Delivering excellent, client-centred care and innovative community health programming
- We support people living with HIV to live fulfilled, healthy lives in which they are active members of their community.
- We ensure that our care and support services are of an excellent standard through ongoing needs assessment, co-design, inclusive marketing and ongoing evaluation.
- We ensure that our communities are actively and meaningfully included in our work and within our organisation.
- We seek to find better models of care and support for members of our communities that are left behind by current service provision, including the provision of support for young sexuality and gender diverse community members.
- We examine innovative ways to meet the health needs of our communities where they are at, including the establishment of an LGBT Health Centre.
Summary Highlights
Kaleido Health Centre
We’re here to support our communities’ health and wellbeing with Kaleido Health, an integrated, community-driven and inclusive health service specifically designed to meet the needs of LGBTQ+ people in NSW.
ACON understands that while many people of diverse sexualities and genders are strong and resilient, when compared to the general population, we experience health inequalities that require specific responses.
In 2022, after many years of detailed work and advocacy, ACON was proud to receive funding from the NSW Government to establish a community-led, integrated health care service for sexuality and gender diverse people in NSW. This funding was provided through the NSW Ministry of Health as part of its commitment under the state’s first LGBTIQ+ Health Strategy.
This funding has led to the creation of our new specialised LGBTQ+ health service – Kaleido Health Centre – which is due to open in 2024-2025. Kaleido Health will provide trauma-informed, integrated and multi-disciplinary care for sexuality and gender diverse people in NSW.
With vital support from Sydney Local Health District and our other partners including St Vincent’s Health Network Sydney and Central Eastern Sydney Primary Health Network, we are making great progress toward establishing the service and delivering what we know our communities want – informed, non-judgemental, safe and appropriate care.
Kaleido Health Centre will provide LGBTQ+ people access to a range of health services including primary care and general practice medicine, sexual health services, mental health support, gender-affirming health care, drug and alcohol support, cancer screening and support services and more.
Kaleido will partner with a wide range of providers and professionals to offer specialist, allied health, and team-based/clinic-based services designed to meet the evidenced population-level healthcare needs of the LGBTQ+ community.
The Kaleido Health Centre is being established on Gadigal land and will occupy the historic Belltower building within Sydney’s South Eveleigh precinct.
Built in 1887 as the original Works Managers’ Office of the Eveleigh Railway Yards, the Belltower was chosen as the site for the Kaleido Health Centre due to its accessibility and location, right next to Redfern train station and interchange.
ACON has worked with Bila Group to understand the place-based history of the area and its cultural significance to First Nations communities. In addition, Bila Group have assisted the Kaleido team and ACON’s First Nations Health Programs team with running community consultations to ensure the design of Kaleido is culturally safe and welcoming for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
ACON has a longstanding collaborative relationship with one of Australia’s leading creative agencies, Frost*collective, who worked with us to develop the Kaleido Health Centre name, brand and interior design strategy.
The name mirrors the LGBTQ+ community’s diversity, unity, and intersectionality, much like a kaleidoscope. It signifies holistic and progressive care for the community.
The symbol consists of eight differently coloured diamonds arranged in the shape of a heart, representing our inclusive and approachable nature.
The brand colours are influenced by the progress pride flag design, a nod to the diversity and inclusivity fundamental to our health centre and the fact we are run by community, for community.
Though an initiative of ACON, Kaleido Health has been established as a separate subsidiary entity with its own CEO and Board of Directors. The Board will include shared directors with ACON. This will allow Kaleido the flexibility and independence to flourish and focus on its core service offering while still benefitting from ACON’s experience and community connection, and embodying ACON’s purpose and values.
Work on the Kaleido Health Centre is underway. Preparations for the service’s operations are progressing while building works and site development has commenced. Kaleido is due to open in 2025.
Mental Health
We’re here to help LGBTQ+ people and people living with HIV take control of their mental health by providing information, a range of counselling services and a care coordination program for people with complex needs.
