Meet Us

Practitioners at We Connect and Grow, are deeply committed to supporting families with care, respect, and cultural safety. We collaborate with councils, early learning centres, schools, family services, and community organisations to create tailored support that meets families’ needs.

We honour existing family strengths and working collaboratively with professionals to build culturally safe and inclusive practices. Together, we create environments where children thrive and families feel deeply connected and valued.

  • Lead Practitioner

    Cultural Safety & Inclusion

    Lily was from China, carrying the excitement of a new life and the challenges of learning a new culture, new systems, and new ways of parenting. Now raising four teenagers, she brings both lived experience and professional expertise to every family she supports.

    With over 20 years across Education, Child Protection, Family Services, Parenting and Wellbeing Support, and Migrant Settlement, Lily has worked with a wide range of diverse cultural families. She specialises in attachment, emotional development, trauma-informed practice, and culturally safe parenting support.

    Lily has developed and led parenting and wellbeing programs with councils, early learning centres, schools, and family services. Families describe her work as warm, practical, and deeply understanding. Her programs often have long waiting lists because parents feel truly seen, heard, valued and connected.

    Lily has been a Cultural Mentor for a leading Victorian family service, where she contributed to developing a Cultural Support Practice Guide and helped practitioners embed cultural responsiveness in their everyday work.

    Fluent in Mandarin and English, she bridges the gap between families and services, helping parents feel confident, connected, and empowered.

    She believes strong families create strong communities, and that vision is at the heart of We Connect and Grow.

  • Principal Practitioner

    Capacity Building & Cultural Safety 

    Busani brings extensive child and family welfare knowledge, practice wisdom and skills drawn from years of professional child protection experience, research and lived experience both as a parent and his diverse linguistic and cultural background. 

    He is a social worker by training and has spent over 14 years of his career directly engaging with vulnerable children and their families, focusing on meeting their various needs whilst centering on the family as the fundamental group unit that forms the bedrock of society. 

    Busani's previous involvement in public health-related community research in Africa suggests his work extended beyond statutory child welfare to include community grassroots mobilization and data collection. This provides him with extensive insight into the lived experiences of people from diverse communities.

    Over the years, whilst his work specialized mainly on statutory child protection work, Busani also worked with vulnerable families impacted by public health emergencies. He designed and delivered multiple capacity building programs including training and presentations, focusing on indigenous knowledge systems, culturally responsive practice and human-rights based approaches. 

    Busani has held various senior management roles in government departments across different geographical locations, leading the development of parenting programs, leading volunteer initiatives, coaching and mentoring others, gaining experience in leading others and inspiring those that he works with.  

    Busani believes firmly in a society where every human being’s right to fair and respectful treatment must be upheld regardless of their racial identity and cultural background, gender and sexual orientation, or religious faith. Busani is a strong advocate for cultural safety, the dignity and worth of individuals, and non-discrimination. 

    Busani relocated to Australia as a skilled migrant in 2019, bringing along a strong commitment and desire to serve the most vulnerable members of the Australian community of which he is now a part. 

    Busani’s practice is rooted in building strong relationships and community connections that foster individual and collective growth through learning.

Qualified. Experienced. Culturally Responsive.

At We Connect & Grow, we draw on more than just their lived experience, they are professionally trained, accredited, and deeply skilled in supporting children, families, and communities. Their expertise spans parenting, wellbeing, family welfare and culturally safe practice, ensuring that their work is both compassionate and grounded in best practice.

Professional Memberships:

Their professional development through training in:

  • Cultural Competency - Awareness, Responsiveness & Inclusion

  • Aboriginal Cultural Elements & Safety

  • Family Violence - MARAM Series, Safe & Together