Horsham residents with disability and supporters invited to Disability Royal Commission information session

Horsham residents interested in sharing their stories and ideas for change with the Disability Royal Commission can find out about the free supports available at an event on Friday 20 October.

Disability Matters Horsham! will take place at Horsham Neighbourhood House, 13-15 Robin Street, from 12pm to 1.30pm.

The information session is being hosted by Your Story Disability Legal Support (Your Story), Relationships Australia Victoria, Drummond Street Services, Rights Information and Advocacy Centre (RIAC), and Leadership Plus.

Your Story lawyer Michelle Bowler said these services are available to support Horsham residents with disability, as well as their families, friends, carers, advocates and supporters, to safely share their stories with the Disability Royal Commission.

“The Royal Commission is taking submissions until 31 December as it investigates the mistreatment of people with disability in all contexts and settings,” said Ms Bowler.

“It’s important that the Royal Commission hears from people with lived experience, including those in regional areas, so that its recommendations to government properly reflect their needs and priorities.

“Your Story is a free national service that gives independent legal advice and support to anyone considering taking part in the Disability Royal Commission.”

RIAC and Leadership Plus provide free advocacy support for Victorians to access and be heard in the Disability Royal Commission.

“We know that people with disability often face challenges such as exclusion from school, difficulties accessing services and the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and a lack of support and discrimination in the workplace,” said RIAC Disability Royal Commission advocate Rusi Varani.

“The Royal Commission is a chance to shed light on the systemic issues that people with disability face, and for those who’ve been mistreated to share their stories and be respectfully listened to.”

Simon Judd-Mole from Leadership Plus explained how an advocate can help.

“An advocate can help you tell your story, protect your rights and access other supports,” he said. “They can also support you to make a submission, which can be in any language or format.”

Relationships Australia Victoria and Drummond Street Services provide free and confidential counselling and support to people with disability who’ve been mistreated, and anyone affected by the Disability Royal Commission.

“We know it can be difficult to relive traumatic experiences,” said Jayne Stuart, a senior clinician at Relationships Australia Victoria.

“But we also hear from people that it can be empowering and healing to share their story. If you do decide to take that step, then know that there is a lot of free support available.”

Madeline Lawson from Drummond Street Services encouraged anyone interested in finding out more to attend the information session in Horsham.

“There will be demonstrations on how to share your story, onsite support, the opportunity to book follow up appointments, and light refreshments,” she said.

“We invite residents to come along to Horsham Neighbourhood House on 20 October to find out why their stories matter, and how we can support them, or a person they care about, to safely share them with the Disability Royal Commission,” she said.

For more information and to register, visit the Eventbrite page or contact Your Story Disability Legal Support on 1800 77 1800 (free call).

How do we acknowledge the hundreds of thousands of Australians who are either living in or are a part of a stepfamily?!  Did you know we have a NATIONAL STEPFAMILIES DAY??  It is held every year on the last Sunday in July, this year that will be Sunday 29^th July!

Those who care for children, despite not having the biological and legal recognitions that parents have deserve recognition and celebration! National Stepfamilies Day is a day to recognise ALL family types despite our difference.  It also recognises that step and blended families are the FASTEST growing family type in Australia!!  In America Step and blended families make up nearly half (46%) of family types and we are closely following with 1 in 4 families being step or blended!! It is seriously the new normal and despite how negative “step” sounds we all have to start embracing it and learning and understanding the structures around these family types that make them so unique!!

Will you celebrate on National Stepfamilies Day??  If so, we want to know how!!  How will your family celebrate and/or acknowledge its awesome differences? Let us know on our facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/stepfamiliesOZ/

At Stepfamilies Australia we understand the uniqueness of step and blended families.  We understand that with a little support and help you can actually improve all your relationships however complex they might be.  We also understand the struggles and at times how challenging these structures are! We have spoken to and counselled thousands of step and blended families and have come up with some really awesome tips and tools on our website http://stepfamily.org.au/tip-sheets/parents/

Things you could do to celebrate National Stepfamilies Day:

• Have a family picnic (at the park, in your back garden etc.)
• Organise a day out (museum, zoo, markets etc.)
• Go camping
• Go out to your favourite café/restaurant
• Have a games day/night, play your favourite board games
• Make special cards for each member of your family and let them know how much they mean to you
• Cook together, make something special and share it all together
• Make up a family song
• Make your own family movie (you could do this every year then have movie nught to watch them)
• Play sports
• Make a family calendar or scrap book
• Have a PJ party
• Come up with your own family symbol/crest or mascot!

