Freedom Centre is a Project of the WA AIDS Council

Best Practice for Freedom and Living Proud: Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Promotion in Western Australia

by Dani Wright

Freedom CentreThe Freedom Centre provides safe social spaces,

peer support, information and referrals for same sex attracted and sex & gender diverse young people (under 26).

A youth owned service staffed by trained peer volunteers with support from the WA AIDS Council

Funded by the WA Mental Health Commission as an early intervention and prevention program and was originally funded as the ‘Here For Life Youth Sexuality Project’ as part of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy

FC ObjectivesTo decrease the emotional, social and cognitive isolation

frequently associated with realising a same sex attraction and/or diverse sex or gender

To empower young people with diverse sexuality, sex and gender to enhance their health and well-being

To decrease negative attitudes towards same sex attracted and gender diverse young people in the wider community

To increase and support the range of health, education and counselling services available which are inclusive and reflect a knowledge and skill base appropriate to DSGY

FC Services• Drop-in centre: GenderQ

ATSI Qspace, SkillShare

• FC Online Services:

online community forum, information, tumblr, glossary, links

directory

• Professional development and training

• Information provision & health promotion

• Consultancy & Advocacy

FC Peer ModelPeer support and education strengthens the protective

role that friends would usually providePeer Based Programs make significant achievements in

areas such ascommunity engagement and mobilisation;development resiliency, coping and help seeking

skills;building healthy peer norms and role models;maintaining credibility and relevance of programs;

andsustainability with limited funding

At the core of Peer Based youth programs is meaningful youth participation & empowerment

NeedsCollect evidence of FC’s effective workTo get further funding we need to prove that FC is

having a positive impact and meeting our objectives

Maintain best practice at FC

BackgroundPOSSAY 1 - clearly defined and documented model

of peer-based support and educationPOSSAY 2 - develop and trial practice based

standards for peer based health promotion programs with a focus on SSAY

My Peer – good practice standards for the design, implementation, evaluation and sustainability of youth peer programs

My Peer Toolkit - mypeer.org.au

Evaluation FrameworkWhy?1. Presenting Issues

FC Objectives• To decrease the emotional, social and cognitive isolation• To empower young people to enhance their health and well-being• To decrease negative attitudes towards same sex attracted and gender diverse young people in the wider community

How?2. FC Peer Group Factors

What? How do we know?Impacts on FC Visitors

Most Significant Changes & Impactsfor reporting & feedback

3. Social Connectedness and Community Engagement

4. Help Seeking

5. Mental & Physical Wellbeing

Most Significant Change

Qualitative, participatory monitoring and evaluation of FC Services

Collects stories of changeReviews and selects stories and anecdotes from

evaluation data according to most significance for those at FC

Evaluation & Monitoring Qus

How are we doing? - What’s working well?Is there anything you would have done differently?

What could we be doing better?What news and strategies do we need the whole

team to be aware of?What was the Most Significant Change shown for

visitors in the drop-in session?

Benefits, Outcomes & Challenges• Focus on service objectives• Strategies and Actions for service provision• Shared knowledge in the FC Team• Volunteer and staff satisfaction increased• Training and development of volunteers• Supervision of volunteers formalised• Collating presenting issues as evidence• Challenge: data collection, analysis and collation

are time-consuming and specialist skills

FC Volunteers said;“It actually helps us realise the difference we’re

making and we get a clearer picture of how the visitors are progressing, so it’s way more rewarding as a volunteer”

“It jogs my memory and gets me thinking about things that were said that I wouldn’t have thought twice about, but the framework makes me realise it’s significance”

Qualitative Evaluation “FC provided a fair few ranks in the ladder that i used to crawl

outta big black hole called depression. i was at the lowest point in my life when i came to FC and it has remained one of the few constant positives in my life.”

“FC gave me hope”“FC made me united with a

community I'm proud of”“Coming to FC made me

more confident to be myself.”

“ As cheesy as it sounds, FC saved my life.”

Gay & Lesbian Community ServicesGLCS was established in 1974 as the Homosexual Counselling and Information Service of WA.•Funded recurrently by Health Department of WA•Community made and lead - Volunteer Board of Management, phone counsellors, facilitators, trainers.•0.4FTE Admin and approx. 25 peer volunteers•0.8FTE Opening Closets Mental Health Training•0.6FTE Living Proud Community Coordinator

GLCS Services

Telephone Peer Counselling LineOpening Closets Trainings – 2012/13WOW CoursePersonal Perspectives talksInfo and resourcesPolicy consultancy and advocacyLiving Proud Suicide Prevention project 2012/13

Living Proud Action Plan

Community events – picnics, fitness, PrideASIST and SafeTALK trainingsDiversity ForumsArts initiatives & DocumentaryCommunity Group Safety ChecklistCommunity campaign & pledges

Community Champions Campaign

Community Champions Pledge

Living Proud: Key Outcomes

1. Increased Awareness & Knowledge about LGBTI Suicide Prevention

2. Improved LGBTI Community Connection & Social Support

3. Increased safety and decreased discrimination within LGBTI Community/s

www.freedom.org.auwww.mypeer.org.auwww.waaids.com www.glcs.org.au

www.livingproud.org.au