ACON’s team of specialist LGBTQ+ counsellors continued to provide support to people from our communities across a range of issues related to their mental health. Over the past year, our LGBTQ+ counselling service supported 235 clients over 1900 occasions of service. This includes 254 occasions of service delivered by our after-hours volunteer counsellors. Investing in the training and development of volunteer counsellors – many of whom have become part of our employed staff – enables ACON to build the capacity of the mental health services sector, while providing low or no-cost, inclusive and affirming services to our communities.
ACON is here to assist people living with HIV needing support in relation to their mental health and wellbeing. During the 2023-2024 period, we delivered 637 occasions of service of best practice, evidence-based mental health support for people living with HIV across NSW, reducing the severity of mental health symptoms and empowering people with the knowledge, resources and strategies to take control of their psychological wellbeing.
ACON’s Suicide Prevention Program aims to reduce suicide rates among LGBTQ+ populations in NSW through community health promotion and peer education. In the past year, the program’s digital hub, HERE.org.au, continued to provide vital information and resources and drew strong engagement with 26,000 page views and 8,100 unique users.
In September 2023, the program hosted a suicide prevention forum, which attracted 188 attendees. Additionally, our Co-creating Community Care workshops were conducted from October to November for LGBTQ+ individuals with lived and living suicide experiences. A total of 28 participants attended the workshops, which addressed topics such as resource-sharing, relationship-building, and self-advocacy.
All program activities have been co-designed with The Rainbow Mental Health Lived Experience Network and further supported by our stakeholder partners. We acknowledge the funding support of the NSW Ministry of Health Towards Zero Suicides Initiative.
ACON’s dedicated suicide prevention and aftercare service continued to support community members experiencing a suicidal crisis or requiring assistance following a suicide attempt. This year, our team of specialist LGBTQ+ social workers, psychologists, counsellors and peer workers delivered over 1400 occasions of service to 124 people across NSW. Since the program began in 2021, ACON has provided over 4500 occasions of service to nearly 300 people.
Pride Counselling Programs is ACON’s social enterprise counselling service for sexuality and gender diverse community members in NSW. This means all income generated by the service is reinvested back into ACON’s services. Pride Counselling counsellors are Medicare providers allowing those with a current GP Mental Health Plan can receive a Medicare rebate. Pride Counselling also has Victims Services-approved counsellors. Individuals with NDIS funding are also able to access sessions through Pride Counselling.
Pride Counselling programs also includes Pride EAP (Employee Assistance Program), which provides inclusive and affirming counselling to employees of member organisations. In 2024, Pride EAP has continued to expand and we are providing specialised EAP support to more organisations. This year, Pride Counselling Programs delivered over 750 occasions of service.
Our Care Coordination Service provides free support to community members experiencing a range of health, personal and social barriers. LGBTQ+ people supported with care coordination work with our specialist social workers and psychologists for assistance with sexual, domestic or family violence, substance use or gender affirmation. This year we provided over 5,100 care coordination occasions of service to sexuality and gender diverse people, a 25% increase from 2021-22. This work was funded by the NSW Ministry of Health and the NSW Department of Communities and Justice.
ACON will continue supporting people to improve their quality of life through our LGBTQ-inclusive and affirming services. We will also be offering a suicide bereavement group, continuing to build collaborative working relationships across the mental health and social services sectors, and focusing on growing Pride Counselling Programs. We will also develop community care workshops and a campaign focused on preventing LGBTQ+ suicide.
You can find out more about our work in mental health at acon.org.au/what-we-are-here-for/mental-health
HIV Support
We’re here to help sexuality and gender diverse people living with HIV take control of their health, as well as the health of their partners, by providing up-to-date information as well as a range of workshops, one-on-one peer support, counselling support groups, meals, care coordination, home-based care and health retreats.
