Many mainstream community sector workers are working hard at this, yet often in isolation, unsure what good practice looks like and without access to what others in similar roles are learning.
Pearl's Plan gives you and your team a practical, culturally grounded framework, built from real Aboriginal practice to apply across your organisation. Join the nine week coaching program and contribute to a sector-wide handbook.
Three participation options from $110 per person · Open to WSCF member organisations
Across the sector, mainstream community sector workers are trying to build genuine connections with Aboriginal families and communities. Many are working hard, yet are often working in isolation, unsure what good practice looks like and without access to what others in similar roles are learning.
Pearl's Plan was built to change that. It brings mainstream community sector workers together in a structured, supported program, gives you the right framework and the right questions and builds a shared resource the whole sector can draw on.
Each Pearl addresses a specific area where Aboriginal and mainstream ways of working come into tension. Together they form a complete framework for genuine community engagement.
The history that shapes why Aboriginal people may not come to your service and what that means for how you work.
Kinship systems and family relationships that surround every Aboriginal person you work with.
What Country means, for your service and for the people you serve.
Cultural protocols, Welcome to Country, Sorry Business, Gender Protocols and how to get them right.
Building genuine, reciprocal relationships with ACCOs, before you need something from them.
GEDDAR vs R'DAGED, ground-up versus top-down decision making and how to tell the difference in your own organisation.
Whether your organisation's purpose reflects what Aboriginal people actually need or what your funding requires you to provide.
Reaching Aboriginal people through community and family networks, not just individual referral pathways.
Building systems that hold cross-cultural knowledge in your organisation, so it outlasts any individual worker.
Knowing the Nine Pearls is not the same as your organisation actually changing. The framework only becomes real when it's applied somewhere specific. There are three places where that happens, in how Aboriginal people experience your service, in how your internal systems support your staff and in how your board is held accountable. If the Pearls only ever live in someone's head, nothing changes. This is where you find out whether they're actually being applied and where the real change happens.
How Aboriginal people, families and communities actually experience your service. Forget what your policies say should happen, what actually happens when someone walks through your door, calls your service or is referred to you?
Are your intake processes, crisis responses and referral pathways making space for Aboriginal cultural protocols? These are the three concrete touchpoints being tested, how someone first contacts you, how you respond when something goes wrong and how you hand someone on to another service.
This is where the work is most visible and where the gaps are most felt by community. If something isn't working, this is where Aboriginal people and families notice it first, directly, in their own experience of your service.
In plain terms: this domain asks whether the actual day-to-day experience of accessing your service feels culturally safe, regardless of what's written in a policy folder.
How your organisation's documents and systems support or undermine, that work. This asks whether the internal machinery of your organisation backs up good frontline practice or quietly works against it.
Job descriptions, supervision frameworks, staff appraisals, induction, policies and procedures. These are the specific internal documents that shape how staff are hired, trained, supervised and assessed. If cross-cultural practice isn't named in any of these, it's not really part of anyone's job.
If the cross-cultural commitment isn't in the documents, it won't outlast any individual worker. A brilliant, culturally responsive worker can do great work, yet the moment they leave, all of that knowledge and practice leaves with them, because it was never written into the system itself.
In plain terms: this domain asks whether good practice is built into how the organisation actually runs or whether it only exists because of individual people who happen to care.
How your board and leadership are held accountable for the organisation's cross-cultural commitment. This asks whether your board and senior leadership are actually answerable for whether the organisation engages well with Aboriginal communities or whether that responsibility sits only with frontline staff.
Strategic plans, governance frameworks, board charters. These are the specific governance documents where that accountability needs to be written down, for example, does the strategic plan name Aboriginal community engagement as a goal? Does the board charter require the board to receive reporting on it?
If it isn't a governance responsibility, it stays optional. Unless the board is formally responsible for it, on paper, in governance documents, it has no teeth, it becomes something staff do if they're motivated to, rather than something the organisation is committed to at the top.
In plain terms: unless the board is formally responsible for it, on paper, it's not really embedded in the organisation, it's just goodwill from individuals.
The program runs across three phases. You move through one Pearl per week, reflecting on what you're noticing in your own practice and your organisation.
You register, nominate which Pearls you have the most to contribute to based on your current role and access the foundational Pearl's Plan materials. Anny is available for an orientation conversation if you're joining at Option 3.
Each week you work through one Pearl module, complete the 3-2-1 reflection and if you're on Option 2 or 3 join the live Wednesday webinar from 10:30am to 12 noon (capped at 15, recorded for those who can't attend live). Your honest reflections become the raw material of the handbook.
