Reducing Loneliness with Connection | Rachael Cook (Inclusee CEO) talks to Bronte Price

Bronte Price: Well, good morning. It’s Bronte Price here from the Equality Network, and I’m thrilled to be joined today by Rachael Cook, who’s the CEO of Inclusee. Welcome, Rachael**.**

Rachael Cook: Thank you so much, Bronte. Absolute pleasure to be here and always a pleasure having a chat with you.

Bronte Price: Thank you, Ditto. So, I wonder if you can just tell us a little bit about yourself and Inclusee and also the kind of community that you serve, please.

Rachael Cook: Yeah, fantastic. Well, it’s an amazing community. Let me start there. So, Inclusee is just and look, I am biased, but it is just an incredible organisation and we have such an incredible purpose. Our mission is a very succinct mission, which is to use the power of connection to reduce social isolation and loneliness for Australians. And that is all we do. But when saying that’s all we do, that is a big, big thing to tackle. It’s not an easy thing to tackle, but it’s an extremely meaningful thing to tackle, and we couldn’t be prouder of what we do here at Inclusee. So Inclusee actually is experts in this space was which I like to phrase us as experts in social connection and understanding the importance of why people need to remain connected in their community. Obviously, I’m the chief executive officer and have been with the organisation since 2019. Absolutely love my job, love my team, love our community, and it’s, yeah, it’s just the best. I couldn’t say anything more about it. Bronte, what else could I say? It’s just awesome.

Bronte Price: You and your staff and a heap of volunteers work with older Australians.

Rachael Cook: Yeah.

Bronte Price: and so you’re correct me if I’m wrong, you’re an age care provider.

Rachael Cook: Mhm.

Bronte Price: But you do that all remotely. Is that?

Rachael Cook: Yeah, that is. Doesn’t that sound bizarre, actually, to put all that in one box? Is that an age care provider that does that remotely? And you’re 100% correct. And we do that differently. So, which is something we’re really, really proud of. It’s something that, you know, in this space, particularly in aged care, one of the challenges that we’re facing in this industry is how we’re going to continue to deliver services for a growing population. So, obviously, we’re about to come through this massive tsunami of growing population of older Australians who are about to need our services, but also at the same time, we’ve got workforce issues. So, something that I’m incredibly proud of is Inclusee continues to be innovative and to think differently and to try and challenge the status quo and go well, how can we do this in a way that is sustainable not only for our community but sustainable for our organisation, but sustainable for the industry, and so we deliver our services 100% remotely.

Bronte Price: So tell us how that happens. Let’s hover above Inclusee on a weekday and tell us what we’d see happening and talk about your clubs and things like that, please.

Rachael Cook: Yeah. Absolutely. So, wow, every week is an exciting week. There is always so much that goes on. I know from my perspective, and I tell this to my team all the time, I know the incredible work that they do, but when we bring out our newsletter every quarter, I actually get a little teary because there is so much content, so many activities, so many events that people can be part of. We do everything from education. So, you know, one of the really important things is when you’re working on remotely and working through digital technology and connecting in this manner is that, we have to have very closely aligned to that is the education support and safety around that as well. So we have great educational systems about things like scams. We have the e-safety commissioner who may come on and do a bit of a talk and education around that. We have everything from education on what may be happening in the aged care industry to things that are happening on certain topics, and good news stories. that are happening, everything, from crafts and art to books and Bible studies. You name it, we’ve got it. And the thing that is beautiful about our community is we create and cultivate all of that because that’s what our community wants from us. So, we’re very much about working with everybody, gaining that feedback and gaining that understanding about what it is that they want to be part of, because it’s no point in us creating a community and going, “ Hey, we think this is awesome, and that’s not what everybody wants. So, we create our community by our community with our community.

Bronte Price: Okay. So, an old person perhaps living alone, pretty um isolated and perhaps lonely um can simply get on their tablet or their phone. and link into they register with Inclusee and all of this is government funded.

Rachael Cook: Y.

Bronte Price: And they can join as many of these events or clubs as they want to. And so through that I understand that many of these older people have made new friends, new acquaintances um and some are so active in that that the very much um a whole heap of almost every day is taken up because they’re learning new stuff at the same time making new friends. Is that right?

