Thank you from WorkUP
As 2025 comes to an end, I want to say a heartfelt thank you.
Thank you for choosing to show up.
Thank you for the way you’ve engaged with us throughout the year.
Thank you for the work you do with us and far beyond us – for believing things can change, and for the steady, determined work you do to turn that belief into reality.
Our work is richer and genuinely better because of our connection with you.
I’d also like to reflect on some of the highlights of our work together this year, many of which are helping set us up for another strong year of capacity and capability building across our critically important sector.
As always, we delivered our workforce survey but this year we expanded it, taking a deeper look into burnout and worker wellbeing. We used the World Health Organisation definition, which describes burnout as a combination of three elements:
- Energy depletion or exhaustion
- Increased mental distance/cynicism towards the work and job
- Reduced professional efficacy or sense of accomplishment.
Experiencing all three is what classifies a person as experiencing burnout.
One thing the survey told us: cynicism across the sector is low.
Given the challenges and frustrations that workers face every day, high cynicism might have been expected but instead, we saw the opposite. Over and over again, we’ve seen examples this year of people choosing not to lose hope. This isn’t passive acceptance of the status quo – it’s active commitment to change.
Throughout 2025, WorkUP delivered projects, resources, workshops, scholarships and grants that reflect this shared commitment to building safer communities.
We delivered a range of workshops supporting workers to build a deep understanding of coercive control in readiness for the new legislation. These workshops were followed by a Roundtable that brought the sector together to explore strengths, identify areas of concern and consider ways to address or minimise these.
Our Beyond Awareness workshops invited participants to deepen their understanding of our shared past with a focus on the histories and lived experiences of First Nations peoples and what this means for our practice, and how we show up in our work, services and communities.
Reflective practice has also been a strong thread this year. Our Reflective Practice Toolkit grew from insights shared in workshops exploring the Workforce Capability Framework. The uptake of this toolkit shows just how committed the workforce is to growth and development as practitioners and leaders.
The facilitator of our Allies in Advocacy program described the recent delivery as one of the most inspiring experiences of their career. Leaders from across the sector have committed to an 18-month journey to create meaningful change and strengthen systems and processes.
And of course, the sector continued to engage deeply with the Dare to Lead program, a clear demonstration of the courage and willingness to look inward to build leadership capacity.
As we move into 2026, WorkUP will be finalising our Strategic Workforce Plan through to 2027.
Thank you to everyone who has participated in workshops so far, shared their challenges openly and helped explore new possibilities as we co-create a powerful plan to guide our work together.
We look forward to sharing this with you, and deepening our collective insight at the Courageous, Connected, Capable Symposium on in Brisbane on 18 March – Register here.
Best wishes from Louise, and all of the WorkUP Team, for a safe and relaxing holiday season.