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Gender Centre » Resources » Annual
Reports » 2007 - 2008 Annual Report
September 2008
Mission Statement
President's Report
1.0 Acting General Manager's Report
2.0 Service Report
2.1 Funding Bodies
2.2 Management Committee
2.3 Staff
2.4 Staff Training & Development
2.5 Education & Training for Service Providers
2.6 Committees & Consultation
2.7 Agency Networking
2.8 Media Liaison
2.9 Donations
3.0 Services Provided
3.1 Residential Service
3.2 Residential Case Management
3.3 Service Magazine - Polare
3.4 Resources
3.5 Counselling
3.6 Outreach Services
3.7 Community Support Services
3.8 Youth Group
4.0 Service Evaluation
The Gender Centre is committed to developing and providing services and activities, which enhance the
ability of people with gender issues to make informed choices.
We offer a wide range of services to people with gender issues, their partners, families and friends
in New South Wales.
We also act as an education, support, training and referral / resource centre to other
organisations and service providers.
The Gender Centre is committed to educating the public and service providers about the needs of
people with gender issues.
We specifically aim to provide a high quality service, which acknowledges human rights and ensures
respect and confidentiality
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The Gender centre is one of the few voices for our most marginalised citizens and is not just a place
for distributing advice, information and other services. It is an advocate for us all an essential voice
and presence speaking out to the media, the politicians, the public service and to the public as a
whole.
The Centre continues to consolidate its services to the transgender community, with the upgrade in
office accommodation at Bent Street giving staff and clients more space and privacy.
The continued approach to a much more integrated and holistic delivery of services evolves so as to
provide a level of case management and thorough care that will be ever more supportive for those
accessing us.
Our standards for service delivery, financial reporting and accountability continue to be of very
high quality as shown in all recent audits and assessments and more than meet our delivery requirements
for our level of funding.
I would again like to extend my personal thanks to all the staff for their hard work and dedication
and to acknowledge the commitment of the members of the management committee, thank you all.
Phinn Borg's leadership as General Manager of the organisation has been of the highest standard and
his relationships with the funding bodies has ensured excellent communications with them.
norrie-mAy welby resigned from the Management Committee this year after many years as secretary. We
acknowledge her sustained commitment to the transgender cause and thank her for that service.
Col Eglington, President
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1.0 Manager's Report
The good reputation of The Gender Centre has continued to grow and is held in high regard by the many
agencies and organisations that we deal with my commendations to all staff members for their efforts in
promoting The Gender Centre positive and committed approach to the transgender community and for
promoting a positive image of the centre to the wider community.
The service addressed the issue of under reporting successfully this year in the provision of staff
training in Smart and the allocation of 2 hours per week for data collection. All visitors now entering
the Gender Centre are entered onto our data base which enables us to accurately reflect the numbers of
clients accessing the service for support, this year the service received:
- 1440 visitors entering the Gender Centre for drop-ins, workshops, appointments and courses
as well as;
- 65 phone calls relating to hormone use and information;
- 153 calls regarding housing;
- 480 calls enquiring about counselling;
- 97 calls regarding medical information;
- 217 calls requesting resource information;
- 212 calls requesting support; and
- 548 calls requesting Case-Management
As you can see from the statistics above that hormone inquires are relatively low, this is due to the
fact that clients are now accessing the website for this information in kit form.
We are working very closely this year with Pip Ditzell from the City of Sydney Council this
partnership has offered the community many opportunities that were not possible in the past.
The Gender Centre needed to find some extra dollars this year to enable the centre to furnish one of
its new houses and refurnish our existing houses this was made possible through several small grants
obtained from the City of Sydney Council, Marrickville Council and the Aurora Group without their help
and support this would not have been possible.
We have maintained our normal programs over the year, and have, we have continued our strong and
positive relationships with a wide range of agencies, we have conducted extensive training sessions, we
are constantly striving to improve service delivery and continue to advocate on behalf of the community
across a wide range of issues, we are continually updating our wide range of resources, we have
continued to improve the presentation and content of Polare, our website is constantly being updated and
improved and the process of updating and rewriting our policy and procedures manual is underway.
This year the service provided placements for two students over the course of 2007/2008, with one
student continuing her placement into the 2008/2009 financial year
Partnerships
The Gender Centre maintains and fosters partnerships with a wide range of external organisations
to further promote the rights of the transgender community. While these are many and varied, the ones
listed below are those with whom significant partnerships have been established.