Rachael Cook: Yeah, absolutely. That’s right. So yeah, so it’s an opportunity for people to come in, and as I said, our mission is around that social connection. So, we want people to connect as much as they possibly can. So, we have people that will come on and they will join a club in the morning and they’ll stay with Inclusee for the whole day. They’ll jump from one club to another club or they’ll pop in and have a chat to somebody. And we’re looking to actually grow that because we’ve got a goal for Inclusee to reach 1 million connections by 2030. And we want to continue to connect to everybody as much as we can. So, the way that our structure works is that you can come on, you can join one club, you can pop off, or you can come and be with us all day or pop into whatever it is that you enjoy, whatever it is that you like. So, it’s about that connection, but that belonging. So, people need to identify things that they want to be part of. So, it might be interest that they previously had, it might be interest that they currently have, it might be something that, hey, I’ve never done this before ever in my life. I would love to learn how to do that. They can pop in and do that. So, but it’s really something for everybody, and it’s a place where everybody can belong

Bronte Price: And just hearing that makes me, as an older person, also feel like I just want to be part of Inclusee, as in I want to take part in some of those clubs and events [6, User Provided Information].

Rachael Cook: Yeah.

Bronte Price: So I was approached by you, Rachael, at the start of this year, and since then, we’ve been working together specifically on the focus this year, which is the LGBTIQA plus community, both for staff and volunteers, and also the older people, what we call participants. Can you give us an idea of what LGBTIQA+ inclusion looked like at Inclusee before we started that work together, please?

Rachael Cook: Yeah sure so we definitely have obviously when you’ve got a community you have got a wide range of demographics and backgrounds and people that are in your community and it’s really critical for us to understand that there is no difference between belonging and inclusion and in order for people to connect and have true belonging you need to have that attention on diversity and inclusion at all times. So we have been through a bit of a journey with that, and we definitely identified that we had people of LGBTIQA+ in our community, in our teams, as well as in our volunteer teams. But we wanted to ensure that we were doing more. That was something that I’ve focused on this year, and it’s part of my process. While we prioritise diversity at all times, I want to ensure that we put real, meaningful work into what we do. So in order to make real change and real impact, you can’t just do a little bit here and a little bit there. You really need to tackle the hard and challenging topics, the conversations. And a lot of that starts with leading and wanting your team to learn and educate and go through that growth process. So, we had a bit of understanding about it, but nowhere near to the depth of which we’ve got today. And that’s because we’ve put that effort, that resource, and our full attention to it. And I think that’s where you get the best outcomes. And we couldn’t have done it without you, Bronte**.**

Bronte Price: Thank you, Rachael. And it’s just been a joy watching the shift and the change occur. And previously, I think your focus, so the focus in 2025 is the queer community, and previously, you’ve had a couple of other focuses in the previous couple of years. Is that right?

Rachael Cook: Yeah. Yeah. So last year, we focused on neurodiversity. So we actually went through a whole process of understanding what that looks like and have learned so much from it. And actually, that was something that we uncovered as an organisation, that close to 70% of our employed staff are neurodiverse. And you know from looking at that, and that’s what I’m hoping we’re going to do with the LGBTQIA plus focus this year, is benchmark. Okay, where did we start at this at the start of the year? What have we learned, and where are we at? To uncover that percentage of staff who are neurodiverse is incredible. So we went from having the same sort of thing, understanding that there are some people who identify in that space, to at the end of last year, we had people who went all the way to full diagnosis. Some have gone on to you know medication needs where needed as well. full understanding, full discovery of that process and you know these are discoveries that are lifelong changing moments where they’ve gone you know things make sense to me now I now understand who I am or why I operate this way and most importantly how can Inclusee actually support you through that process as well so again building in that structure and support of our leadership team supporting those staff members with how do we get the best out of them how do we focus on their strengths and make them the superstars that they are. And then the year before that was all around our First Nations focus. So we undertook our very first RAP plan, which was the reflection process, and again, the same sort of journey. We have people who identify who are a part of the community of the First Nations community and we went through a whole education process and we’ve continued to take that and learn from it. And where we’re at now, with the three that we’ve gone through now, we’re now starting to get into that part of understanding the intersectionality of them. So, I think you need to really get deep down and understand each of those communities, their challenges, their needs. What does that look like before you get to the bit to understand there could be a person who might be First Nations, who might be neurodiverse and be part of the LGBTQIA+ community, and what does that mean for that person? What challenges are they facing, and how can we support them? So, to understand that and to go through that level of growth has just been fantastic, and I can I can know I’m saying that from not only on behalf of myself but from the entire team. We’ve learned so much, and I can’t underestimate enough how much organisations need to put more focus on that educational and learning space, because the more we learn and the more we know, the more we can support.

