Download the NADA Innovate RAP 2023-25 [PDF]. The NADA RAP features artwork by Karlie Stewart, titled ‘Gudjagas’.
NADA is proud to start its journey on a Stretch RAP. As a peak organisation and through our sphere of influence among NGOs in the AOD sector, we have the potential to make a strong impact through this next RAP.
More updates will be shared on this page as we progress through the drafting of our Stretch RAP, launch planned for mid-2026.
NADA acknowledges the RAP Working Group for driving the development of our RAPs and to NADA staff, members and partners for their support and contribution.
For more information, contact Majella Fernando.
NADA RAP working group
NADA’s RAP is being implemented in consultation with the NADA RAP Working Group. Thank you for the ongoing work of members in this group. In November 2025, members of the working group are:
- Elke Wooderson, The Buttery
- Rebecca Kennedy, Lives Lived Well
- Angus Mason, Hunter New England Local Health District Drug and Alcohol Clinical Services
- Leanne Lawrence, Lives Lived Well
- Karla Priestley, Lives Lived Well
- Lea-Anne Miller, Waminda
- Ashley Thomas, Wellington Aboriginal Corporation Health Service
- Mary-Anne Whitworth, Hunter New England and Central Coast Primary Health Network
- Steve Neale, Aboriginal and Community Housing Limited
- Gloria Hill, Wellington Aboriginal Corporation Health Service
- Majella Fernando, NADA
- Nathanael Curtis, NADA
- Raechel Wallace, NADA
- Jo Penhallurick, NADA
- Robert Stirling, NADA
Latest news
September 2025
NADA completed all bar two of the deliverables in the Innovate RAP. The items that were unable to be completed were due to the small size of the organisation.
July 2025
Out of a total of 65 deliverables in the current RAP, NADA with the support and guidance of the RAP Working Group, has successfully achieved 34 deliverables with 29 partially achieved deliverables, which are annually due or ongoing activities.
Some recent highlights :
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Finalising a First Nations Cultural Learning Strategy for NADA staff
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Drafting of NADA’s new Stretch RAP
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Activities for celebrating NAIDOC week 2025
Background
2017 NADA launched its first Innovate RAP, which was developed to strengthen our relationships and partnerships and to help foster shared cultural understanding and respect across our sector. It was also intended to strengthen opportunities for First Nations people within the context of NADA as a peak body and as an organisation committed to strengthening its employment and supplier diversity.
2019 Development of the Alcohol and other Drugs Treatment Guidelines for Working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People in a Non-Aboriginal Setting (2019). The resource was developed alongside a cultural ‘audit’ process for NADA members, preferably referred to by Raechel Wallace as a yarning process, wherein 12 community services were engaged and given feedback about the inclusiveness of their workplace towards First Nations communities. Aboriginal ‘auditors’ were also trained as a result of the project to assist more workplaces in assessing and acting on the inclusiveness of their service towards First Nations communities.
2023 NADA’s second Innovate RAP launch. This RAP aims to promote accountability through setting out the ‘who’, ‘when’ and ‘what’ of reconciliation work. Through the deliverables, timelines, and allocation of responsibility for actions in this RAP, we will spend the next two years actioning our vision of accountability.
2023 NADA represented the sector with the Special Commission into Ice with the Centre of Alcohol and Other Drugs on the Aboriginal Workforce Roundtable, and the Aboriginal Program Manager is a member of the Centre of Alcohol Other Drugs Aboriginal Strategic Collaboration Group. This group has been established to provide advice on the implementation of new policies and programs through collaboration in developing culturally safe responses to reduce the harms from AOD in First Nations communities
NADA is a partner of the Strategic Partnership Group, a partnership in NSW between the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council of NSW, Aboriginal Corporation Drug and Alcohol Network and Aboriginal Drug and Alcohol Residential Rehabilitation Network. This network meets quarterly to share information from the sector, working collaboratively in partnership with the AOD sector in NSW.