Ali has worked in the International Community Development sector since 2002. She has a Bachelor of Arts (Social Justice) and a Masters in Development Practice and has spent the past 7 years developing her skills and experience as a community organiser, project manager and now as Managing Director of Island Vibe Festival.

 

Having lived and worked in a number of Asian and Pacific countries, Ali has focused her energies on developing projects which apply strong social justice principles and creative ways of facilitating social change. Ali has facilitated a range of outcomes across many platforms including community arts, cultural development, music festivals, workshop programs and community development and engagement models. Through these opportunities, Ali has discovered and is a strong advocate for the unlimited potential for the arts to provide effective tools for cultural community development.

 

From 2007 to 2009 Ali was the Coordinator of an enterprise development project with refugee communities for SPIRAL Community Hub in West End, Brisbane.

 

Since 2007, she has worked with Island Vibe Festival (previously known as Island Time Festival) and in 2009, was appointed Managing Director.

 

 

Jade has been working in the Arts, Community Cultural Development, Education, Youth and Social sectors since 2000. She has a Bachelor of Arts (Drama) and a Bachelor of Education (Secondary) and has been developing her practice and philosophy around the belief that arts and culture, underpinned by sound engagement and social justice frameworks, are tools for social and systemic change.

 

She has lived and worked in regional and remote indigenous and non-indigenous communities both nationally and internationally. She has travelled extensively through Asia and Australia with the belief that cultural exchange is the most effective way to get to know the world and all of the people who we share it with.

 

Jade’s areas of expertise include: Community Cultural Development, Education (Alternative and Mainstream) and Training, Youth Support, Facilitation and Workshop development, Community Arts, Consultation with young people and their communities, Project Management, Concept and framework development for work with young people, Policy development and interpretation, strategic development and planning. She has worked in a variety of non-government and government contexts including her roles with Education Queensland, Albert Park Flexi School, Brisbane City Council, SpeakOut, Northern Territory Education Department, Arts Queensland, QUT and various consultancies.

 

From 2006 until July 2009, Jade was the Youth and Community Programs Manager with SpeakOut, a social enterprise, non-profit organisation working with young people and their communities throughout Queensland.

 

In August 2009, Jade was appointed as the Team Leader – Community Arts and Cultural Development for Brisbane City Council.

 

Jade is inspired by people, resilience, solid ethical frameworks and processes, social change, arts and cultural practice and community development.

 

 

 

 

Kate McBean has spent the last decade pursuing a career as a professional environmentalist and since completing a Bachelor of Environmental Management at Griffith University has worked both nationally and internationally as an environmental scientist and consultant. Kate is currently working as an Environmental Analyst for an emerging Queensland based company, Ecofund. Kate's role in the company is to deliver environmental offsets for Queensland companies and is driven by the goal of expanding Queenslands protected area estates to 20 million hectares by 2020. Kate has been a member of the Island Vibe company since 2008 and has been integral in developing the festivals sustainability strategies through her previous role as the Sustainability Manager.

 

 

 

 

Growing up in a small community taught Cassy you have to get out and search for who you want to be. This philosophy led to a Journalism degree, travel through Europe and around Australia.

 

Supporting this life learning were many years in the hospitality industry, developing skills in customer service and management. A shift in focus led to ongoing study in Peace and International Relations and a move towards the community and enterprise sector, where skills in systems development and logistics have been put to use.

 

Cassy is currently the Client Support Officer for Human, and is an emerging community cultural development practitioner. Cassy has recently joined the Island Vibe Festival Team as the Secretary of the Board.

 

 

 

 

Steph’s approach to work focuses on facilitating personal and community empowerment, predominantly using creative arts engagement and broader participation techniques. He develops ways of encouraging people to connect; with each other, with practical concepts of community, with notions of inclusion and exclusion, with individual and collective visions for the future and with ideas for bringing social change into community cultural development practice. He is particularly interested in governance and people’s access to it through the use of shared celebration spaces, such as public events and festivals, to encourage participation in discussion about social change and our involvement in both what this means and how it can happen. Steph has been awarded ten professional planning awards for his work and has co-written two publications through Earthscan.