Building a workplace that attracts and develops the best people

  • We create opportunities for staff and volunteers to develop their skills, ensuring a passionate, authentic and committed team.
  • We provide a positive working environment in which staff and volunteers feel supported and justly recognised for the work they do.
  • We are committed to creating an effective, efficient and healthy workplace, which will best serve our clients and communities.
  • We develop strategic responses to ensure that staff and volunteers who are living with HIV, trans and gender diverse, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, culturally and linguistically diverse or living with a disability are supported towards excellence.
  • We foster an environment of respect in which staff and volunteers feel supported to provide and receive feedback on their work.

Summary Highlights

Organisational Development

We’re here to build ACON’s operational capacity and effectiveness. We do this through planning, evaluation and knowledge management and our finance, human resources, facilities management, information technology services, marketing and communications.

ACON’s Corporate Services division continues its high performance of operational functions that are key to the organisation’s effectiveness and success, including people and culture, finance and payroll, information technology, and facilities management.

In 2023-24, we continued to enhance our organisational capacity and operations by driving efficiency improvements, establishing new systems, streamlining processes, implementing new technology initiatives, and strengthening organisational and financial governance.

This years’ highlights include:

  • Front of House provided a total of 17,842 occasions of service, both face to face and via telephone. The team provide much more than receptionist services, having an enormous knowledge of the services ACON provides and other services available in the community.
  • The Facilities Team continued the maintenance and efficient operation of facilities, safeguarding the health of all in the Sydney building. The lift refurbishment commenced in October 2023, entering service in January 2024. The modernisation included an energy efficient motor and updated interior, providing enhanced reliability, accessibility, and safety.
  • Information Technology had a continued focus on security, strengthening identity management to build towards a zero-trust environment. Device administration was consolidated into the cloud, part of the initial process to push all ACON operations into the cloud. A considerable amount of time has been allocated this past financial year to work on cyber security to align with ACSC’s Essential Eight strategies for cyber security mitigation.

ACON’s is committed to building an employee base that reflects all aspects of diversity and intersectionality to bring a range of perspectives ideas, insights and lived experiences to everything we do.

Our focus continues to be on the development of our people from underrepresented groups at all levels and enhancing our recruitment and other talent attraction and retention strategies, enabling us to achieve this pipeline of talent management.

ACON continues its work to increase representation of women, gender diverse people and those from CALD communities. We continue to enhance internal processes to better understand our workforce composition and improve practices to attract a diversity of candidates.

In 2023 -2024 we continued to attract, develop and retain a skilled, diverse and engaged workforce. To support this work, the following actions continue to be developed and implemented:

  • Ongoing review of all policies, processes and people related practices ensuring they reflect leading practice of the diverse workforce employed at ACON
  • Review and implementation of an end-to-end volunteer on-boarding and engagement program
  • Ongoing work in the space of Diversity and Inclusion

The People and Culture team are currently investigating a new HRM system, to more efficiently integrate employee records and payroll with the financial management system.

This year, the ACON employee engagement survey yielded a participation rate of 85%.

Notable highlights include:

  • Stand-out results were in the areas of values (86%), flexibility (82%) and teamwork (89%).
  • Overall employee engagement was strong and delivered 81% engagement

ACON remains committed to purpose-led learning and development of its workforce, ensuring that learning and development is targeted to the individual needs of employees.

This commitment to learning and development includes:

  • Ensuring each staff member continues to have access to personal development each year to support them in their role at ACON.
  • The ongoing success of the annual ACON professional Development Scholarship Program that provides two successful staff applicants a scholarship grant to further develop and grow their skills in their chosen role.
  • Continued access to generous education leave provisions, where managers provide the ongoing support to their staff through their study in undergraduate and post graduate studies
  • The monthly presentation at the general staff meeting of updated policies and leading practice procedures within ACON.

ACON was awarded and re-accredited as a QIP accredited organisation under the QIC standards.