ACON remains committed to providing peer support for gay, bisexual, and queer men (cis or trans) who are living with HIV. These vital services assist individuals who have recently been diagnosed or have been living with HIV for an extended period. They address important topics, including accessing quality healthcare and HIV treatments, managing HIV disclosure, fostering resilience, combating stigma, and fostering social connections.
In collaboration with Positive Life NSW, we host a[STARTx], a peer workshop for people who have recieved a HIV diagnosis in the last two years. This year, we conducted two a[STARTx] workshops attended by 16 people.
As well as group work programs, ACON delivered one-on-one support for people living with HIV. This year ACON delivered 98 individual peer sessions for 52 men living with HIV. Our HIV peer support workers are dedicated to offering care in English as well as other languages, ensuring inclusivity and accessibility.
Positive Life NSW and ACON collaborated on the delivery of four community forums for people living with HIV. One forum addressed healthy lifestyles focusing on diet and exercise, another provided education and guidance for migration with HIV. The most popular forum was regarding treatment updates, which was hosted twice, one online and the other in person. Thirty people attended in the treatment update forum person and 10 attended the online version, which was held to reach those living in regional areas.
The Positive Leadership Development Institute (PLDI), a program that aims to build the resilience and leadership capacities of people living with HIV, hosted one workshop, attended by 12 people. ACON also supported the National Association of People Living with HIV Australia with their pilot workshop for leadership and governance training.
ACON is here to ensure people from our communities living with, affected by or at risk of HIV can easily access support for their mental health. This includes free priority counselling for people living with HIV. This year, we provided 637 counselling occasions of service to people living with HIV.
Our Care Coordination Service of specialist LGBTQ+ social workers and psychologists continued to assist people living with HIV experiencing multiple and complex needs. This year, the Care Coordination Service delivered over 890 care coordination occasions of service to 115 people living with HIV across NSW. Linking clients with long term services and social and service support networks, ACON’s Care Coordination team are focussed on creating lasting life changing solutions for our clients.
2024 marks the 40th birthday of the Community Support Network (CSN). Started by volunteers in 1984, it mobilised gay and lesbian communities, and allies, to provide direct care and practical support to people living with HIV, and the many people dying of AIDS-related illnesses.
That CSN continues to be an integral part of the care ACON provides to those living with HIV is a testament to the culture of care created by those original volunteers and is a living memorial to those we have lost to AIDS. This year, our CSN team of volunteers and Client Support Officers provided a total of 770 occasions of service, which includes home visits and check-ins via telehealth support.
Furthermore, 40 essential transport services were coordinated to ensure recipients could attend important medical appointments.
ACON provides access to food and provisions to people living with HIV through our Weekly Meal Service in Surry Hills. The aim of this service is to provide vulnerable community members with freshly cooked healthy meals and facilitate social connections and reduce isolation.
Through our weekly service – dubbed Friday Lunch Club – ACON provides essential health information, community connection, food and provisions for people living with HIV. This service operates from ACON’s Sydney office in Surry Hills and offers up-to-date information on HIV and LGBTQ+ health, and healthy eating, as well as facilitating social connection to reduce isolation while providing sit-down or take-away freshly cooked healthy meals for some of our communities’ most vulnerable. Over the course of the year, we served 1595 meals.
In the coming year, we will review our support programs and resources for people newly diagnosed with HIV. Our aim is to ensure they remain culturally safe and accessible. We will tailor our services to better address the needs of those currently most affected, including people born overseas.
You can find out more about our work in HIV support at acon.org.au/what-we-are-here-for/hiv-support
LGBTQ+ Women’s Health
We’re here to help LGBTQ+ women and non-binary people in New South Wales take control of their health by providing information and a range of sexual health resources, workshops and engagement programs as well as support services.
We know that LGBTQ+ women experience a number of health disparities when compared to the general population, including in mental health, sexual health, substance use and experiences of sexual, domestic and family violence. We also know that there is limited information on the health needs of LGBTQ+ women, due to a lack of research and data collection in service provision.