We know that many families won’t be able to celebrate on the actual day.  Try not toworry about that!  Make it about the ‘getting together’ not the actual day itself! Change the day to suit your family if needed! Whatever you choose to do acknowledge how far your family has come, and if you are on social media share it to our Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/stepfamiliesOZ with the #stepfamilydayAUS

Stepfamilies Australia have written a book for early readers about a 10 year old boy who goes through the process of becoming a stepfamily.  A great read for early readers and brilliant to read together as a family! For more information on Ossie’s World Upsidedown head here: http://stepfamily.org.au/book/ossies-world-upside-down/

We also built an app – MyMob – www.mymob.com – the app allows family members to communicate virtually even when physically apart; sharing photos, messages and information, like you might do across the family table, but in a safe, online environment. We are also really keen to hear from you! What would make stepfamily life easier? What would you like to see more of for Stepfamilies? Email at info@stepfamily.org.au or reach out on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/stepfamiliesOZ

Monday June 18 – South Geelong Pivotonian Cinema @ 7:30pm-9pm
The Staging Post – Film Screening
The Staging Post follows two Afghan Hazara refugees, Muzafar and Khadim. Stuck in Indonesia after Australia ‘stopped the boats’ and facing many years in limbo, they built a community and started the school which inspired a refugee education revolution. A real-life, real-time, multi-platform documentary. The Staging Post is about friendship, connection and the power of community. Supported by Combined Refugee Action Group, Pivotonian Cinema, South Geelong
Book here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/thestagingpost/170837

Monday June 18 – Geelong 6-7:30pm
Short Film Festival
A free event, showcasing a collection of short films created by refugee young people from Geelong, acknowledging and celebrating the diversity of Geelong. Festival provided by City of Greater Geelong.
Book here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/refugee-week-film-festival-tickets-45711374953

Tuesday June 19 – Geelong, All Saints Anglican Church @ 6pm
Community Conversation
All Saints Anglican Church will host a #RightTrack facilitated conversation for people to learn more about the issues facing people seeking asylum. Do the current policies reflect your Christian values? Are they fair and just? What changes would you like to see?
Supported by ASRC, Combined Refugee Action Group and Greater Geelong Youth with Refugees
Location: All Saints Anglican Church 113 Noble St, Newtown @ 6:00 pm
Free event. Supper provided.
Bookings: (03) 5223 1118

Tuesday June 19 – Torquay Hotel 6:15pm
Curry and Conversation
Surf Coast Rural Australians for Refugees will host a #RightTrack facilitated conversation for people to learn more about the issues facing people seeking asylum. Supported by ASRC.
Where? Torquay Hotel – 6.15 pm arrival for 6.30 pm start
Book here: http://www.torquaycommunityhouse.org.au/righttrack-conversations.html

Wednesday June 20 – Barwon Heads Bowls Club @ 7:30pm 
‘Hear our Stories’ involves refugees from the Geelong region coming to tell people about their experiences as refugees. Bellarine for Refugees are working with Diversitat who have trained the speakers to be able to tell their stories in public forums.
Where? Barwon Heads Bowls Club, 18 Geelong Rd, Barwon Heads @ 7:30 pm
Tea and coffee will be provided. Gold coin donations gratefully accepted.

Thursday June 21  – Geelong Library @ 6:30pm to 7:30pm.
Meet and hear former journalist and writer Shokoofeh Azar discuss her novel ‘The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree’. Forced to leave Iran with her family in 2011, she was accepted as a political refugee by Australia; Shokoofeh has made her home locally. Her extraordinarily powerful novel has been short-listed for this year’s Stella Prize and is set in Iran as a reimagining of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Shokoofeh will discuss her book, written in the lyrical magical realism style of classical Persian storytelling, with John Bartlett, member Surf Coast Rural Australians for Refugees
Where? Geelong Library @ 6:30pm to 7:30pm.
Book here: http://www.grlc.vic.gov.au/whats-on/shokoofeh-azar-enlightenment-greengage-tree

Thursday June 21 – Torquay Library @ 6:30 – 7:30pm
Torquay Library, together with Spring Creek Community House and Surf Coast Rural Australians for Refugees, bring you Bronwyn McNamee and Gerry Baldock who were employed on Nauru from 2011 to 2015. They will share their experiences and their understandings of what is happening for refugees still on Nauru, those who have been moved from Nauru, and those who are in Indonesia on the way to Australia but were stopped by the ‘Boat arrivals will never settle in Australia’ policy.
Where? Torquay Library @ 6:30 – 7:30 pm
Book here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/refugee-week-torquay-library-tickets-46309468868

Friday June 22 – Geelong College Dining Hall
Diversitat will be hosting a major Fundraising Dinner at the Geelong College Dining Hall, Talbot Street Newtown. It will be an evening of amazing cuisine and personal stories of rising above extreme adversity. Diversitat’s case work service for Asylum Seekers provides information, referral and needs-based assistance for people seeking asylum who are not eligible for other federally funded support.