Bronte Price: Thank you. Thank you. So I’ve been working with Inclusee now both as a trainer, an LGBTIQA plus inclusion trainer, but also as a kind of a strategic advisor. Conducted an audit early on of all your forms, processes, website, newsletter, and so on. I just wonder, please, if you can briefly describe some of the bigger changes that have occurred as a result of that work, please.

Rachael Cook: Oh my goodness, we’re going to be here all day. I know have to list that too many.

Bronte Price: Do a high level.

Rachael Cook: And what I loved is you actually set that question up really nicely to and again to people that wanting to go through this process to understand you need to be looking at all of those avenues. You need to be looking at the training and development. You need to be looking at your policies and processes. You need to be looking at how you are reflecting as an organisation to make this a safe space for that community to come and join us. And so you have gone through everything with a fine-tooth comb from your amazing, knowledgeable lens and given us advice on every one of those, and there is not one area of that that we haven’t touched on that we haven’t looked at, and most importantly, that we haven’t improved in some way. So for example our website you came in and went okay look that’s great but let’s have a look at more inclusive photos or um what else can we add on there? So we’ve gone from that to having more inclusive photos, but now we’ve got a whole DEI strategy listed on there as well, which you also helped us review, too. We’ve got a brand new diversity policy that’s been listed on there as well, which was also built and reviewed by you twice, actually. And I feel like we’ve just got a leading policy around what we’re doing there. The strategy is fantastic. The team are all on board on that. And that’s just one part. That’s just one example. And on top of that, you know, little things like our emails, you know, we now have the flags represented on there. So, we’ve got the LGBTQA plus, we’ve got the First Nations, we’ve got the Torres Strait Island. We’ve also even put the neurodiversity flag on there as well. So, just those components about showcasing to anyone that’s looking at the community, whether they want to come to us as a participant, a volunteer, a staff member, or even someone like yourself, Bronte, who wants to look at and go, is this an organisation that I want to work with? you know, this helps create a safe space. So, it starts from all of those avenues. So, you’ve got to look at it all. You can’t miss any of those spots.

Bronte Price: The thing that I loved, I think, from the very start was that we decided, whilst this year would be the queer focus, that we would do things in bits. And I think we agreed that we would divide the year into quarters. And that meant that some of the work that came out of the audit. because there were somewhere between 40 and 50 recommendations for change across everything. So we broke them up into jobs that needed to be done, tasks to be undertaken, and then we said, well, here are the most urgent, 10 or 12 of those. And then so there were these things that we did now, cuz they were immediately able to be done and needed to be done urgently. Then there was some next and then later. And so the next were in the second quarter, the latter were in the last half of the year. And I think that approach, coupled with the fact that you set up Inclusee Plus, which is the rainbow advisory group that meets every month, monitors progress. So that kept me thinking everyone accountable, but also, really importantly, gave everyone a chance to have a look at what we’ve done in the last month. So, it kept us on our toes knowing that we’ve got measurable outcomes month by month, and then if you look at the end of this year, what you’ve achieved over 12 months is just a phenomenal kind of achievement, I think. So, that worked for me and I think that’s also worked for you and Inclusee. Correct.