ACON’s LGBTQ+ Women’s Health project works to empower LGBTQ+ women to take control of their health and to increase their connection to community. The project focus on engaging women around sexual health, and general health and wellbeing, by running community events and peer education workshops to facilitate connection and resilience, engaging in outreach initiatives at events relevant to our communities, and supplying safe sex packs.
In 2023, the LGBTQ+ Women’s Health team launched Word on the Sheets, ACON’s latest women-led initiative designed to improve the sexual health knowledge and practices of LGBTQ+ women.
The first-of-its-kind in Australia, Word on the Sheets aims to serve as an online hub for accessible, inclusive and relevant sexual and reproductive health information for LGBTQ+ women and their partners.
By providing tailored information on STI, blood-borne viruses, cancer screening and testing, Word on the Sheets will boost sexual health literacy and knowledge, sexual health testing and cancer screening rates among LGBTQ+ women. And it will provide access to health provision that is inclusive of diverse genders and sexualities and empower LGBTQ+ women to navigate healthcare systems and institutions.
ACON has received funding from the Australian Government to expand Word on the Sheets into a national resource.
International Women’s Day (IWD) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women and also marks as a call to action for accelerating gender parity. This year, ACON marked IWD with a community event at Museum of Contemporary Art in Circular Quay.
Around 300 community members and stakeholders attended the event, which featured live music, performances and creative engagement led by diverse artists from our communities. The event provided ACON with an important opportunity to engage our communities with our work and programs on LGBTQ+ women’s health. It also served as the launch for our new sexual health resource for women, Word on the Sheets.
ACON acknowledges Women NSW as part of the NSW Government for providing funding support for this event.
The Sydney Women and Sexual Health (SWASH) survey is an important research project for ACON. SWASH helps to inform our programs and policy work around LGBTQ women’s health. Run in partnership with the University of Sydney, it provides a biennial snapshot on issues such as sexual and gender identity, sexual health, mental health, violence, tobacco and drug use, alcohol consumption, cancer screening behaviours and more. ACON coordinates the data collection, which was collected during the 2024 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras festival period. This year, we collected 1,400 survey responses.
In partnership with the City of Sydney, ACON runs Silver Sessions, an event series to promote social and community connection for older LGBTQ+ women aged 55+. This year Silver Sessions highlights included a panel event at The Bearded Tit in Redfern, exploring women’s spaces and sexual culture from the 1970s to the 1990s. The event drew around 120 people and featured C.Moore Hardy, Lisa Salmon, Lesley Hudson and Jax North.
In June, Silver Sessons charted a cruise to learn about Aboriginal history and culture. Around 70 older LGBTQ+ women, their friends and allies sailed around Sydney Harbour to learn about Australia’s First Nations peoples and culture as shared by guides from the Tribal Warrior Cultural Cruise.
In 2023, ACON’s LGBTQ+ Women’s Health project ran workshops exploring health relationship. Developed with the support of ACON DSFV team, pilot workshops were held in Parramatta, Surry Hills, and Newcastle. The team is planning to expand these initiatives, to create and deliver an additional workshop focused on the sexual health needs of LGBTQ+ women.
The LGBTQ+ Women’s Health team also continued to run our monthly LGBTQ+ women and non-binary volunteer Packing Group, where we facilitate a space for the community to connect with ACON and each other while packing sexual health resources for ACON to distribute to the wider community. The LGBTQ+ Women’s Health team distributed over 2700 safe-sex packs for women and non-binary people.
In 2025, ACON will participate in NSW Government-funded Proud and Ready internship program. This will increase employment pathway opportunities for our community by employing 13 LGBTQ+ women at ACON over 12 months prioritising Aboriginal women, women from multicultural backgrounds, women in regional NSW, and young women. This program aims to empower participants to develop practical, work-ready skills while addressing the unique barriers faced by LGBTQ+ women in our communities who experience marginalisation along multiple intersections.
