are building cross-sector and community-based coalitions to resist these and advocate for evidence-based housing first policies and alternative first responder models.
Panellists:
Announcing soon!
2.50 – 3:20 – Afternoon Tea
Generously supported by Victorian Zero, sponsored by the Victorian Alliance to End Homelessness.
3:20-4:10pm – Closing Plenary: Reflections & Paths Forward
Location: TBC
As this year’s Conference draws to a close, we come back together for a session to share audience reflections on the two days of discussion, together with the thoughts of a panel of sector leaders, frontline practitioners and lived experience experts.
Panellists:
Announcing soon!
This session will also be available virtual on demand.