Listening and respecting lived experience have been core tenets of Yasmin Sinclair’s entire career.
With a background in social work, Yasmin’s professional start was in community health working with First Nations and newly arrived
communities. Her focus deepened to families and children while working at the Department of Human Services where she helped develop a lived
experience network for families with experiences of trauma.
“Community development has always been an important focus for me,” Yasmin explains.
“I’ve always valued how powerful the voices of lived experience are and how critical they are to achieving systems change. People with lived
experience have so much wisdom to share in designing services and meeting community needs.”
In the newly created role of Linker Program Coordinator, Yasmin ensures that the voices of lived experience inform Wyatt’s co-design
program.
“I was drawn to this role at Wyatt because of the approach the organisation is taking, which is ‘Let’s listen and learn from the
community’,” she explains.
Working closely with seven partner agencies, Yasmin oversees the development and prototyping of a new Linker Service that is being designed
from the ground up to truly meet the needs of two of South Australia’s most disadvantaged groups.
“The people we work with are the experts of their own lives and what we’re hearing from women over 50, sole parents and carers is that they
face so many service barriers and they are not getting the support they need,” Yasmin says.
“This program is not only about helping people navigate the service system and linking them with supports that meet their needs, but really
finding ways to build capacity and help people thrive.”