Cancer Programs
We’re here to increase screening participation and reduce cancer risk among LGBTQ+ people through community engagement, targeted health promotion, and inclusive practice training for the cancer sector.
Now in its fifth year, this groundbreaking program continues to build on its successes in reducing the impact of cancer among LGBTQ+ communities in NSW and beyond. The core work of the program is focused on our continued partnership with the Cancer Institute NSW, which seeks to increase screening participation and reduce cancer risk among LGBTQ+ people through community engagement, targeted health promotion, and inclusive practice training for the cancer sector. We have also received national funding for new projects for an LGBTQ+ cancer information resource and to adapt the successful Own It Cervical Screening campaign for a national audience.
Highlights in 2023-2024 included:
- ACON and Cancer Institute NSW continued to deliver LGBTQ+ diversity and inclusion training to Cancer Institute NSW, BreastScreen NSW and NSW Quitline staff and cancer services across Australia through Cancer Institute NSW’s eviQ Learning platform.
- We hosted a photoshoot at Newcastle Pride to engage communities in the Hunter region about cancer risk and screening.
- Building on the insights gathered in a 2022 survey on alcohol-related cancer risk, we continued to partner with the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at UNSW to conduct qualitative research with 30 LGBTQ+ people in NSW. This research provided more in-depth understandings about perceptions of risky alcohol use, health risks related to alcohol, and alcohol-related help-seeking among LGBTQ+ adults in NSW. The research informed the new “Be Unapologetic” alcohol and cancer risk campaign.
- Through funding under the NSW LGBTIQ+ Health Strategy, ACON and Cancer Institute NSW have commissioned researchers at UNSW and the University of Sydney to investigate the current state of LGBTQ+ inclusion in cancer clinical trials.
- As part of a Cancer Australia Supporting People with Cancer grant, we are co-designing an LGBTQ+ cancer information resource to meet the unique information needs of LGBTQ+ people through their cancer experience.
CAN WE, ACON’s dedicated cancer screening and prevention resource designed specifically for sexuality and gender diverse communities, has reached 180,000 new users since June 2023. Launched in 2021, CAN WE was developed in partnership with the Cancer Institute NSW to provide evidence-based information in an authentic and engaging LGBTQ+ voice.
This year, we ran our first omnibus cancer risk campaign, called Know Yourself, aimed to reinforce cancer screening and prevention messaging previously released by Can We. The campaign targeted 18- to 75-year-old LGBTQ+ people living in NSW. It directed viewers to the “In the Know” quiz which provides personalised cancer information based on a user’s demographic and cancer risk behaviours. Know Yourself resulted in 134,375 page views on the Can We website and 2,438 quiz completions.
ACON’s 2023 Own It cervical screening campaign demonstrated that an inclusive, equity-first approach can successfully communicate with a broad audience and achieve stronger outcomes for priority populations, such as LGBTQ+ people. Based on the its success, ACON received funding from the Australian Government to adapt and implement the campaign on a national scale in 2024-2025.
This national campaign is focused on women and people with a cervix aged 25-74 years. The campaign targets Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, LGBTQ+ communities, people with a disability, and those in regional and remote areas. It has been co-designed in partnership with the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care, the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, the Australian Multicultural Health Collaborative, and the Australian Centre for the Prevention of Cervical Cancer.
The national campaign features experiences of more than 20 diverse community members from the target audiences. They share their experiences with cervical screening and how they’ve overcome barriers to screening.
The campaign runs from September 2024 to June 2025 and will include paid media, news coverage, influencer relations, health care professional education, and community engagement initiatives.
ACON, in partnership with Cancer Institute NSW and the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at UNSW, researched the knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of LGBTQ+ people regarding alcohol and cancer risk. This research identified an education need to increase awareness of the cancer risk of alcohol consumption and normalise drinking within the Australian alcohol guidelines.
