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.
In 2022-23, 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. These improvements included a new online credit card management system, investigations into the implementation of an up-to-date, leading practice financial management information system and the adoption of advanced cyber security policies and procedures.
This year’s highlights include:
- The Information Technology unit continued to provide effective support and resources to ACON staff. A particular emphasis this year has been on developing a cyber security strategy and implementation across the organisation. Key measures include the rollout of IT vulnerability management software and mandatory cyber security training for all staff.
- Front of House provided a total of 16,343 occasions of service, both face-to-face and via telephone.
- The Facilities team continued the maintenance and efficient operation of facilities, safeguarding the health of all in the Sydney building. An Automated External Defibrillator was installed in the ground floor lobby in June 2023.
- People & Culture supported the business with policy, practices, and guidance to manage ongoing hybrid work arrangements ensuring that employees working away from the office stayed connected with their colleagues, their work, ACON and the communities they serve.
- The Finance team provided timely and accurate reports throughout the period, particularly in relation to the impact of the post pandemic environment on the organisation’s financial position.
ACON is committed to building a workforce that reflects all aspects of diversity and intersectionality to bring a range of perspectives, ideas and insights to everything we do. Our focus continues to be on developing the internal pipeline of people from under-represented groups at all levels and enhancing our recruitment and other talent retention practices to enable this.
ACON will continue its work to increase representation of women and underrepresented ethnically and gender diverse groups across our workforce. We will continue to enhance internal campaigns with the collection of demographic data to understand the diversity of our workforce and improve practices to attract candidates with broad diversity.
In 2022-23, we continued to attract, develop, and retain a skilled an engaged workforce. To support our work, the following actions were taken:
- The re-branding of Human Resources to People & Culture.
- Ongoing review and updating of all people-related policies.
- Review of all People & Culture systems with a view to move to a fully integrated management and payroll system.
- A review of all people-related processes to ensure we adopt and implement leading practices.
- The appointment of a Diversity & Inclusion Officer to coordinate and progress our internal diversity and inclusion strategies.
This year, the ACON employee engagement survey yielded a participation rate of 94%. Notable highlights include:
- Stand-out results with Workplace Flexibility holding firm at 86%, while Supervision, Values and Teamwork rating amongst the highest areas at 94%, 92% and 90% respectively.
- Employee Engagement score of 82%. While lower than 2022 it is slightly higher than our benchmarks of H&CS (80%) and NFP (81%).
- Employee Wellbeing held firm in this year’s results at 76%, only dropping 1% on 2022 results and sitting 3% and 5% respectively higher against the H&CS and NFP benchmarks.
ACON remains committed to ongoing, purpose-led development of its workforce, ensuring that learning and development is targeted to the individual needs of its workforce. Commitments include:
- Ensuring every staff member has access to professional development per year.
- 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 of relevant policies at the general staff meetings that support and foster a safe working space for ACON’s workforce.
ACON’s Women’s Health, Safety & Equity Taskforce (WHSETF) was established in September of 2021. The WHSETF was created to start conversations about what more ACON could be doing both internally and externally for our communities to better address issues surrounding gender equity.
In 2022 the WHSETF welcomed the hire of ACON’s first Diversity & Inclusion Officer. This has meant the WHSETF is resourced to drive action in key priority areas ongoingly. Working closely with the Diversity & Inclusion Officer, the WHSETF has provided recommendations for the design of a purpose-built Gender Equality Training that all existing staff and new starters will undertake. Plans are under way to re-establish an ACON’s women’s network. During the 2022 Big Days In all staff training days the WHSETF curated a popular session titled Gender Equality: A Shared Vision. And in early 2023 we hosted another well attended International Women’s Day event in the ACON café that was live streamed to the regions. The event was called Women Talking.
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.
Through a City of Sydney grant, ACON delivered Digitising Rainbow Resilience, a training program upskilling LGBTQ+ people from multicultural backgrounds on their digital engagement skills and capacity to support their communities and respond to online discrimination.
ACON also partnered with The Australian Institute of Interpreters and Translators to train over 220 translators and interpreters on LGBTQ+ safety and inclusion practices through online webinars. We also plan to deliver ten in-person sessions in the coming year.
