Who we are
Introducing our founder, our principles and our approach
Troubled Dog was founded by Carrie Lumby who has contributed to a wide range of systemic reform activity as a lived experience advocate, with a focus on mental health and suicide prevention. She has also worked in government policy as the National Mental Health Commission's inaugural Director, Lived Experience - the first senior designated Lived Experience position in the Australian Public Service. She continues to provide advice to government agencies and community organisations on how to integrate lived experience insights and expertise into their work.
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Carrie knows first-hand that participatory ways of working to improve how we understand and respond to complex social challenges produces better community outcomes. Experience has also taught her that mainstream efforts to work collaboratively, while well-intentioned, aren't always effective.
Carrie established Troubled Dog because she saw an opportunity to draw on her Lived Experience expertise to strengthen participatory practices across all domains of social and public purpose work.
To ensure every project we take on is supported by the right mix of skills and expertise, Troubled Dog often takes a partnership approach to its work. We have great connections with other public participation and social innovation practitioners, as well as community leaders and organisations, who we can draw on or recommend lead the project when it best serves the work.
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Learn more about Carrie here.
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Our approach
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design for equity and justice and hold ourselves accountable to these principles in the way we work.
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maintain trust by being honest and transparent about a project's limitations, including the level of public participation that can be realistically achieved.
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understand how to work with power across difference, taking a rights-based approach to facilitating inclusive participation.
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promote open and ongoing communication, including about project outcomes to the people and communities most impacted by them.
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build partnerships based on trust by working in a relational way, prioritising people and communities beyond individual projects.
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sustain commitment to adaptive learning through reflective practice and by inviting feedback from others about what we could do better.
Participatory approaches such as ‘co-design’ and 'co-production' are broadly promoted, but not always well understood or implemented with integrity to their intent. The way we work supports good practice because we:​