Through focus testing with LGBTQ+ people we landed on a concept that celebrates being unapologetically you! An already celebrated concept within LGBTQ+ communities, this idea aims to portray community members as unapologetically confident in their mindful drinking habits.
The Be Unapologetic campaign showcases four prominent LGBTQ+ content contributors who already embody living unapologetically. The contributors each produced a video that depicts them unapologetically normalising not drinking or drinking in moderation in different settings.
In the coming year, we will be shining a light on LGBTQ+ inclusion in bowel screening and lung cancer screening. Implementation of the national Own It cervical screening campaign will also progress, including setting up pop-up self-swab cervical screening at queer pride events.
You can learn more about our Cancer Programs work at canwe.org.au.
Alcohol and Other Drugs
We’re here to help sexuality and gender diverse people reduce the harms associated with the use of alcohol and other drugs, by providing a range of resources and support services. We also work with service providers to help them better support the needs of LGBTQ people and people living with HIV.
Funded by Central Eastern Sydney Primary Health Network, this year we provided 1725 occasions of service to 102 people. In addition, our Substance Support counsellors work closely with the M3THOD project peers and their delivery of brief interventions and the facilitation of the M3THOD Peer Group Workshop.
Through the summer season and in the lead up to the 2024 Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras festival, ACON developed and implemented a campaign on harm reduction. Funded by NSW Health, the campaign – titled Take Care xoxo – provided harm reduction information across 11 key messages, responding to our community’s needs and trends, and encouraged a culture of care across Mardi Gras. It was distributed via social media reaching over 165,000 people, and through printed posters displayed at dozens of events and venues around metropolitan Sydney, the inner west and Newcastle.
To ensure our communities remained informed about high-risk drugs, we published and distributed 12 drug alerts from NSW Health on our social media channels and other communication networks. These drug alerts organically reached over 260,000 people on social media, providing vital information about dose and known adulterants in the drug supply, as well as practical information on how to be safer, and when and how to get help.
For over 20 years, ACON has operated the Rovers as a volunteer-based community-led initiative that promotes a culture of care at LGBTQ+ dance parties and events. Rovers provide lifesaving, early, on-the-spot intervention, including responding to overdose. In 2023-2024:
- 109 volunteers completed a shift with the Rover program
- 27 ACON Rovers were trained in Naloxone through the take-home naloxone program, and were able to carry naloxone during their shifts, with training in how to spot and respond to an opioid overdose.
- ACON Rovers attended two major festival events – Mardi Gras After Party and Bondi Beach Party – as well as smaller festival parties such as Tropical Fruits in Lismore, and circuit events in Sydney such as Apollo.
- The Rovers interacted with over 2640 party goers and provided 898 separate occasions of brief interventions including longer care interventions in a Rover run harm reduction care space, and shorter interventions such as facilitating access to fresh air and water or facilitating access to medical care.
ACON operates three NSPs providing safe and free access to sterile injecting equipment in Surry Hills, Newcastle and Lismore. The NSPs also provide a nonjudgmental space for conversation, connection and brief interventions around a range of health and mental health issues. Across our three NSP sites, over 562,990 needles were distributed this financial year.
In addition to equipment, our NSPs also:
- Dispensed 233 units of Naloxone, a life-saving drug that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose. This is an increase on previous years due to growing naloxone knowledge in community and increased opioid overdose risks due to an adulterated drug supply.