Rachael Cook: Yeah, absolutely. It’s been a fantastic process, as you said. I think going through that one of the first things and anyone that’s wanting to dive into this space that go right we want to make some change. But where do we start? I think sometimes that’s the big hurdle for a lot of people or a lot of organisations, because look, it is meaningful work, but I’m not going to say it’s not hard work. You’ve got to put some effort in. You’ve got to put resources. You’ve got to put in hours. You’ve got to put time into really doing it in a way that is meaningful but safe. And you’ve got to think it out through properly as well. If you’re going to do this, do it properly. So having that schedule, being really clear about what all of our key tasks are, and when they are due? Also, who’s responsible? You know, going through that and going, okay, who’s doing what? And being responsible for that. And then having the working group where we’re keeping each other accountable, coming back to that working group every week, sorry, every month. And then saying, Okay, what have we done? What have we achieved? How have you gone with this? How have you gone with that? And tick that off. It’s that visual element, too, of actually seeing what you’re actually getting through, that helps keep that fuel going, too. So you get excited by it. You’re, you know, you feel like you’re making an impact, and it’s fully tangible for not only the working group but the wider organisation to see what you’re actually doing in that space. So it’s been absolutely fantastic, and I would highly recommend anyone going through that process to set that out and have that really clear structure in there.

Bronte Price: It’s really worked. I wonder if you can talk about two or three tangible differences that you’ve noticed in the way that your staff now support LGBTIQA plus people, whether it’s the you know set their peers or whether it’s some volunteers or some of your participants.

Rachael Cook: Oh wow. There’s been heaps of change in that space. So we’ve actually got people who have stepped up in the organisation to be a representative of the LGBTQIA+ community, which is fantastic. So again, having that safe space where people go, I’m happy to talk about this. I’m happy to identify. I’m happy to be that spokesperson step up into that place. That’s that’s been really important for us. We’ve also had a new role since we started this process. It’s not a paid role, but it’s a development role that’s come out in Inclusee, which is a diversity champion role. So, that is somebody that we have in the organisation, for whom we have a very specific PD, and we showcase what that is, and we’re actually supporting that role through education and more development on a diversity front, so that we’ve got somebody who is a safe space for the organisation. So if there’s anything that’s happening that you know, say a team member or somebody in the organisation didn’t feel safe to talk to a manager about, they could go to that person and talk about that, and they could be an advocate for them. So we’ve got a new position to do that as well. We’ve created more clubs in this space in for our community too. So, more diverse clubs for people to be part of, more educational clubs. Hey, we even had a session. It was a club a couple of weeks ago, all things learning about sex, which you know, before this, we probably would have never have had that conversation or never even had that club. And you know what? Everybody was so excited about that. Our participants love it. And you know what? I think it took us down a path of realising, you know, who are our community? The community are adults and they’re going through various changes in their lives and personal reflections of their own as well, and hey, they want to see all this stuff too. So why can’t we be part of that to showcase and educate that as around that as well. So we’ve gone through a huge journey of understanding and support and I think even the basics of you know putting yourself not in someone else’s shoes but putting yourself on hold and pause for a moment when we’re having conversations with our community because you don’t know what’s going on in their lives, what where they’re coming from or what they may be experiencing. I think that’s all taught us a moment of pause and reflect. So, now we’ve got a better understanding of why some people may have certain challenges, or how do we get them connected more because of the different backgrounds and challenges and circumstances they’ve been through. So, a huge amount of learning and growth individually, but as an organisation as well.

Bronte Price: Fantastic. And it’s great that Inclusee is tackling one of those taboos around old age that you never talk about sex and intimacy.

Rachael Cook: Yeah, and I love that was one of our sessions that we talked about last week, which was learning about taboos, and it’s like, oh my goodness, you can’t have the conversation about that around older people. What, well, why can’t we? And they love it.

Bronte: So, just recently, it’s been just such a thrill to hear from you that Inclusee has won two major awards. So I’d love you to talk about what those awards are and what that recognition means for you, your staff, and your participants.

