Dr. Justin Koonin
ACON President
Nicolas Parkhill AM
ACON CEO
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This year, we have continued to be inspired by our communities’ strength, resilience, compassion, empathy and generosity of spirit.
We saw this on full display at Sydney WorldPride, where hundreds of volunteers answered the call to help us support our communities’ health, safety and welfare during the festivities.
In the weeks that followed, when LGBTQ people were once again targeted with hate and violence, especially our trans kin, our communities rallied to support each other.
As we responded to mpox, which for much of the year was a global public health emergency, our communities moved to protect their health and that of their partners.
During difficult and challenging times, we rise. We are stronger together.
We thank everyone in our communities for always looking out for each other, for standing up when it matters, and for giving help and comfort when it is needed.
Thank you, too, for engaging and connecting with ACON throughout the year. Your support continues to inspire us as we work to improve the health and wellbeing of sexuality and gender diverse communities and fulfil our mission.
As we turn the page of our Strategic Plan over from the third year to the fourth, we reflect on our achievements that have contributed towards meeting our objectives.
In 2022/23, we continued to make progress towards the virtual elimination of HIV transmissions. Testing rates and PrEP use are rebounding to pre-pandemic levels and data shows early-stage infections continue to decline. This is good news. However, HIV notifications continue to be driven largely by late diagnoses and among those born overseas.
ACON is continuing to work with the NSW Ministry of Health and other partners in implementing strategies that ensure prevention, testing and treatment messages and services are reaching all populations in our communities.
On delivering excellent, client-centred care and innovative community health programming, we also made positive strides. We continued to develop programs and deliver services to meet the health needs of our communities in areas such as LGBTQ health, alcohol and other drugs, domestic and family violence, cancer prevention and screening, and mental health and wellbeing.
This year has seen an increased demand for our counselling, care coordination and support services and ACON staff, counsellors and peer workers have stepped up to the mark to ensure our communities are getting the help and support they need.
Giving voice to our communities and strengthening inclusion is another key strategic focus for ACON and this year, we continued to deliver initiatives and make progress in trans health, community safety, healthy ageing, policy and research, and social inclusion.
Reaching LGBTQ+ communities in areas outside the inner Sydney is key to achieving our objectives and throughout the year, we continued to support sexuality and gender diverse people in Greater Western Sydney and regional NSW.
And we forged ahead with efforts to build a strong and resilient organisation by continuing to develop financial diversity, strength and growth, and implementing bestpractice policies and processes. We remain steadfast in our commitment to making ACON a better place for all our staff, volunteers and communities.
We are excited about the coming year and what it will bring with new initiatives and programs on the horizon. We particularly look forward to progressing work towards the establishment of the ACON Health Centre, which we hope will shine a light in NSW as the state’s first community-led, integrated and multidisciplinary health care service for sexuality and gender diverse people.
Of course, all of this would not be possible without our people and once again, our staff, board, members and volunteers continue to go above and beyond to support our communities. We thank them for the care, commitment and contribution they’ve shown throughout the year.
We also acknowledge the support of our many sector partners, corporations, community organisations and other federal, state and local government agencies, for their collaboration and partnership. We particularly honour the NSW Government for their ongoing commitment to delivering comprehensive responses to HIV and LGBTQ+ health.
Finally, we thank our clients, supporters and community members for their continued support and helping us create opportunities for people in our communities to live their healthiest lives.
Top photo: Nicolas Parkhill AM (pictured left), Dr. Justin Koonin (pictured right). Photography by John McRae.
