Help to fund the future of the podcast!

When this little pod started out as a brainchild in the recesses of Fi Peel's mind, it was intended to be a learning curve. The plan was to interview guests via zoom, strip back the audio, and then Fi intended to immerse themselves in an on-the-project crash course in audio editing before releasing episodes into the wider mystical world of podcast land. It was a project built on lived experience, collaboration, hope, and open access with all of Fi's characteristic "why the hell not?" gusto. Apart from online subscriptions and lived experience co-production fees, the pod's overheads were projected to be virtually non-existent. The $1500 was allocated, and the pod passion project was born.

EOIs were invited, a guest list was compiled, and invitations to join in the journey were issued. Then Fi met a wicked NDIS psychosocial recovery coach who convinced them as well as an unsuspecting local production studio, that Fi could be upskilled in post-production podcast training. Not understanding that the costs of working with this studio could not be covered by the NDIS Employment Supports line item which Fi did not know, and a line item that was not built into their plan, meetings were set up, agreements were made, subterfuge was woven, and both Fi and the production studio were none-the-wiser.

The podcast has now grown beyond Fi's wildest expectations. The wicked NDIS recovery coach has been given the flick. The production studio and Fi have negotiated generous terms for the settlement of the discounted total costs, but while funding sources continue to be chased, there is, as yet, no financial solution on the horizon.

Fi had hoped (and continues to hope) that they would find appropriate funding solutions to not only cover the costs of Season One but potentially fund a second season. They have been deeply humbled by messages of support and praise for the podcast from the lived experience community, and while they did not want to ask individuals to pay for information that should be freely available to all members of the community, they now need your help.

The goal is set to cover the costs of Season One and a second season with the professional support of the same production studio. If other funding sources are also secured, your donations could potentially stretch the funding to secure a third season.

Communities Of Collaboration is not a registered charity, nor was it ever intended to generate any income at all. It is the product of a tireless human dedicated to ensuring that the humans who have collaborated on this project retain editorial control on how their lived experience stories of mental health reform are represented to the wider world.

Please take what you need from the incredible collective wisdom that this podcast continues to reflect but please also, if you can, give what you can to keep the podcast afloat, Fi from drowning in debt and potentially future-fund a second (and maybe even a third) from the lived experience gems of the world that know what it is to hurt and heal.