The Stratford Scholarship and lecture has been established to honour Anthony Stratford’s contributions to the Peer Workforce.

Mind is offering a $10,000 scholarship for an emerging Peer leader or small group of peers across Australia to complete a 12-month project that contributes to innovation and transformational change that supports the mental health and wellbeing of people in their own and the broader community.  

The Expression of Interest for the scholarship is open to an emerging Peer leader or small group of peers from diverse and intersectional backgrounds who want to be part of transformational change within their community. We would love to hear and be inspired by your ideas. An opportunity to do differently.    

See more details and the Expression of Interest form at the bottom of this page.

Anthony Stratford’s legacy 

Anthony was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in the early 1980’s, a time when recovery was never mentioned in mental health. Greatly aided by his mother, a doctor, Anthony mapped out a recovery journey for himself.  

Much of Anthony’s journey from personal recovery to advocating for system change happened at Mind Australia. Anthony joined Mind in 2008 as a direct support worker in one of Mind’s earliest peer support programs.

Anthony’s richest contribution to Mind was building its peer training program, the first of its kind in Australia at that time, to develop the confidence and skills of others with lived experience.

Anthony was a skilled relationship builder and ambassador, spreading a message internationally about the importance of lived experience voices in driving recovery and transforming mental health systems, as well as the importance of lived experience ways of knowing to challenge dominant biomedical models.

Anthony, together with Fay Jackson, Janet Meagher, Tim Fong and Erandathie Jayakody, edited and co-wrote chapters in Peer Work in Australia, published in 2018, which brought articles and stories about peer work from across Australia into one important resource. It is one of the many valuable legacies of Anthony’s contribution to mental health reform.

The Stratford Scholarship builds on his leadership legacy and the legacy of consumers and family/carer Lived Experience leaders who have gone before us and in whose footsteps we walk. 

2024 Recipient 

The inaugural successful candidate of the 2024 Stratford Scholarship was Mush McLoughlan, who is a psych survivor that is exploring suicide in ways that aren't welcome or safe elsewhere.

You can read more about their project here.

What we are looking for 

  • We are looking for opportunities to develop emerging leaders. While we don’t want to define this too rigidly, we are looking for people who aren’t recognised leaders in the mental health lived experience community. This may include people who have been working in lived experience spaces for a while but not actively in advocacy or leadership (formally or informally) and want to, or who are newer to the space and are seeking ways to develop how they can have impact. We recognise people can be emerging leaders at any age.
  • We are looking for voices and perspectives that are less heard from in the lived experience community e.g. queer, First Nations, multicultural, refugee/migrant.
  • We are looking for individuals or small groups that are operating independently of an organisation for the proposed funding – we will not be funding organisational projects.
  • We are interested to see either a more formalised project OR less formal leadership development activities to support the individual in their lived experience leadership e.g. mentoring, leadership coaching.
  • We are seeking applicants who are wanting to develop their own leadership to support the broader lived experience movement and contribute to transformational change. 

Applications are now closed. Shortlisted applicants will be notified of next steps soon.

If you have any questions about the Stratford Scholarship, please email [email protected] 

Terms and Conditions  

  1. Having received the Stratford Scholarship grant from Mind Australia, the Candidate agrees to use the funds, in an appropriate manner, to achieve the deliverables as stated in Annexure 1, as agreed by Mind.
  2. The Candidate agrees the grant funds will be expended on the agreed project within 12 months of this agreement, known as the 'grant duration'.
  3. The Candidate agrees to the funds being received from Mind, in the method and timeframes outlined in the attached Annexure 1 under 'Payment Conditions'.
  4. The Candidate acknowledges the grant may incur tax charges, for which they take full responsibility for, and release Mind from any liability.
  5. The Candidate agrees to notify Mind, as soon as reasonably possible, of any requirement to amend the conditions of the Scholarship/Grant. The Candidate and Mind acknowledge that any amendments must be mutually agreed.
  6. The Candidate agrees to notify Mind, as soon as reasonably possible, of any reasons why they may not be able to fulfill the Scholarship/Grant requirements.
  7. The Candidate agrees to meet with a Mind representative monthly.
  8. The Candidate agrees to participate in Mind's Stratford Lecture, at Mind's expense. in the year of, and the year following the grant duration, being 2025 and 2026.
  9. The Candidate agrees to sign a Marketing and Communications consent form. See Annexure 2.
  10. The Candidate agrees that any findings discovered throughout the duration of this Scholarship/Grant, will be copyrighted under the Creative Commons License.
  11. The Candidate acknowledges receipt of Mind's Privacy Policy.