Rachael Cook: Yeah, thanks, Bronte. As we talked about before we caught up for the interview, my voice is slowly recovering. It’s been croaky all week. And that’s not because I’m sick, it’s just from cheering too much. But we are absolutely ecstatic that we have won not one but two awards in the last week and a half or so. So the first one and this one, I must say, you know it’s hard because when you win an award as an organisation, of course, you’re proud of that. It’s like having children. Am I allowed to say you have a favourite one? I feel bad saying you know all of our awards are amazing, but this one’s really, really special. I feel bad. But the first award that we won was the diversity award, which was with AiiA, and that’s with the iAwards, and to be honoured for a diversity award is just incredible. Look, sitting in that room. So AiiA, the iAwards is just an incredible night. It is getting together all of Australia’s best minds and talking about different innovations. And to sit in a room with, seriously, the most brilliant people, the most brilliant minds that you can experience in Australia, is actually quite intimidating, you know. So I have a moment to go, what have I been doing with my life? How do you know how to do these things? Um, but to sit in that room with people and then win the diversity award on top of that was just incredible because I think you know, in order to, I think it all aligns beautifully. In order to innovate, in order to create, in order to belong, diversity has to be at the centre of it as well. So, I’m immensely proud, like words can’t even describe how proud I am about that diversity award. And it just showcased all the incredible work that Inclusee has been doing over not just recently, but the last couple of years leading up to this space as well. And then last weekend, we topped it off with another one, and actually, we were finalists in two categories. Um, but we won the Employer of Choice for the public sector and not-for-profit as well. So you know those two things, you know, looking also at those two awards, they go hand in hand as well. How can you be an employer of choice if you haven’t got diversity at the centre of what you do? So huge recognition overwhelmingly, you know, so proud of the team, and I know the team, and obviously, we talk about this and celebrate as a team as well, how proud they are not only of themselves but of the organisation that we do and what this means for our community to be represented in this space. It what it creates for us is a huge amount of credibility in the organization that we are and what we do and again I think you know you know when you and I we do our training sessions every month you start the training session with the safe sign space having these awards are almost sort of like a creating a safe sign space to go hey this is an organization that values diversity that I’m going to feel safe in. So, it’s sort of like a public safe sign in a way, you know, having these awards. Um, so yeah, couldn’t be prouder.

Bronte Price: Thank you. And so, so well deserved, and it’s just such an affirmation of all the work not only for LGBTIQA plus work but also for First Nations and neurodivergence. And it’s, you know, it’s such an acclamation, affirmation, and compliment, and job well done for all that hard work. And you’re completely right, like you, you won’t be the employer of choice unless you can demonstrate some solid runs around DEI. So congratulations to you and your staff. It’s fantastic.

Rachael Cook: Yeah, absolutely.

Bronte Price: Looking back particularly over the last 12 months, what has been the most valuable part of the inclusion journey for you as the CEO of Inclusee?

Rachael Cook: for me. Um, so one thing that I pride myself on as a CEO, but as a leader more than anything, is learning. You know, I will never ever ever hang my hat up from learning. I will never know everything. And I think I have to continue to push forward and learn as much as I possibly can. For me to be the best leader I can be, I need to learn as much as I can because then I can support the people who work with me in our organisation. But not only that, support our wider community as well. So the biggest thing for me is, and the biggest takeout, I would say to any leader, you’re never done learning. You need to keep pushing. The more you think you know, the more you got to know and to keep evolving in that. So that’s the biggest takeaway that I’ve done.

Rachael Cook: But the other thing from that is also seeing how the organisation’s growing. You know, when you put this effort into it and make it meaningful, what you see and how your organisation transforms is just mind-blowing. It’s incredible to see them grow, and the organisation that we are today was not the organisation that we were 3 years ago or even before that. And I’m so excited to see what we’re going to look like with that ongoing education, learning and commitment to diversity, how are we going to look like in three years? You know, it’s just that it is mind-blowing in that space. The biggest takeout is how much we can grow as an organisation. And I think my goodness, if everybody in the wider community, you know, going back out to the public community, if we all had that commitment moving forward in this space, think about the changes we could make, the positive changes we could make.

Bronte Price: Going back to the awards and they’re great reference sites for, you know, not only the aged care sector and your, you know, other providers in the aged care but also for government. They will be taking a look, and there would have been so many Google searches for who is Inclusee on both nights, I’m sure. I also love your passion for ongoing learning. Learning, I think, places us in a position of vulnerability and as a leader, I think it’s a really impressive thing to show such vulnerability and humbleness. humility. wonder what you see in this, in continuing this inclusion work, particularly around the queer community. What’s the next step for Inclusee in that work, do you think?

