About us
Learn more about the ICLA community.
Our History
ICLA was first established in 1984 to aid a group of boarding house residents in Bondi who were facing eviction. “Rotorua” was a privately-operated boarding house for more than ten years, providing secure, supported accommodation for up to 29 people with psychosocial disabilities. When the property was put up for sale, the residents again faced the insecure tenancy and lack of support often experienced by people living with complex mental illnesses.
A group of local community health workers, students and family members formed the Independent Community Living Association, and were able to negotiate with the NSW Department of Housing to secure appropriate alternative accommodation.
The original mission of ICLA was to promote acceptance, interaction and participation in the wider community with the aim of supporting people with psychosocial disabilities to live in shared accommodation, and avoid homelessness, institutionalisation, hospitalisation or living in sub-standard homes.
Today, Independent Community Living Australia (ICLA) is a not for profit Australian company limited by guarantee, which employs over 130 people and delivers mental health and psychosocial disability services and supports across NSW and delivers virtual peer support Australia wide.
Our Vision
The people we support, our staff and the organisation, all thrive.
Our Mission
To deliver personalised support enabling individual choice to improve people’s lives.
Our Values
Results for those we serve.
Our practice is person centred and recovery oriented. We listen to those we support and together we strive to achieve their vision. Their success is our success and we believe that we can make a real and valuable difference in the lives of those we support.
Respect for all.
We are respectful and caring in all we do. We admire the achievements of the people we support and never lose sight of their big picture. We value and welcome diversity.
Integrity in what we do.
We believe that integrity, truth, reliability, honesty and ethical conduct must guide everything that we do. Having integrity means doing the right thing in a reliable way.
Accountable for all we do.
We hold ourselves and each other accountable for actions and results. Accountability ensures that every person regardless of their needs has a life of possibility and opportunity.
Our Board
Nigel Harvey
For the past decade, Nigel Harvey has been a Director of Independent Community Living Australia (ICLA) and has Chaired the ICLA Board for the last 4 years. Nigel has extensive experience in the financial world, with over two decades worth of work in the financial commodity markets and corporate finance. Nigel has specialised in the Asia Pacific region including China for energy price hedging and has over 10 years’ experience in business journalism based in London and the Middle East. Nigel has a passion for leading in the non-for-profit sector, having been Director of a surf club and other non-for-profits.
Nick Coles
Nick Coles started his working life in executive recruitment in the financial markets. Since then, he has spent the majority of his working life in financial markets research, initially conducting competitor analyses of the investment banking industry. Nick’s research now has a particular focus on investor sentiment of the S&P/ASX200. Nick developed a proprietary, fully integrated, technology platform to run annual research projects and provide clients with sophisticated, actionable insights and analytics.
Gaybrielle Robinson
Gabbi has almost 20 years’ experience working for organisations with a social purpose. With quality management experience across mental health and addictions, disability, aged care and international quality, risk, health and clinical standards she brings a strong knowledge of regulatory compliance. Gabbi has a keen interest in understanding the experience of people and ensuring compliance has a person-centred approach and provides in-depth understanding of the intricacies of managing compliance within an evolving client care environment.
Jorida Zeneli
Jori’s mission is to contribute to one of society’s greatest challenges – equitable and accessible health care services for everyone through innovative models of care, effective allocation of resources, and technology. With a background in international health economics, public policy and business administration, Jorida has worked in the US, Europe and Australia across Federal and State Government agencies, private and non-for-profit sectors. Jorida specialises on health and social services, investment management, health promotion, disease prevention and social determinants of health and is passionate about mental health and wellbeing.
Rebecca Thompson
Rebecca’s career has focused on financial markets with senior roles at investment banks J.P. Morgan, Citigroup and Credit Suisse, and more recently in the capital advisory business at KPMG. Currently a director and co-founder of MarketMeter, an interactive market insights company, Rebecca’s goal is to promote corporate best practice and facilitate responsible investment practices. Outside the corporate arena, Rebecca uses her financial and analytical skills toward supporting the non-for-profit sector and in particular, the area of mental health. With personal experience of the toll mental illness takes on families and friends, Rebecca is passionate about making a difference in the lives of those affected.
Marc Bryant
With over 20 years in leadership roles within the mental health sector, Marc brings a wealth of knowledge to suicide prevention and mental health recovery. Marc has recently joined the global suicide prevention organisation, Living Works Australia as Director of Suicide Prevention and brings to ICLA his experience of suicide prevention program coordination. Marc has worked internationally for the National Health Service in the UK, was a senior UK print Journalist and is a member of the WHO International Association of Suicide Prevention (IASP); RUOK? amongst many others. Marc is passionate about community and sector collaboration and ensuring early suicide intervention is integrated with mental health and suicide prevention service provision.
John Della Bosca
Throughout his professional career and personal life, John has maintained a strong interest in policy development particularly disability and Drug and alcohol policy. He has demonstrated this through his leadership of large progressive organisations such as the General Secretary of the ALP, as a social reformer while in a leadership role in the NSW Government. Later as an advocate for the disadvantaged and marginalized he has had successes in changing government positions, the most outstanding examples being the establishment of Sydney’s Medically Supervised Injecting Center and his role as Every Australian Counts Campaign Director. During his career John has served on a large number on NGO, government, private and cultural boards. John is currently a professional consultant in the disability and Mental health areas and had a stint as Research Director at the Whitlam Institute within Western Sydney University until October 2020.
Mark Spurr
Mark has senior leadership experience with commercial and Not-for-Profit organisations including Goodman Fielder, Meat and Livestock Australia, The Smith Family and Disability Services Australia. He is currently involved in leadership development as a Hub Chair with Non Profit Australia (NPA). Board experience includes roles as Director, Managing Director and Company Secretary in Commercial, Not-for-Profit and International Business Councils. He is a Bachelor of Business Studies, Fellow Australian Institute of Company Directors, and a Certified Practicing Accountant.
Our Employees
We’re in the people business!
Our people are our greatest assets and we are committed to ongoing coaching and development of our staff. We’re actively look for people that align to our values as a critical for any role.
Our Stories
Annika
“I enjoy working at ICLA because the work is always interesting and the people I work with are passionate about improving the lives of the people we support. I like knowing that the ultimate goal of the work I do is to benefit people. ICLA has provided me with good opportunities for career progression and to gain experience in different areas of the organisation.”
Annika’s career journey with ICLA commenced in 2018 as an Executive Assistant and Annika has held various roles such as Embark Project Manager and NDIS Navigator, Quality Advisor and most recently promoted to Quality and Engagement Manager.
Noura
“I joined ICLA as my professional background is in community mental health supporting vulnerable people and leading staff and teams. ICLA felt like the right fit for me along with the values they hold and mission they are striving to achieve in the mental health space. I enjoy working at ICLA as I’ve experienced a positive and supportive team culture across all levels of management which has allowed me to settle into the organisation and my role comfortably and confidently. I love my job, the people I work with and the opportunity to facilitate change and make a difference with staff and consumers”
Noura is one of our recent hires and works as our Site Leader, managing our Site Supervisors to help ensure that the people we support in our Supported Independent Living program are living their best life and are achieving their goals.