The QIC Standards support various health and community organisations to maximise continuous quality improvement opportunities by undertaking a ‘whole of-organisation’ approach to assessment. Key areas of the QIC Standards support organisations in improving consumer and community engagement, diversity and cultural appropriateness, management systems, governance and service delivery.

QIP accreditation against QIC Standards highlights an organisation’s strength, however it also shows areas for improvement and assists to identify areas that need to be prioritised.

The re-accreditation was awarded to ACON in December 2023 and is for a period of three years.

ACON’s Women’s Health, Safety & Equity Taskforce (WHSET) was established in 2021 to start conversations about what more ACON could be doing both internally and externally for our communities to better address issues surrounding gender equity.

During the 2023 Big Days In, the WHSET presented a session exploring barriers in career progression for women; in particular, women of colour. Following that session, ACON is now a participant in the RISE program. Developed in partnership between Diversity Council Australia, Settlement Services International and Chief Executive Women, the program aims to help organisations in identifying and addressing barriers and developing direct leadership pathways for culturally and racially marginalised (CARM) women and non-binary people.

Work has also continued on the gender equity e-learning module.

Guided by our Multicultural Engagement Plan 2021-2024, ACON delivered several initiatives to increase the inclusion, capacity and health outcomes for LGBTQ+ people from culturally, linguistically and ethnically diverse migrant and refugee backgrounds, and people of colour.

ACON partnered with the Australian Institute of Interpreters and Translators to deliver Lost in Translation: LGBTQ Inclusion and Safety Training for Translators and Interpreters, a free training program to upskill translators and interpreters in NSW on LGBTIQA+ terminology, and safety and inclusion practices in order to provide a respectful and safe environment when working with LGBTQ+ community members from CALD backgrounds.

ACON collaborated with the Federation of Ethnic Communities Council of Australia to inform the creation of the National Anti-Racism Framework by the Australian Human Rights Commission. To this end, ACON sought out community members and led five consultation sessions to target different segments of the multicultural LGBTQ+ community.

In partnership with Western Sydney University and the City of Sydney, ACON developed Local LGBTQ+ Legacies: Uncovering Migrant and Multicultural Contributions to Sydney’s LGBTQ+ History, which documents the stories of multicultural LGBTQ+ community leaders who have contributed to Sydney’s queer community.

ACON also collaborated with Cultural Perspectives to develop videos, consistent with the Australian Government’s ‘Beforeplay’ campaign, promoting HIV and sexual health testing methods aimed at young multicultural LGBTQ+ people.

We continued to increase ACON’s profile and extend the reach of our health promotion messages through our corporate marketing and strategic communications activities. Key highlights include:

  • The year 2023-2024 saw ACON in the media for a broad range of topics and programs. Particularly widespread stories were about the announcement of the Kaleido Health Centre, the release of the report into gay hate crimes and the re-emergence of MPOX cases in NSW.
  • With a total of 836 media mentions in those 12 months, 664 were online, 90 on radio, 49 on television and 33 in print. Altogether across all mentions, the potential audience reach was 61.1 million.
  • Total pageviews across all ACON websites over July 2023 – June 2024 added up to 8.9 million.
  • Traffic to the ACON website reached over half a million pageviews in the 2023/24 financial year – a total of 504,456.
  • Social media remains a key communication channel for ACON with our main accounts across key platforms such as Facebook and Instagram recording strong growth in reach and engagement. ACON Facebook page followers grew by 8% year-on-year.
  • Instagram continues to be a significant area of growth for ACON. Our collective Instagram accounts – across all accounts including ACON, TransHub, Welcome Here, Ending HIV, Honour Awards, and ACON Women – recorded a 32% rise in followers compared to the previous year.
  • We continued to deliver a range of regular external and internal electronic newsletters to keep supporters and staff engaged with ACON’s work and activities. Our external digital subscribers continued to grow across our mailing lists.