Rachael Cook: Oh well the next steps I think for us is you know I one of the things when we started to work in this diversity space back three years ago the the way that I work through that focus as I said we’re focusing on all diversities at all times but because I want to put that real tangible, you know, work, commitment, resource into it. I wanted to create a space where we could be an organisation that other organisations can look to and that we might be able to assist them. So for me, this is not just about Inclusee. This is a bigger picture than that. And you know, just as you said about the Google searches, I’m hoping that there are organisations that Googled us, not to go who’s Inclusive and what they are about. That’s great. I would love them to do that. But I’m hoping they’re googling to go, what is Inclusee doing, and how can we do this better? So, you know, this is a bigger picture, you know, and that was something that I always had as a big, you know, hairy, audacious goal that we started a couple of years ago, three years ago, when we started doing this. I went, if I could get other organisations to become employers of choice because of the work that Inclusee is doing, that’s why I’m doing it. It’s not just for us.

Bronte Price: That’s awesome. Thank you. you last question. What if you could give any advice to any other age care providers who want to strengthen their LGBTIQA+ inclusion? What advice would that be? Please?

Rachael Cook: First and foremost, they’ve got to get you on board, and that’s not a biased conversation. That is absolutely true. You know, Bronte, we couldn’t have done this without you. And let me talk a little bit about why I engaged you in this. Going into this, it’s really important that we have people who identify, have the experience, and have the knowledge to be able to take our team on this journey. And that wasn’t me. So, I needed to ensure that I looked out there and found the best person that’s going to be there to be able to take our team on this. And you have just been absolutely incredible on all fronts. Your knowledge about the history of the queer community and the backgrounds and what that means for people. It’s just mind-blowing what you know. It’s just an incredible amount of resources. Um, but your knowledge regarding, you know, your previous knowledge regarding policy and advocacy and all those sorts of things has helped us understand what that looks like for us in regards to what a policy document looks like? And you know, policy documents you are, you and I both know are the most boring things ever, but they’re there for a reason and they’re needed and In order for people to be included, policy documents need to be reviewed and we need to be putting effort into not only making them inclusive with inclusive language, which you’ve been fantastic and supporting in just basic things like certain wording even, you think, okay, that makes sense to me, but because if I’m not from that community, that means something different to to somebody in the queer community. So, you need to have that different lens. You need to have somebody who identifies but also has that area of expertise that can go no. Actually, you need to understand that from a queer community, it may read like this or it may look like this, or this is how you may make someone feel, and that’s what you’ve been so critical of and helping us with. So, policy documents, you know, where we’re at currently in our plan with our Inclusive Plus inclusion team, is that when we’re at that next stage, to look at real big policy changes, you know, things like certain leave types and all those sorts of things. That’s incredible to think about that we’re at that stage. And Inclusee is a not-for-profit charity. You know, we’re not a big organisation, but we’re making massive changes. So, my advice would be a few things. One, definitely get the Equality Networker Bronte on there. You need that area of expertise. You need somebody who has that background to be able to do that. And actually, I think it doesn’t also hurt to have somebody that’s separate from your organisation sometimes lead this. space as well because you know sometimes doing these things when it you know when you when you’re working on diversity there can be a lot of pain a lot of hurt and a lot of challenges a lot of sometimes confusion having a third party on there sort of separates that you know what what’s the organization doing and and that misunderstanding from individuals as well so I think that doesn’t hurt also for anyone in age care is you know you need to make investment in this so for me as CEO I’m make this as part of my strategy. You know, it is part of my strategy and part of my vision every year that I set that in. And it’s a non-negotiable. So, every year, I set that strategy, and you need to carve it out. You need to carve out resources. You need to carve out time, and you need to carve out a commitment and actively show your organisation that you’re a part of this. So, that’s the other one. And the other one is that anyone in the age of care continues to learn. You don’t, you will never know it all. Always be open. always be continuing to learn and listen to your people.

Bronte Price: Thanks, Rachael. Thanks so much. That’s just been a joy to catch up and go through what’s been happening, particularly this year, and to celebrate those awards. You’re an inspiration. Thanks for the catch-up.

Rachael Cook: Thank you so much, Bronte. We couldn’t have done it without you. So, I can’t thank you enough as well.

Bronte Price: Thanks.

Rachael Cook: Thanks, Bronte.