Where? Geelong College Dining Hall, Talbot Street Newtown
Book here: https://diversitat.org.au/withrefugees-refugee-week-fundraising-dinner/

Sunday June 24 – Queenscliff Town Hall @ 1:30pm
Human Flow – Film screening
Over 65 million people around the world have been forced from their homes to escape famine, climate change and war in the greatest human displacement since World War 11. Human Flow an epic film journey led by internationally renowned artist Ai Weiwei gives a powerful visual expression to this massive human migration. This Refugee Week screening is presented by the Borough of Queenscliffe with all funds raised supporting:

• Queenscliff RAR’s Legal Appeal, assisting people seeking asylum with legal or interpreter cost associated with their protection claim applications
• Queenscliff Uniting Church’s, Light Up A Life Appeal, raising money to fund weekend holiday camps in Queenscliff for refugee groups.

Where? Queenscliff Town Hall @ 1:30 pm
Book here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/refugee-week-fundraiser-screening-human-flowby-ai-weiwei-tickets-45791648052

Are you interested in learning simple strategies and skills for strengthening your relationship? We’re offering a fun two hour session of Relationship and Family wellbeing.

Location: Epping Community Hub

Time and Date:  7 PM | April 24

These are free sessions but you will need to book. Light refreshments will be provided.

To book please call our reception on 9663 6733 and ask for Ash.

Presented by: Mark Camilleri—Drummond Street Services

This session will provide parents/carers an opportunity to explore essential information and skills needed to deepen their understanding of the impact and strategies to support LGBTIQ young people.

Recommended for: Early Years Educators

Date:          Wednesday 28 March 2018

Time:         6.30pm-8.30pm

Location:   Community Room, Westfield Edge Community Space, Shop MM1, 1st Floor Westfield Plenty Valley, 415 McDonalds Road, Mill Park

Bookings: Family Services Education Officer, familytraining@whittlesea.vic.gov.au

Phone:       9404 8865

Cost:           Free

Register Online:  www.trybooking.com/TPNG

For more information or to register your booking contact Council’s Family Services Education Officer, on 9404 8865 or email familytraining@whittlesea.vic.gov.au

Session 1: Making Peace with Parents

Presented by Carol-Ann Allen

For many of us, coming out has meant getting out. We’ve had to leave family behind and find our way to a more welcoming place. The LGBTQI spaces we call “our community” have been made possible by a decades-long mass migration of individuals leaving home in search of home.

If family estrangement is part of your story, or the story of someone you love, don’t miss this special encore talk by Melbourne psychotherapist Carol-Ann Allen about the potential we each have to heal the painful legacy of family disconnection.

Session 2: The They Thing

Presented by queerspace

Family interactions form the first map we have with which to make sense of who we are, and how we can expect to be received by the world. Many times these maps are formed through interactions and dialogues that are corrupted by misinformation, fear, and cis-hetero-centric notions of happiness.

By drawing on community contributions, The They Thing wishes to centre the stories of those whose identity and existence resists and transcends binary notions of gender; stories and experiences that are often lost in dominant queer and trans narratives and campaigns.

Wednesday January 31, Session 1 – 5:30pm, Session 2 – 7:30pm

Queen Victoria Women’s Centre, The Victoria Room

Book separately but we recommend you come to both! FREE, but bookings are essential.

A conversation about cross-generational dialogue

This panel arose from conversations at queerspace about how we speak, or fail to speak, across the generations, and how we might understand each other better across or even through our differences. To explore these questions queerspace has gathered a panel of queer activists, writers and clinicians, including Joan Nestle, Fury, Marie August and Amao Leota Lu for a facilitation by Alexandra Frith.

Saturday February 3 at 3:30pm

Library at the Dock, 107 Victoria Harbour Promenade, Docklands

Duration 180 mins including post-panel refreshments and informal discussion

FREE, but bookings are essential – Wheelchair accessible venue

Geelong Performing Arts Centre
Friday 20th October, 9 am – 1.15 pm

Kindergartens, Early Learning Centres and Child Care Centres are invited to bring children to the Poppykettle Theatre Fun Day as part of an excursion at the Geelong Performing Arts Centre – 50 Little Malop Street.

