Centring the Voices and Lived Experience: Brave’s Model of Mentoring & Model of Lived Experience
Brave Foundation’s mentoring approach, embedded within its Supporting Expecting and Parenting Teens (SEPT) program, offers a transformative model for fostering resilience in young families. Grounded in research that highlights the critical role of caring adult–young person relationships in promoting positive developmental outcomes, Brave’s model centres on autonomy-supportive, strengths-based mentoring. Mentors engage with young parents through nonjudgmental, relational practices that validate lived experience and empower informed decision-making. These relationships mirror the nurturing dynamics young parents are encouraged to build with their own children—creating a ripple effect of emotional safety, consistency, and respect. By modeling healthy relational behaviors, mentors become trusted role models who help strengthen the parent-child bond and foster secure attachments. This, in turn, cultivates resilience in children by reinforcing their sense of safety, belonging, and self-worth. Recognizing the need for formal mechanisms to explicitly involve young parent voices in program design and continuous improvement, Brave developed its Model of Lived Experience informed by established youth participation frameworks. The establishment of a youth advisory group and employment of dedicated lived experience peer roles embeds Brave’s commitment to providing structured opportunities for young parents to influence program design, delivery, and evaluation, and more broadly to elevating the voice of young parents to challenging systemic barriers. This presentation will showcase how Brave operationalises relational mentoring and youth participation to promote resilience across generations and drive meaningful impact for young families and their communities.
Presenters: Catherine Cooney & Taylee Short
Catherine Cooney is a registered social worker, researcher, and reflective practice supervisor with over 20 years of experience in developing and delivering programs that support the flourishing of women and children. Her career has been dedicated to working alongside families experiencing inequality, with a strong focus on trauma-informed practice, recovery, resilience, and the social determinants of mental and emotional wellbeing. Catherine holds a Master of Social Work, Bachelor of Arts (Sociology/History), Graduate Diploma in Psychology, Graduate Diploma in Counselling, and a Certificate IV in Training & Assessment. Since joining Brave Foundation in April 2022 as Head of Program, Catherine has led the delivery of the Supporting Expecting and Parenting Teens (SEPT) program, providing strategic and operational support to frontline staff. Her work is grounded in a belief that all families deserve safety, fairness, and the opportunity to reach their full potential.
Catherine’s personal experience as a young parent has shaped her empathetic and inclusive approach to program design and delivery. She remains passionate about creating pathways for young families to thrive through evidence-informed, compassionate support.
Taylee Short is a lived experience co-researcher at Brave Foundation as well as a third year Social Work student at the University of Newcastle. She brings valuable insight into her role as a past participant of the SEPT (Supporting Expecting and Parenting Teens) program at Brave, as well as her involvement as a former member of Brave’s EVYP (Empowering Voices of Young Parents) advisory group. Balancing her studies and professional role alongside motherhood, Taylee is raising two young children after becoming a parent at the age of 19. This lived experience underpins her strong focus on challenging the stigma associated with young parenthood. Taylee advocates for the meaningful inclusion of young parent lived experience voices in policy development, ensuring they are central to decision-making processes that directly impact their lives. She is committed to advancing inclusive, person-centred approaches that position lived experience as a critical component of effective systems design. Taylee’s work is grounded in a commitment to long-term impact, ensuring that services are designed with, not just for, the communities they support.