We continued to enhance ACON’s digital information and engagement capabilities. Key highlights from ACON’s Digital Information unit include:

  • Managed 443 helpdesk requests, streamlining digital support and service delivery.
  • Strengthened organisational collaboration through the integration of Microsoft Teams and OneDrive with SharePoint 365, enhancing seamless internal communication and document management.
  • Undertook extensive research into new CRM solutions to meet evolving organisational needs, currently trialling two platforms to enhance engagement and streamline supporter-to-volunteer transitions.
  • Enhanced cybersecurity measures, safeguarding our digital assets and ensuring compliance.
  • Digitised ACON Annual Report and launched website to improve access and engagement.
  • Launched the Kaleido Health website, providing a digital platform to support the services and community engagement of the new health centre, enhancing accessibility to health resources and information
  • Introduced optimised digital workflows, boosting operational efficiency.
  • Implemented Acknowledgement of Country popup across all ACON websites, demonstrating the organisation’s commitment to reconciliation and cultural recognition as part of the Reconciliation Action Plan.
  • Digital Information team has also introduced and implemented new ACON membership application processes to better align with the ACON’s updated constitution.
  • We continued maintenance across all ACON websites, consolidating platforms and launching new campaign websites to support ongoing initiatives.
  • Developed and championed a Digital Governance Policy and related guidelines, securing the future of our digital infrastructure and ensuring compliance and strategic alignment with organisational goals.

In the coming year, we will be implementing a new Human Resource Management Information System to digitalise, automate and centralise core People & Culture processes. It will also enable talent management functions such as recruiting, on-boarding, performance management, goal planning and training.

Reconciliation Action Plan

This year, we continued the implementation of our second Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), which builds on ACON’s ongoing commitment to ensuring health equity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of diverse genders and sexualities.

This year, our focus has been on implementing our second Innovate RAP, embedding the importance of our RAP across all areas of ACON. Every division in the organisation is working towards achieving key outcomes in the RAP and designated staff – RAP Champions – are helping to ensure deliverables and timelines are being met.

Implementation of the RAP is guided and overseen by ACON’s RAP Working Group, the organisation’s internal Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advisory committee made up of staff and community representatives.

Over the last year, our RAP Working Group has seen an increase in the number of First Nations community members. Jane Yettica continues to serve as
co-chair and internally we have had a greater focus on structuring how the RAP working group engages ACON. The implementation of our engagement strategy includes an increased focus on how RAP Champions can support the work we do and provide assistance to divisions in meeting their RAP objectives.

ACON’s approach to the Voice Referendum was informed by consultation with First Nations community members and staff. We heard that First Nations communities did not want non-Indigenous people and organisations speaking on their behalf and we committed to listening to and honouring that. ACON has committed itself to always listen to, celebrate, support, and uplift First Nations LGBTQ+SB communities. This year, that meant providing acknowledgement and support during the Voice Referendum, but also crucially post Referendum, by continuing to listen to and centre First Nations voices, to reflect on what we’ve heard, and to support and celebrate communities after the disappointing result.

ACON is committed to a listening and truth telling process, where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are heard, and a healing process can begin. This year, we launched the First Nations Listening and Truth Telling Project, which is designed to amplify First Nation voices within our organisation, and to improve our capacity to address the unique challenges faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. This initiative aims to create a culture of meaningful listening within the organisation, to ensure that the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are amplified, and their needs are more effectively prioritised.

Our First Nations Health Programs continued to engage people from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities on LGBTQ+ health, HIV prevention, sexual health and wellbeing.

