Qualifications & Experience
Nikki Smith is a qualified social work practitioner who offers inspirational leadership, a strong commitment to community services and assisting children, young people and families to achieve their desired goals.
During a career spanning 19 years, Nikki has worked in positions from a grass roots to senior management level, offering professional and collaborative services across government, non-government agencies, not-for-profit organisations, small, medium, large organisations and social enterprises. Nikki holds memberships with the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW), the Australasian Evaluation Society and University of Queensland Alumni.
Nikki’s exceptional personal and professional attributes, highly developed intuition and emotional intelligence has placed her as a high performance practitioner who leads with grace, empathy and a keen willingness to share her experience and knowledge, whilst learning from the lived experience of others. Her passion for inspirational leadership and practice excellence has led Nikki to the leadership space of professional development training, supervision, coaching, program design/development and management.
Nikki’s areas of professional support and expertise include child safety, family services, homelessness, youth justice, domestic and family violence, mental health, drug and alcohol misuse, advocacy for social justice and cultural diversity, mediation and conflict resolution, building healthy relationships, psychosocial development (positive social identity and sense of belonging) and constructive community engagement (education/training/employment).
She has an astute understanding of the need for practitioners and organisations to move forward into a new, socio-political world of contemporary welfare practice. This professional paradigm includes awareness of the need to successfully navigate the interface between government and non-government services.
The contemporary world of community service expects innovative and high quality service provision within funding budget constraints. An ever increasing demand for genuine collaborative partnerships and shared resources between agencies is commonplace within the sector. Social and community service is a complex landscape to navigate, but an essential space to negotiate when supporting individuals, families and communities.
Nikki’s philosophy is that we are all worthy of abundance and triumph in all aspects of our lives. She promotes support for individuals and organisations to create transformational change and achieve success in their chosen endeavours. She champions a vision of dreaming big because anything is possible when we are worthy of triumph over adversity and life abundance!