Lisa Bird is the Growth and Engagement Manager, Community Services, at St John Queensland. With six years at St John and a background spanning community services, project management and partnership development, Lisa is passionate about helping older people remain connected, independent and engaged in their communities.
She believes everyone deserves to age with dignity, respect and the support to live a fulfilling life. Lisa brings people together to create positive outcomes for older people and their families, taking a compassionate and practical approach to solutions that make everyday life easier and more enjoyable.
Lisa has helped develop initiatives including Shared Smiles, an intergenerational program connecting older people with kindergarten children. Her work focuses on extending the impact of community services while keeping clients’ needs, dignity and wellbeing at the centre. Guided by kindness, connection and inclusion, Lisa creates opportunities that help older Australians feel valued, supported and empowered to thrive.
From Transport to Togetherness: Creating Shared Smiles Across Generations
Shared Smiles began with a simple question: what could happen if community transport did more than take older people somewhere, and instead created a new place for generations to belong?
This spotlight session will examine Shared Smiles, an intergenerational pilot developed by St John Queensland in partnership with an early childhood education service. The program brought a small group of older Community Services clients together with approximately 20 kindergarten-aged children for five fortnightly visits. Door-to-door transport removed a key barrier to participation, while a group briefing, Blue Card requirements, risk planning and collaboration with educators created a safe and supportive framework.
The presentation will take delegates inside the program model, from planning and participant preparation to delivery and evaluation. Visits included reading, craft, threading, drawing, songs, blocks, water play and shared morning tea. Activities were deliberately flexible, allowing relationships to develop naturally rather than prescribing how each generation should interact. Certificates for the children and older participants, together with St John “Johnny” bears, celebrated their contribution and reinforced that the older participants were active community members with knowledge, care and time to share.
Feedback from older participants, families, educators and staff was overwhelmingly positive. Older participants described gaining purpose, connection and an opportunity to give back, while children benefited from warm, meaningful relationships with older members of their community. The session will share participant reflections and practical insights into what helped people feel comfortable, valued and eager to return.
Shared Smiles also demonstrates what “Together we can” looks like in practice. Transport staff, early childhood educators, older people, children and families each contributed to an initiative no organisation could have delivered alone. The University of the Sunshine Coast is also now involved, with an Honours student selecting Shared Smiles as the basis of her thesis. This next stage will add academic investigation to the program’s participant feedback and operational learning, helping explore its impact and future development.
Delegates will leave with a renewed understanding of how creative ideas can lead to positive outcomes when there is space, encouragement and support for them to grow. Shared Smiles shows that opportunities for connection, purpose and belonging can emerge in everyday work and community life. The challenge is to recognise those opportunities, bring the right people together and help turn a simple idea into something meaningful.