ACON’s Leading Rainbow Western Sydney events and Rainbow Multicultural Fair also supported LGBTQ+ community members and leaders in Western Sydney to get connected and share skills. We also launched the People of Colour Network and Multicultural Working Group, fostering support and knowledge-sharing among culturally diverse staff.
We continued to increase ACON’s profile and extend the reach of our health promotion messages through our corporate marketing and strategic communications activities. We also continued to enhance ACON’s digital information and engagement capabilities. Key highlights include:
- Our media releases and announcements generated robust media coverage throughout the year. In 2022-2023, we tracked 1,091 media mentions across mainstream and LGBTQ media.
- Engagement on social media continued to grow. Across the various platforms, our collective channels recorded over 125,000 followers, an increase of 22% on the previous year.
- We continued to deliver a range of 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.
- There was significant engagement across ACON’s suite of websites including ACON Health, Ending HIV, Emen8, Pivot Point, Can We, Here.org.au and Say It Out Loud. Traffic to ACON’s corporate website also saw sustained growth throughout the year, recording a 41% increase in the number of users to 309,228. Across all our digital websites, we recorded over 5.2 million pageviews.
- We continued to work with stakeholders to improve user experiences and increase digital transformation across organisation, including volunteer onboarding, clinical support services and event management.
- We continued to design, deliver and support common ACON platforms and services that enable digital transformation.
ACON’s Quality Accreditation is due for renewal in December 2023. ACON has completed all actions on its Quality Accreditation Improvement Plan, from the last assessment in 2020. We are now preparing for the next assessment and audit and will continue to provide leadership and advocacy on key issues relating to community health, inclusion and HIV responses for people of diverse sexualities and genders.
As we fulfil our commitment to continuously improve, we will continue efforts to enhance systems and processes to further strengthen our organisational capabilities to better serve our communities.
Reconciliation Action Plan
This year we reflected on our achievements, challenges and areas for improvement as we developed our next Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).
ACON’s vision for reconciliation is an inclusive community where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the wider community work together in the spirit of truth and in the pursuit of health equity.
It is a community that respects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of diverse genders and sexualities’ identities and cultures, listens to their voices, and ensures they are at the centre of health responses.
The future that we envisage is free from HIV transmissions and one where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of diverse genders and sexualities, alongside the rest of our communities, live their healthiest lives. No one should be left behind.
This year marked a key milestone in our reconciliation journey with the development and launch of the second iteration of our Innovate RAP.
ACON’s Innovate RAP 2023-25 builds on the organisation’s ongoing commitment to ensuring health equity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of diverse genders and sexualities. We are committed to achieving this by engaging in a listening and truth-telling process, and by building relationships, trust and respect.
The actions of this RAP will provide us with outcomes to implement and bring us closer to our vision of everyone in our communities, especially Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, having the opportunity to live their healthiest lives.
The RAP’s artwork was created by Wiradjuri and Birpai man Wayde Clarke, and is titled ‘Rainbow Pride, Rainbow Strong’.
The development of the second Innovate RAP was overseen by ACON’s Reconciliation Action Plan Working Group, the organisation’s internal Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advisory committee made up of staff and community representatives.
This year, we increased the number of First Nations community members and appointed engagement consultant, storyteller, podcast host and long-term RAP Working Group member Jane Yettica to Aboriginal co-chair.
We express our sincerest thanks to the members of ACON’s RAP Working Group. We are deeply grateful to all of them for sharing so generously their time, insights and lived experience to assist ACON on its reconciliation journey.
This year, ACON hosted a retreat for the RAP Working Group to build stronger connections, strengthen collaboration and foster discussion and ideas in the development of the next RAP.
The retreat was held on Awabakal and Worimi Country in Muloobinba (Newcastle). Members gathered at Yamuloong Conference Centre for two days of workshops to evaluate our first Innovate RAP and to inform the second Innovate RAP.
The retreat allowed attendees to connect with each other in a more meaningful way and provided scope to evaluate and identify opportunities for future connections.
