03 April 2024
Rainbow Health Australia, as part of The Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society (ARCSHS) at La Trobe University, are proud to announce a new three-year partnership with Our Watch, the national leading organisation for the primary prevention of violence against women and their children in Australia.
The organisations will work together to develop a national framework to prevent gender-based violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and asexual (“LGBTIQA+”) people and communities. This will build on both RHA's Pride in Prevention and Our Watch's Change the story.
Rainbow Health Australia and Our Watch LGBTIQA+ primary prevention project team. From left to right: Ellen Poyner (Our Watch), Christine Gregory (Our Watch), Julia Earley (Rainbow Health Australia), Shaez Mortimer (Our Watch), Jami Jones (Rainbow Health Australia), Alexia Newsome (Our Watch), Belinda O’Connor (Rainbow Health Australia).
Our Watch CEO, Patty Kinnersly, said she was excited about the partnership with Rainbow Health Australia and ARCSHS, and emphasised the importance of the new national framework.
“We know that family, domestic, and sexual violence are serious issues affecting LGBTIQA+ people in Australia that require urgent attention. A national framework will support more people to understand and take action to prevent gender-based violence against LGBTIQA+ people and communities.”
“Working in partnership with Rainbow Health Australia and ARCSHS, we will engage a diverse range of voices from LGBTIQA+ communities and other key stakeholders across the country to deepen our knowledge about what works to prevent violence,” said Ms Kinnersly.
Rainbow Health Australia has significant expertise in the prevention of violence experienced by LGBTIQ+ people through their LGBTIQ Family Violence Prevention Project, as well as extensive experience in sector-wide capability building for the Victorian domestic and family violence response sectors.
Rainbow Health Australia is supported by ARCSHS, which also houses Australia’s largest research program focused on LGBTIQ+ health and wellbeing and has led several important studies about LGBTIQ+ people’s experiences of family violence.
Professor Adam Bourne, Director at the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society said he was thrilled about the partnership.
“This initiative provides an opportunity to advance our understanding of the drivers of gender-based violence in LGBTIQA+ communities and to generate a rigorous, evidence-based framework for action that can facilitate safety for all,” Professor Bourne said.
Jami Jones, Program Lead at Rainbow Health Australia said that the partnership with Our Watch also represents an important milestone in the increasingly shared work of building a safer future for both LGBTIQA+ people and women.
“The more we learn about how to work in mutually reinforcing ways, the more effective we will ultimately be in preventing all forms of gender-based violence,” said Ms Jones.
The new national LGBTIQA+ primary prevention project will run until 2027 and is funded by the Department of Social Services through the 2nd National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 2022 – 2032.