Book a group of your children in to see Grug and the Rainbow at a time that suits you best and stay on after the show to enhance the children’s experiences, with some interactive craft activities and entertainment by The Krazy Koala Puppet Show.

Grug and the Rainbow, A Windmill Theatre Company Production

Grug began his life as the grassy top of a Burrawang tree. Fascinated by the world around him, he embarks on his own epic journey to find a rainbow that always seems just beyond his grasp. Featuring exquisite puppetry and more of the gentle storytelling that has delighted audiences around the world, this brand new show has been especially created for the next generation of our littlest theatregoers.

Performances at 9.30 am (FULL), 11 am and 12.30 pm (35 minutes)

This is a free event – booking required for Grug and the Rainbow

Don’t miss this opportunity to bring your children to a professional theatre experience they will not forget.

Come early and be a part of The City of Greater Geelong’s Official Launch of Geelong Children’s Week 2017 at 9.20 am at GPAC.

Information –

Kelly Clifford, Youth and Education
Geelong Performing Arts Centre
Phone: (03) 5225 1207
Fax: (03) 5225 1229
Email: kelly@gpac.org.au

Stay Cool is a 5 week group program for people who experience difficulties with stress and anxiety.

August 2017 group

Lesbian, Bisexual, Queer Women and Non-Binary People This group is a great opportunity to learn about anxiety and explore your experience of it in a safe and supportive environment. You will learn strategies and practice techniques to assist in understanding and managing anxiety. This is an opportunity to understand your anxiety in the context of your personal, familial and social circumstances and to reflect on why you respond as you do in certain situations. You will have the opportunity to make a personal plan for responding differently into the future.

When and Where

Every Tuesday evening in August: 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd & 29th, 5:00-7:00 PM at drummond street services, 100 Drummond St, Carlton.

The Facilitator

Louise Cooper is a counselling psychologist and part of Drummond Street’s Queerspace team. She is a former co-ordinator and facilitator of group programs at the Anxiety Recovery Centre Victoria and an experienced presenter on anxiety.

To book and pay

This group can be accessed by calling drummond street on 9663 6733 or go to our contact us page.

There is no charge for this group if you have a Mental Health Care Plan with your GP – you will need your GP to write a referral for Group Therapy. If you don’t want a referral you can still come along and the fee is $110 for five sessions to be paid in advance.

– Difference is Strength –

CITY OF MELBOURNE – YOUNG PEOPLE LEAD THE WAY: A FESTIVAL CELEBRATING AND CONNECTING YOUNG PEOPLE ACROSS IDENTITIES, CULTURES, RELIGIONS, SEXUALITIES AND GENDERS

VoiceFest 2K16 is a free festival FOR and BY young people, to celebrate difference and expression through music, art, performance and food. VoiceFest brings together young people from diverse intersections of identity, ethnicity, religiosity, sexuality, gender and culture.

Created through the drum youth services’ Youth Peer Leader program, VoiceFest is designed to strengthen connections of young people in and across the different communities in the City of Melbourne.

Positive, youth events are important at a time where divisive political and social events can further isolate, disconnect and encourage discrimination and fear of one another.  VoiceFest shines a light and a focus on the strength of our differences and also on what we share. Having safe spaces to connect, share and give young people a voice, promotes belonging, safety, hope and potential which is so more positive for both young people and the broader community.  Building on Voicefest’s successful, first event in April 2016 – our next event is on:

Saturday December 3rd at Trades Hall, Lygon Street, Carlton from 12 -6pm.

Free – All-ages community event, fully supervised and drug and alcohol free.

Performances – Artful Dodgers Studios, Soreti B Kadir, Nyuon, Last Minute, Marz Cooper, Black Souled Shoes, Amanda J Bier, Dig Deep, Outer Urban Projects, Sisters on the Mic and more.

Prizes and whole lot of fun activities – Zine Making (Sticky Institute), badge-making (Ygender), table tennis, inclusive games and rainbow yoga (Proud2Play).

Food by Saba’s Ethiopian @$5 – fund raiser to Minus18 and RISE.

VoiceFest is made possible through funding from the Victorian Government’s FReeZA initiative, City of Melbourne, Young Workers Centre and supported and delivered by drummond street services (www.ds.org.au). Come down and be part of the celebration.