FNI Education, First Nations International Pty Ltd — home

A practical engagement system

Do better. Be better. Live better.

A suite of programs delivered through a practical framework that builds the self‑awareness that empowers accountability. One hour a week. Six weeks. Visual tools your participants keep.

Identify the problem

The readiness gap sits before your service starts.

Many downstream services begin after the point where a person already needs to understand themselves, their barriers and the system around them. FNI works in that gap, upstream of service readiness, using practical, visual tools that people can hold, keep and return to. Four concerns show up in almost every referral.

Alcohol and other drugs

Use continues alongside the program, and the service has no non-clinical step that builds insight before treatment or sanction.

Mental health

Participants are waitlisted for clinical support while the program clock keeps running and engagement quietly stops.

Family and domestic violence

Staff need a culturally safe entry point that does not duplicate the specialist response or put anyone at risk.

Employment readiness

Placements break on routine, planning and communication long before they break on skills or qualifications.

The method in sixty seconds

A practical early engagement step.

The Stickman Method Platform is FNI Education’s core product: a visual behavioural change, engagement and planning framework developed by John Close through more than 30 years across employment, mental health, alcohol and other drugs, justice and Indigenous community engagement.

Commitment

1 hour a week

Length

6 weeks

Tools

Visual, plain language

Delivery

Group or one to one

How the method works

Tailor the suite

Six products, one framework.

All products
Employment services

Roadmap Planner Program

A 4–5 hour workshop, mental health informed planning process built for the employment sector. Participants map their life, barriers and next steps, and leave with a personal roadmap your staff can work from.

4–5 hour workshop
Schools, corporate and sport

Lifeways to Leadership

Program for schools, corporate and sporting organisations. Participants build self awareness, explore values and influences, and map clear steps in a personalised Lifeways Plan.

Scheduled with your service
Corrections

Timelines

Built for corrections. Reflection, cultural healing and practical planning using Family Systems Therapy with people before and after release, engaging upstream of reoffending.

Scheduled with your service
Readiness

Engagement and readiness assessment

A practical way to understand why a person is not engaging and what support they need, before compliance and activity expectations begin.

Before activity expectations begin
Workforce development

Staff capability and train the trainer

Briefings, training and mentoring that build your team’s confidence and skill engaging Indigenous clients.

Up to full train the trainer delivery
Reporting

Reporting your funders trust

Attendance, completion and cost benefit reporting that attributes outcomes correctly and strengthens funding submissions.

Per cohort

Why this work is needed

The public record.

All sources

62%

by 2031

Closing the Gap Target 8 aims to lift the share of First Nations people aged 25–64 in employment to 62 per cent by 2031. The Productivity Commission assesses the target as not on track, and employment is among the outcome areas recorded as worsening.

National Agreement on Closing the Gap; Productivity Commission, Closing the Gap Annual Data Compilation Report, July 2025

27×

detention rate

First Nations young people were 27 times as likely as non-Indigenous young people to be in detention in 2022–23, and around 84 per cent of those in detention were unsentenced — held before a matter is decided. Target 11, a 30 per cent cut in youth detention by 2031, recorded no change from its baseline in the July 2025 data.

AIHW, Closing the Gap targets: key findings and implications, 2025; Productivity Commission, Annual Data Compilation Report, July 2025

$4.0b

a year

Alcohol use alone is estimated to cost Australian workplaces around $4.0 billion a year, with absenteeism accounting for close to 90 per cent of that cost. One in ten workers report being affected by a colleague’s drinking.

NCETA, Flinders University; Whetton et al., National Drug Research Institute; Alcohol and Drug Foundation

Who it is for

Five sectors, same framework.

Employment services Youth justice and corrections Family and domestic violence Health and community Corporate and sport

How delivery works

We lead, then you do.

Facilitators run the first sessions in full. Your staff sit in and watch the framework work with your cohort.

The tools are unpacked step by step, with the reasoning behind each one, so nothing depends on charisma.

Your staff take a session with the facilitator in the room. This is where the method transfers.

Observation and feedback against the same checklist we hold ourselves to, not a general impression.

Ongoing access to the facilitator, refreshers, and updated materials as the suite develops.

Cultural authority

Self-awareness is what empowers accountability. Everything we teach starts there.

John Close is a Goorenpul descendant with ancestral ties to the Yugara and Turrbal peoples, thirty years in the alcohol and drug treatment sector, and founder of Goori House.

About FNI Education

What participants say

The program made me realise what it’s like to have a dream and what it means to achieve my goals. I built friendship and family, giving me so many opportunities for my career and future. I learnt how to become an adult.
Lionel Johnson
The program transformed my life in many aspects, not just footy. It helped me develop from a kid to an adult. It taught me the importance of giving my best effort with school, my health and playing rugby league.
Solomon Torrens

Run one tailored Stickman Method program.

Your team sees the whole client journey — readiness, barriers and support needs mapped before you invest in placement, programs or referrals, so the right support lands in the right order.

Book an initial meeting