GVX collates all de-identified contributions Pearl by Pearl. The handbook is written, reviewed and released, first to participants and WSCF members, then publicly. You are acknowledged as a contributor (with your consent) and receive your copy.
A step by step learning journey that takes you from what you noticed to what you'll actually do.
Three things you observed in your service's systems, your team's practice and your own responses to this Pearl.
Select one organisational document, a job description, a policy, a governance document or induction material, then identify two areas within it that need to be addressed for Aboriginal community engagement.
One real commitment to fill that gap, something you will do before next week's Pearl begins. Not an intention. A commitment, like raising it at your next team meeting or sending an email to your team leader.
Regardless of which option you choose, every person who registers gets all of this.
Why: Most mainstream community sector workers want to do this work well, yet have no shared language or structure to work from.
What: Full access to all Nine Pearl modules, one Pearl per week, with real case studies, reflection tasks and tools you can apply in your work immediately.
How: Self-directed learning at your own pace, 24/7, with no rigid deadlines.
What If: By the end you will have a clear, culturally grounded approach to Aboriginal community engagement that belongs to you and your organisation.
Why: There is currently no shared resource that captures what is actually working on the ground across the sector.
What: What you learn and observe goes into the WSCF / GVX Community Sector Handbook, a real resource built by real mainstream community sector workers.
How: Your minimum case study contribution is collected through the program's reflection process.
What If: Every participant receives a PDF copy of the handbook when it's published and you become a named contributor to a resource the whole sector will use.
Why: Most training changes what people know. It rarely changes what organisations do.
What: The 3-2-1 action learning process, completed across all Nine Pearls.
How: At the end of each Pearl you complete the 3-2-1 reflection, taking you from personal noticing to organisational commitment.
What If: It's the difference between completing a course and actually changing something in how your organisation works.
Why: Cross-cultural knowledge that lives in one person's head walks out the door when they leave.
What: 12 months access to the Online Course Hub, with downloadable workbooks, quick reference guides, module checklists and a Q&A channel at module level.
How: Work at your own pace, returning to any module as your practice develops.
What If: The program fits around your work, not the other way around and the learning stays available to you for a full year.
Why: You can't know what's changed if you don't know where you started.
What: A pre and post program survey.
How: Completed at the beginning and the end of your nine weeks.
What If: You and your organisation have a clear, honest record of what shifted across the program.
Why: Your time and commitment to this work deserves to be recognised.
What: A Certificate of Completion.
How: Issued once you've worked through all Nine Pearls and completed the program requirements for your option.
What If: You have a formal record of your professional development to use in appraisals, accreditation or your own CV.
Each option includes full access to all Nine Pearls, 12 months course hub access, workbooks, certificate and a PDF handbook copy. Choose the depth of engagement that best suits you and your organisation.
A short-term, do-it-yourself option for individuals who want to build their own practice at their own pace.
Each participant and/or organisation will be required to submit:
Case Study 1, Client Services: How one or more Pearls were used to update culturally safe service delivery.
A medium-term option for people who want to see how it's landing together, with live weekly support and a deeper shared contribution.
Each participant and/or organisation will be required to submit:
Case Study 1
Case Study 2, Organisational Development: How one or more Pearls were used to update culturally safe work practices.
A longer-term option for organisations ready to work with Anny over time, embedding change across service delivery, practice and governance.
Each participant and/or organisation will be required to submit:
Case Study 1
Case Study 2
Case Study 3, Governance: How one or more Pearls were used to update culturally safe connection with local Aboriginal communities at a governance level.
Any number of people from the same organisation can participate, in any of the options.
Pearl's Plan works best when more than one person from your organisation takes part. Lasting change is harder to sustain alone, it grows when a team works through it together.
If two or more people from the same organisation participate, they collectively submit the case studies required for the relevant option.
Anny is an Aboriginal cross-cultural coach, facilitator and trainer with over 40 years of applied experience in community development, specifically with Aboriginal and refugee peoples. She is the owner and director of Global Values Xchange (GVX), an Aboriginal-owned training and consultancy based in the Blue Mountains, NSW.
Pearl's Plan is named in honour of Pearl Gibbs (1901–1983), Ngemba woman, activist and key organiser of the 1938 Day of Mourning, Anny's grandmother. The framework carries that legacy of grounded, purposeful advocacy into the community sector.
Anny understands the challenges faced by non-Aboriginal organisations seeking to meaningfully connect with First Nations peoples and the challenges experienced by First Nations organisations when they attempt to do business with the mainstream sector. She has built Pearl's Plan to bridge exactly that gap.
Join other like minded community sector workers across Western Sydney building a shared, honest, culturally grounded resource, Pearl by Pearl.
Register Your Place