- Displayed and distributed 12 drug alerts as notified by NSW Health, and published for our communities by the ACON Harm Reduction team
- Conducted DBS tests for HIV and hep C
- Provided disposal of used equipment
- Provided access to advice, support and relevant health information including safer injecting practices, HIV and Hep C treatment and information
- Referred many community members to internal and external services
The NSW Drug Summit presents an important opportunity to advocate for reform and increased resourcing for harm reduction, alcohol and other drug services and treatment options. ACON will be collaborating with the wider sector and working closely with our communities to advocate for strong outcomes for LGBTQ+ people who use drugs. We will be expanding our harm reduction campaign work and increasing our impact in the digital space via our online harm reduction hub and social media. We will also work to provide new capacity-building opportunities for community members to be equipped with practical tools and skills that can keep them and their communities safe when it comes to alcohol and other drugs.
You can find out more about our work in alcohol and other drugs support at acon.org.au/what-we-are-here-for/alcohol-drugs
Sexual, Domestic and Family Violence
We’re here to help LGBTQ+ people who have experienced sexual, domestic and family violence (SDFV) by providing a range of resources and support services to address issues specific to our communities.
ACON’s Say It Out Loud website is the only national online sexual, domestic and family violence resource for LGBTQ+ people, professionals and allies, creating a safe and inclusive space for seeking support, information and services. The site delivered blog posts, added new services, resources, and distributed over 2,100 printed resources to services across Australia. During 2023-2024, SIOL recorded over 64,000 views.
This year, ACON released our Family Pride Stories campaign, funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services. This campaign featured seven inspiring families (families of origin and chosen family) from across the nation who shared their stories of celebrating one another. This campaign aimed to challenge stigma and shame around relationships, spreading the message that people of all genders and sexualities do have healthy, happy and secure family relationships.
This year, ACON began working with LGBTQ+ victim-survivors of sexual violence to create an anthology of written and visual stories. Funded by NSW Government, the goal of this project is to support participants on their recovery and healing journeys – providing the space to connect with community, enhance their confidence in creative expression through workshops and engage in therapeutic expression through art. The Loud Way Home anthology will be published in 2024-2025.
We developed a video series and workshop to support community members on responding to a disclosure of sexual violence in a safe way. This work will expand across NSW in 2024-2025. This project has been made possible with funding by NSW Government.
ACON ran two Survivor Groups, an 8-week group program for any LGBTQ+ person who has experienced or is currently experiencing intimate partner, family and/or sexual violence. Funded by the NSW Government, these groups provide survivors of violence an opportunity to share experiences, understand more about intimate partner, family and sexual violence in LGBTQ+ communities, and to reconnect with community support.
This service aims to foster safer, more inclusive spaces for LGBTQ+ victim-survivors that have experienced sexual violence. The service offers free one-on-one consultations, organisational reviews and staff training to services that support LGBTQ+ communities. Through the project we are also developing inclusive and affirming practice guidelines for services supporting LGBTQ+ people who have experienced sexual violence. Funded by NSW Government.
ACON ran three iterations of our new peer education workshops on health relationships. Co-designed with community, the workshops focus specifically on the areas of respect, values, communication, boundaries, sex, consent, and healthy conflict resolution. The workshops took place in Sydney, Western Sydney and Newcastle, and were funded by NSW Government.
This year ACON partnered with Men and Family Centre to deliver an online version of our Proud Partners program, a 10-week therapeutic behaviour change program for any LGBTQ+ person who may be concerned about their behaviours in a relationship.
The NSW Department of Communities and Justice continued our funding in 2023-2024 to deliver statewide specialist SDFV counselling and care coordination support. We delivered 1,155 occasions of service to 82 clients.
ACON is continuing to fulfil its advocacy and advisory role to a number of government and sector initiatives related to sexual, domestic and family violence. This included being a member of the coercive control NGO training advisory group and our ongoing work on the National Plan advisory group. We also made a submission to the Inquiry into Justice Responses to Sexual Violence.
In the coming year, we will be rolling out more support groups and workshops for community members impacted by SDFV. We will also be doing a book tour across regional NSW to promote The Loud Way Home as a health promotion resource.
You can find out more about our work in SDFV at acon.org.au/what-we-are-here-for/domestic-family-violence
Other Focus Areas