Highlights of the year include:

  • ‘Gari’, the iconic WorldPride Rainbow Serpent went on her first regional road show. The team travelled to Armidale’s Winter Blooming Festival at the New England Regional Art Museum where Gari was at the centre of conversation and connections.
  • We led the delivery of the First Nations Float at the 2024 Mardi Gras parade, which was a dedication to previous iconic First Nations floats. Four mini floats were produced during community workshops regularly seeing 20+ community members attending.
  • We attended Koori Knockout Central Coast partnering with SWOP, Hepatitis NSW and Positive Life NSW. The stall drew strong engagement, visited by 1000 community members.
  • We hosted a stall at Coastal Twist on the Central Coast with over 100 community members visiting the stall.
  • We supported ACON’s LGBTQ Women’s Health Programs Team to deliver SWASH surveys at various community events during the Mardi Gras Festival, as well as ACON’s International Women’s Day at the Museum of Contemporary Art in March.
  • We partnered with BlaQ to host an event after the Mardi Gras Parade for First Nations community members and allies. The event drew around 250 community members who received ACON health information and resources.
  • The First Nations Health Program and ACON’s Ending HIV team collaborated to launch the HEY MOB, LET’S TEST HIV and STI campaign, which has been a huge success within the community. Campaign collateral have been implemented in Sydney and Redfern, as well as in regional centres such as Newcastle and Lismore. ‘Hey Mob, Let’s Test’ resources and merchandise have proved popular with community members.
  • During NAIDOC week, we attended the Redfern Aboriginal Medical Service event at Redfern Community Centre and the National Centre for Community Excellence. We had a strong presence at these events, and many community conversations around the HEY MOB, LET’S TEST campaign, as well as distributing campaign merchandise.

This year, ACON participated in various events to mark National Reconciliation Week, including:

  • We hosted Deadly Trivia, which featured Jinny-Jane Smith and Matty Mills with drag star Jojo Zaho. Attended by community members, ACON employees and allies, it was a great success raising $3000 for First Nations Health Programs.
  • ACON hosted a ‘Weaving in Solidarity’ workshop, enabling a safe space for dialogue with and between multicultural and First Nations staff. With weaving led by Wiradjuri artist Peta-Joy Williams, and robust and thoughtful discussions around colonisation, privilege, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, it was a compelling workshop where allies were able to cultivate a curious and non-judgemental space to explore how multicultural folks can show up and be better allies to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
  • ACON staff undertook the Royal Botanic Gardens Aboriginal Harbour Heritage Walking Tour, learning about the traditional practices of Gadigal people, native flora and fauna and their uses, and the geography of the land.
  • ACON’s Pride Inclusion Programs team held a ‘Learn and Yarn’ session to gain a deeper understanding of why National Reconciliation Week exists and what we can do to support reconciliation.

Our biggest focus for the next year is to progress work on our RAP objectives, supporting each division of ACON to deliver on their actions and working with First Nations community members to deliver on our RAP commitments.

You can find out more about our RAP and other work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people at acon.org.au/who-we-are-here-for/Aboriginal-people

Community Engagement

We’re here to bring people together, providing opportunities for our staff, volunteers and people in our communities to get involved, connect, contribute and celebrate.

ACON’s work would simply not be possible without the incredible passion and efforts of hundreds of volunteers across NSW who play a critical role helping us run programs and services to improve the health and wellbeing of our communities. Our volunteers help with many programs and activities including delivering education programs, packing safe sex packs, providing governance and guidance at the board level, assisting with care and support services, helping us run community events and raising much-needed funds. ACON’s foundation is built on the commitment and actions of volunteers and we are extremely grateful for their contributions. Each year ACON hosts a Volunteer Thank You Event during National Volunteers Week in Sydney to express our gratitude, which was attended by over 120 volunteers and supporters.

World AIDS Day (1 December) provides us with a valuable opportunity to honour people who have died from an AIDS-related illness, educate our communities about how we can end HIV transmission and fight HIV stigma in NSW, and raise money for programs and services that are vital to ending HIV. This year our World AIDS Day-related activities included our Red Ribbon Appeal, theatre and venue collections, and a series of special benefit events and memorial ceremonies in Sydney and regional NSW. In Sydney, we teamed up with Stonewall Hotel, The Beresford and Universal for their World AIDS Day events, while gatherings to mark the day were held in Lismore, Newcastle, Wagga Wagga and Wollongong, among others. We thank everyone in our communities for their support in commemorating World AIDS Day.