S.A.A.P. Inner West
Interagency Meetings
These meetings are designed to bring together the wide range of skills and talents of a collection of
homelessness agencies, their managers and staff, for the purpose of pooling and sharing expertise and
support.
S.S.W.A.H. Interagency
Meetings
These meetings are designed to bring together the wide range of skills and talents of a collection of
Health agencies, their managers and staff, for the purpose of pooling and sharing expertise and
support.
N.S.W. Attorney General's Crime Prevention
Division
The Gender Centre has continued to meet with the representatives from the Attorney General and other
community stakeholders on the G.L.B.T.
Community Advisory Committee. The primary aim of the committee is to address the issue of crime,
particularly crimes of violence, to which
G.L.B.T. communities are
subjected.
G.L.L.A.M.
We have continued our ongoing representation on our local council. The Gay and Lesbian Liaison at
Marrickville (G.L.L.A.M.) meets bi-monthly to respond to community needs, plan events and provide
advice on a range of council programs. Marrickville Council has shown a commitment to providing an
appropriate range of services to our community and are pleased to continue our involvement with
them.
Ryde TAFE
Ryde TAFE has also shown a
commitment to providing an appropriate range of services to our community in employment courses run for
our community these courses have been very successful in client participation.
The Hon. Penny Sharpe
M.L.C.
Over the past two years the Gender Centre has built a strong partnership with the
Hon. Penny Sharpe
M.L.C., Penny has a strong passion
for social justice, the gay and lesbian Community and the Transgender communities.
Women's and Girls' Emergency Service
We have formed a strong and positive partnership this year with the Women's and Girls' emergency
service, and we hope that this will continue into the future for the benefit of our community.
Samaritan House
We have also developed a positive working relationship with Samaritan House. With the inclusion of
our clients being accepted into their accommodation.
R.P.A. Sexual Health Clinic
Over the past twelve months, the Centre has offered a number of clients to this service, as health
care providers they have been excellent in creating a safe and non-judgmental environment for our
clients. It is so important in having a culturally appropriate sexual health service for this client group.
Our clients need an ally in any clinic, especially one that will advocate on their behalf.
Phinn Cyrus Borg
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The following report provides detail of the services achievements over the 2006 / 2007
financial years.
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I would like to thank our funding bodies, Department of Community Services (supported
accommodation assistance program) and Sydney South West Area Health Service (S.S.W.A.H.S.) for
their financial and ongoing support during the past year.
I look forward to continuing these partnerships to enhance and improve service delivery in
the future.
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No service can function well without an effective and committed management committee. I would
like to thank all our current members that served on the committee in 2007/2008 who freely
volunteered their time, for the support they have demonstrated towards the staff of the service
and the service itself.
I would like to thank the management committee for the support they have demonstrated towards
myself to the staff of the service and the service itself.
I look forward to many more years of committed and dedicated management committee members
assisting the service to function effectively.
I would also like to thank all members, new and existing, for the ongoing and vital support
their membership provides.
We extend a warm welcome to you all for the coming year.
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Our successful funding arrangements with the
N.S.W.
AIDS / Infectious
Diseases Branch of the N.S.W. Health
Department and
S.A.A.P.,
Department of Community Services, has enabled us to maintain staffing and service levels during
the last year. Our current staff as at 30 June 2008:
- Manager - Phinn Borg
- Financial Administration - David Burke
- Counsellor - Gaye Stubbs
- Outreach Workers (part-time) - Dash Gray & Ekarach Thirapat (Birdie)
- Case-Manager - Elizabeth Ceissman
- Residential Worker - Paula Hartigan (part-time)
- Client Support - Vicki Nash
- Resource Development (Polare) - Katherine Cummings (part-time)
- Reception - Rusty Nannup
The activities of individual projects specific to the work of each staff member are discussed
later in this Annual Report.
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2.4 Staff Training & Development
Staff have attended the following training, seminars and forums during 2007 / 2008:
- S.A.A.P.
Interagency Meetings
- S.S.W.A.H.
Interagency Meetings
- C.C.W.T.
Training
- DoCS Training
- Smart Training
- Supervision Skills
- Case Management
- N.S.W. Police Policy
Committee
- G.L.B.T.
