You’re invited to join the 2025 Mission Inspired Leadership Cohort. Now in its 10th year and with 250 Alumni, Mission Inspired Leadership is a Professional Development Program that offers an opportunity for leaders, board members and expert practitioners in Catholic social services to gain conceptual tools and approaches for success in leading values-driven organisations and to be invigorated in their work as we collectively seek to enact the gospel within social service settings.
Throughout the four-part learning program, participants will partake in workshops led by expert facilitators from across the Catholic ecosystem, learning how Catholic social principles can be applied to deliver social impact, strengthen organisational mission and thrive sustainably for the common good.
Although designed primarily with Catholic social services’ staff and board directors in mind, participants from other sectors have also found this program useful and applicable to their contexts in Diocesan, Health and Education settings.
Graduates of the learning program experience ongoing mutual support from CSSV and via the relationships built with peers from across the sector.
The program will be held over four sessions at 4-6pm: 29 May; 19 June; 31 July; 28 August 2025.
Cost: CSSV Members: $340, Non-Members: $430 (includes take-home resources)
Location: East Melbourne (online option available for interstate and regional participants)
Expression of Interest deadline: 18 April 2024
Enquiries: office@css.org.au
Given this program is designed around a certain level of role responsibility and experience of participants, please complete the Expression of Interest Form above by 18 April 2024. You will be notified of your place in the program and further registration details once you have completed the Expression of Interest.
Learning Outcomes
- Engage the Catholic social services ecosystem – to further mission collaboratively
- Explore Catholic social teaching as a creative framework – for services and advocacy
- Connect critical decision-making to organisational purpose – with shared principles
- Discover new ways of delivering social impact – sustainably with integrity
- Build connection with peers – in a social, spiritually enriching shared-learning environment.
Learning Program Outline and Presenters
1. ENGAGE AND COLLABORATE – in the Catholic social care ecosystem
Date: Thursday 29th May 2025
The Catholic Church is the largest non-government provider of social and education services in Australia. When compared to more centralised approaches in the social care sector, working in the Catholic social services ecosystem offers more opportunity to innovate and collaborate. How can Catholic organisations harness these opportunities, and how can Catholic social care thrive in a broader social service sector made up of faith-based, secular, charitable and for-profit providers who sometimes operate in competition with each other? This workshop will equip you to best navigate complexity and work across organisational boundaries for the common good.
Facilitator: Lawrie Hallinan
Lawrie Hallinan is working on a PhD on the topic of synodality and Church governance. He is a Non-Executive Director, and previously Chair, of Southern Cross Care (NSW & ACT). He was Executive Director of the Association for Ministerial Public Juridic Persons from 2017-2023. Lawrie has a background of leadership within the wider social and disability services sector.
2. KEEP TO PRINCIPLE – considering and applying Catholic social principles in service and community contexts
Date: Thursday 19th June 2025
Principles are our values in action – and Catholic social teaching has an inspiring but little-understood canon of social principles to guide our vital social service work. They are designed to be universally understood and applied by people of various faiths or none. How can these principles assist Catholic social service providers to respond innovatively to contemporary social, cultural and economic challenges? How might these values assist discernment and decision making? How might they be embedded as organisational culture? And why do they remain relevant as service providers’ Catholic identities adapt? Learn about how core Catholic principles promote human dignity and solidarity with the excluded and how they apply when taking action at the local level for the common good.
Facilitator: Dan Fleming
Dr Dan Fleming is head of Ethics for St Vincent’s Health Australia and an Adjunct Professor of Ethics in the School of Medicine for the University of Notre Dame, Australia. Dan holds a PhD in moral philosophy and theology, and is the author of over fifty academic and media publications in the areas of moral philosophy, theological ethics and moral education. Dan’s most recent publication is the 2023 volume Doing Theology and Theological Ethics in the Face of the Abuse Crisis, co-edited with James F. Keenan SJ and Hans Zollner SJ.
3. TRUE TO PURPOSE – how to hold Catholic organisations in mission
Date: Thursday 31st July 2025
How can we stay true to purpose and the best of the dynamic Catholic tradition our organisations have developed within? How might mission and purpose be held as central in all organisational practises in a shifting social and political environment and increasing variety of pressures provided by Government, funding and accreditation requirements? This session will explore creative peer-based leadership approaches for engaging a diverse workforce that inspire rather than compel and how mission can be kept at the forefront and Catholic social principles can be purposefully applied throughout all organisational practices.
Facilitator: Pip McIlroy
Pip McIlroy is People and Leadership Development Manager at Jesuit Social Services. She holds postgraduate qualifications in Theology and Teaching. Pip has previously worked in ethics and mission integration for St Vincent’s Health Australia and is a Board Member of The Cardoner Network, the young adult ministry of the Jesuits in Australia. Seeing the need to upskill professionals in the basics of good teaching and training, Pip is the founder of ‘Checking for Understanding’, a consultancy business.
4. DELIVER SOCIAL IMPACT SUSTAINABLY – how to thrive together for the common good
Date: Thursday 28th August 2025
This final session brings the first three together and focusses on practical action. How can core purpose and associated principles be best applied within the Catholic social services sector and in our broader community in a shifting social and political environment? Learn how to maintain mission and quality under present and prospective funding models and accreditation requirements while leading and working in teams from diverse backgrounds. Adopt a strategic approach that brings together delivery of social impact and organisational sustainability for the common good.
Facilitator: Jane Lloyd OAM
Jayne Lloyd has worked at CatholicCare NT for more than 20 years and has been Director for over 15 years. As Director, Jayne has led CatholicCare’s development into a leading social service agency, recognized for a commitment to growing local services and building quality.
Jayne’s leadership style embraces innovation, which has allowed the organization to adapt and find creative ways to meet new challenges. The organisation has been successful in place-based service delivery, Aboriginal employment and leadership, embedding quality systems and building a comprehensive evaluation framework for the whole organization.
Jayne maintains a focus on aligning mission and values to the work of organization, believing that organizational culture impacts on the people who use our services. Under Jayne’s directorship, CatholicCare has developed a strong foundation, including good governance, staff engagement and alignment and participation of clients in service design. Jayne believes in building an organization where learning and change is embraced.
Jayne has qualifications in Social Work and Theology, and in 2024 she was awarded Member of the Order of Australia for service to the community through social welfare over more than two decades.
With thanks to Catholic Development Fund for supporting Mission Inspired Leadership