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speaker

George
Halkias

Community Leader & Inspirational Motivational Speaker

Profile

George Halkias is a well-respected community figure who has supported vulnerable Australians for 20 years.

With post-graduate qualifications in psychology, his experience includes managing a state-wide support service for victims of violent crime and training police graduates in the area of victim rights and support.

Current Work:
George is best known for co-founding and developing of the Big Issue Community Street Soccer Program which uses soccer to engage and develop homeless and marginalized people across Australia.

In this role he has coached and coordinated Australian teams at 8 Homeless World Cup events: Edinburgh 2005, Cape Town 2006, Copenhagen 2007, Melbourne 2008, Milan 2009, Paris 2011, Poznan 2013, Glasgow 2016, Oslo 2018 and Cardiff 2019. He was also instrumental in successfully bidding for and staging the 2008 Melbourne Homeless World Cup and his role included sourcing corporate sponsorship and acting as the public face of the event.

George develops innovative programs that often use sport to address pressing community issues like gender-based violence, social exclusion and racism.

Expertise
Talking Points

Leadership that inspires change

George’s inspirational and authentic leadership style bring people together to achieve great outcomes at a local and community level. Hear how George had the vision and dedication to develop a pilot program to a government funded national program that is recognised across the world and to bring the Homeless World Cup to Melbourne with government and corporate support.

Overcoming adversity and achieving organisational and personal change

George describes how he has developed innovative and impacting programs that have changed the lives of individuals facing a range of challenges whilst also strengthening communities. He described how he empowers people and drives cultural change and sustainable change by creating environment where people are valued and developed.

Managing complex teams to success

George has coached and supported Australian Teams at 10 Homeless World Cups and shares how he mould a diverse group of people who each with their own personal challenges into a dedicated team that achieves its personal and team goals whilst representing their country with distinction.
Media
Feedback
The Energy Procurement Supply Association recently invited George Halkias to be guest speaker at our Melbourne conference dinner. We chose George over other well-known sporting and political identities, as we were curious to understand how George had managed to assemble and lead a group of homeless people from across Australia to create an Australian soccer team, and then successfully travel to other end of the globe to compete in the world Homeless games; not once but numerous times. George is a wonderful Australian, full of compassion, community spirit, determination who is contributing to making the world a better place. George provides an interesting perspective on what success looks like with his life’s work. George’s speech created an unprecedented level of engagement and enquiry from our member’s, and in closing received a standing ovation. Thank you George you are wonderful person with a great story, and we are all richer and more appreciative of what we have in our own lives for the experience. Of all the staff training and team building workshops that we have facilitated at our company, the Perspective Workshop held by George Halkias was easily the most talked about and memorable event. This is really different! George captivated our people with his unique message and the impact it had on our team was incredible. The workshop resulted in increased morale, improved team interaction, greater energy and a general shift to a more empathic attitude within our organisation. Aside from the value gained personally, it also reflected well on our company image to our team. Thank you George! We will be having more of these workshops in the future for sure. Highly recommended! FUESCO

George was an absolute pleasure to work with. I was very moved by the presentation so much so that I am still thinking about it! I highly recommend George as a speaker and I personally look forward to working with him again in the future.

CPA Australia

Your talk most certainly did hit the mark. I had very positive feedback last night and this morning too! You’re a great speaker and your story is very inspirational. Our staff work with marginalised people every day but hearing other people’s stories helps put our experiences into perspective. And your story did just that. It also re-energises us and reminds us that we can all make a difference in some way.

INSPIRO
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