With a career spanning over 18 years in community services, Joel Palmer brings a wealth of experience and knowledge the community services sector. His journey has encompassed various roles, from frontline positions to managerial and executive management, providing him with a comprehensive understanding of community services and their needs. Joel’s experience across disability services, drug and alcohol program design, and men’s behaviour change gives him a perspective that allows for a strong understanding in developing intersectional responses.
Joel’s approach is underpinned by a deep commitment to the community, a passion for positive change, and a dedication to empowering individuals and organizations. Deeply committed to his Bahai beliefs, Joel sees his daily work for the community as a form of prayer.
Joel helped to develop the REPIN Project at Lyndon House – adapting the residential drug and alcohol program to accommodate the needs of residents with a cognitive impairment. This project achieved a 5-fold increase in completion rates for people with a cognitive impairment, achieving 48% completion of a 12-week program, whether a resident was screened as having a cognitive impairment or not.
Joel later moved on to Men’s Behaviour Change and helped develop a local mandatory screening program for men seeking bail who had been charged with domestic abuse. Of them men ordered by the Magistrate to be screened, 91% chose to continue engagement voluntarily. Joel also co-designed a Men’s Behaviour Change program designed to be inclusive for men with cognitive impairments with Dr Jamie Berry and Ken McMasters.
He has spoken at State and Federal Parliament about the need for increased funding in men’s behaviour change, and at numerous other community engagements aimed at preventing gendered violence.