The First Nations Health Programs team continued its work in strengthening the health and wellbeing of LGBTQ Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island communities by implementing a range of activities and initiatives. Highlights include:
- Leading the development and production of the First Nations Float at the 2023 Mardi Gras Parade. The float featured the 20-metre long Rainbow Serpent referred to as ‘Gari’. As well as the parade, the serpent also led the historic Sydney WorldPride March over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and was later re-activated at the Powerhouse Museum during NAIDOC Week.
- Hosting and participating in National Reconciliation Week and NAIDOC Week events in Sydney and regional NSW.
- Partnering with a[TEST] to hand out self-testing kits and educated community on PrEP, PEP and sexual health at the AMS Redfern NAIDOC Community Day.
Guided by our Innovate RAP 2023-25, we will implement actions that work towards achieving our vision for reconciliation. We will listen and engage in truth-telling. We will continue to strengthen relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, engage staff and stakeholders in reconciliation, and work towards achieving positive health outcomes for First Nations communities.
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 crucial role in helping us run programs and services to improve the health and wellbeing of our communities.
Our volunteers provide support with many 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.
Each year we hold a Volunteer Thank You event to express our gratitude to all our volunteers for their continued support.
We thank all our amazing volunteers for their ongoing support for ACON and our communities.
During Sydney WorldPride, ACON was omnipresent throughout the festival with the support of our many volunteers and staff. ACON’s health promotion campaign With Love was showcased at all major events, and our peers in HIV prevention and harm reduction were deployed throughout the season to support revellers. We thank all staff and volunteers who helped us deliver vital health messages and services to our communities during the festivities.
Held annually for World AIDS Day, ACON’s Red Ribbon Appeal engages the community on our work in HIV prevention and support, and to raise funds for the Red Ribbon Appeal. A number of organisations, pubs, clubs, businesses, corporates, employee pride networks and community groups across NSW were provided with resources on hosting fundraising events and activities. In addition, dedicated volunteers supported our fundraising activations at CBD trains stations, theatre production and community events.
Visit the Red Ribbon Appeal website to learn more and get involved.
Bingay is ACON’s long-running – and much beloved – community engagement and fundraising event. Held monthly at the Beresford Hotel in Surry Hills, it’s a great way to engage with community and allies with 100% of proceeds supporting ACON’s health programs. We express our gratitude to the management and staff of the Beresford Hotel and the wonderful attendees throughout the year, our generous sponsors and prize donors, our passionate volunteers and to Bingay’s dedicated hosts Charisma Belle and Naomi Palmer.
Visit the Bingay website here to find out more and book the next event.
Honour is ACON’s annual gala event produced to celebrate outstanding achievements and service in NSW’s LGBTQ communities, and to raise funds for community-led health initiatives. Over 300 people came together at the Ivy Ballroom to celebrate LGBTQ community members whose work have made a difference to the lives of sexuality and gender diverse people in NSW. Eleven recipients were selected from a diverse field of 35 finalists, drawn from over 230 nominations.
We thank all who attended and continue to support the Honour Awards, along with our many generous partners and sponsors, including Dowson Turco Lawyers, who have been Honour’s Principal Partner since 2018. Thank you.
Presented by Positive Life NSW and ACON, the Sydney AIDS Candlelight Memorial was held on Sunday 21 May at the Eternity Playhouse in Darlinghurst, where the names of those who have passed were read out in remembrance. The service featured a performance by Mary Kiani and a slideshow photo presentation by William Yang.
We thank all who continue to attend and support this important community and remembrance event for loved ones who have passed from HIV/AIDS.
Each February at Queer Screen’s Mardi Gras Film Festival, ACON co-presents a range of films to promote health and wellbeing messages and engage community members on important health issues. For 2023, ACON presented films with stories about transition journeys, mental health, sexuality labelling and gender presentation.
The annual festival provides an important opportunity to further amplify our work and raise awareness of programs and services to our communities.
ACON will continue to deliver events and activations that engage our communities, facilitate social connections and provide volunteering opportunities. As we shift to a post-pandemic environment, we will look to expanding the footprint of our activities and presence including during World AIDS Day and at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival.
Find out how you can get involved with ACON at acon.org.au/get-involved
Our Focus Areas