Visit the Red Ribbon Appeal website to learn more and get involved.

Every year at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, ACON executes a range of activities to promote key health messages. The annual festival provides us with an important opportunity to further amplify our work and raise awareness of issues affecting our communities. While Fair Day was cancelled, we engaged with community members at various other events including the Sunrise Service of Reflection at the Rise Memorial at Marks Parks in honour of people lost to violence; FLAGCOM’s Miss Mardi Gras International Queen Pageant in Campsie; and the Bondi Beach Party. Throughout the festival, we provided harm reduction services such as our ACON Rovers and engaged community members on important research with the Sydney GBQ+ Community Periodic Survey. Over 150 people participated in the ACON float at the Mardi Gras Parade, which showcased important HIV prevention messages.

ACON’s long-running and much-loved community engagement and fundraising event, Bingay, marked its 25th anniversary this year. Held monthly at The Beresford in Surry Hills, it provides a space for community members and allies to come together while raising funds for ACON at the same time. Special super-sized editions – Big Bingay – were also held at Paddo RSL. We express our gratitude to all the generous supporters who have donated prizes, the volunteer team at the events, and Bingay’s co-hosts Charisma Belle and Naomi Palmer, and of course, all of Bingay’s fans – regular and new.

Visit the Bingay website here to find out more and book the next event.

The Honour Awards is an annual gala event produced by ACON to recognise and celebrate outstanding service and achievements within NSW’s LGBTQ+ communities. This event is a key community-building opportunity and is also a fundraiser for ACON. This year, the event drew a record number of nominations for the awards, and over 400 guests attended the night, which was held for the first time at Doltone House Sydney. We acknowledge the incredible support of our presenting partners people2people, Universal Hotels and OUT@NBCUniversal, as well as our community and event partners. We are also grateful for all the local businesses and supporters who donated to the silent aiction, and to all the volunteers, crew and presenters. And of course, to all our guests – thank you for supporting the Honour Awards!

See the Honour Awards website here.

Co-presented by Positive Life NSW and ACON, the Sydney AIDS Candlelight Memorial is a time for the community to remember those who have passed away from HIV/AIDS. It is held on International AIDS Candlelight Memorial Day, which is on the 3rd Sunday of May. At the memorial, names of those who have passed are read by a cross-section of the community. 2024’s Candlelight Memorial was held at the Eternity Playhouse in Darlinghurst on Sunday 19 May.

Visit the Sydney Candlelight Memorial website here.

This year, ACON staff, volunteers and supporters participated in the City2Surf, marking the return of an official ACON team in the annual fun run for many years. The event enabled us to engage community members on fitness and keeping active, while also raising the profile of ACON to the broader community. Participants in City2Surf also have the opportunity to raise funds and this year’s ACON team raised over $3,700. Our presence at this year’s City2Surf has prompted significant interest in the community and we look forward to entering an even bigger team in 2025. Thank you to everyone who joined the ACON team at City2Surf.

At Queer Screen’s Mardi Gras Film Festival in February and at the Queer Screen Film Fest in August, ACON co-presents a range of films to promote our health and wellbeing messages and engage community members on important health issues. This year, ACON presented a series of films spanning a diverse range of health areas including Asian gay men’s health, healthy ageing, HIV prevention, young gay men’s health, women’s health, and trans and gender diverse health. We acknowledge Queer Screen and thank them for their ongoing partnership and support.

In 2025, ACON will celebrate its 40th anniversary and we look forward to marking this important milestone with our communities through various events and activities.

Find out how you can get involved with ACON at acon.org.au/get-involved

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Annual Report 2023-2024

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