Carer's Support Group
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2.5 Education & Training for Service
Providers and Others
The Gender Centre has continued to deliver educational sessions to a number of
N.G.O.s, educational facilities,
health providers and so on as well as delivering a number of educational sessions in workplaces
that have requested support while a staff member transitions.
These education sessions are generally 1 - 2 hours in length and offer staff members an
introduction to gender issues and assist in providing adequate and correct information on issues
such as discrimination and equal opportunity.
A two hour present ation to Centennial Coal was provided to 40 senior staff members and 30
staff members attended the Comcar (Alexandria) presentation, the broad arrears of our
presentations to private workplaces are:
- Ideas about gender;
- Basic definitions and language;
- The process of gender change/transition;
- What to expect from a colleague who is transgender, common questions and
issues;
- Transgender prevalence, history and contributions; and
- N.S.W. Anti-Discrimination
information
Feedback from both the Comcar and Centennial Coal education sessions has been extremely
positive:
Overall, I rate the presentation and feedback from staff as very high. I would
have no hesitation in recommending the presentation to interested agencies.
Ken Sweeney
National Manager, Comcar
The gender centre has also delivered a number of training session to the
N.S.W. Police Department both here in Sydney
and as well as the Goulbourn Training academy, some participant's comments of this training
were - very interesting, relaxed style, good presentation, many issues raised that
previous training has never covered, very relevant, great information, a definite to keep in
the course, the presenter showed both positives and negatives of police which was excellent, and
answered a lot of questions.
In May the Gender Centre was asked to run training for support workers in women's housing
services whose client base includes homeless trans gender women accessing emergency housing. We
developed and delivered training to approximately 30 workers over a full days training, some of
the topics covered were - Working with transgender clients, exploring the issues as
clients, as workers, as a service and sector response, case-studies, discrimination to family,
friends, work and society.
Comments from the days training were - good presentation, very relevant, I would
recommend this workshop to other service provider, I see a great need for gender issues
training in my field of work, I have gained a better understanding of gender issues
The aims of the educational packages are to encourage service providers in all areas to work
effectively with transgender clients.
To provide support to employers in workplaces where a staff member is in transition, and to
encourage employers to uphold Anti-Discrimination amendments and employ transgender persons who
present as the best person for a position as well as encourage all organisations to treat all
people, including transgender people, equitably.
In 2007/2008 staff have provided training to:
- Transgender Health Issues - Sydney Hospital x 2
- Transitioning in the workforce - Centennial Coal
- Transgender Issues - Nirimba Tafe x 3, McArthur Tafe x 2, & Sterling
College x 3
- Working with Transgender Clients - Albion Street Lodge, Women's and Girls'
Emergency Centre, City Women's Hostel, B. Miles Housing, Vincillian Village,
I.C.H.O.S.S.,
Samaritan House, St. Vincent's Homeless outreach Team &
N.S.W. Police Training Acadamy,
Goulburn
- The Management of Transgender Clients - Sydney police centre x 2
- Working With Transgender Clients/The Management of Transgender Clients -
Sydney Police Centre Parramatta x 2, Department of Housing Broadway
- Housing Transgender Clients - Foster House
The Gender Centre is currently in negotiation with the Centre for Community Welfare
Training (C.C.W.T.) to develop and deliver training in 2009 to service providers in rural and
metropolitan area.
C.C.W.T. was set up
in 1987 to provide cost-effective and accessible training for people working across the
community welfare sector in N.S.W..
C.C.W.T.'s stated
purpose is to deliver professional learning that transforms people and communities for a better
society.
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Staff have maintained their representation on or liaised with a number of committees,
interagency groups and working parties that address issues of priority to the client group of
the Gender Centre. These include:
- Inner West
S.A.A.P.
Interagency Meetings
- Inner City
S.A.A.P.
Interagency Meetings
- S.A.A.P.
Planning Committees
- N.S.W. Police Policy
Committee
- Marrickville Council's
G.L.L.A.M.
Committee
- Attorney General's Crime Prevention Unit
- Inner City Legal Centre Management Committee
- G.L.B.T.
Carer's Support Group
- ACON
G.L.B.T. Ageing
Forum
- City of Sydney Transgender Working Party
- S.S.W.A.H.
Interagency Meetings
- S.S.W.A.H.
Domestic Violence Screening Tool
- Transgender Day of Remembrance
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2.7 Agency Networking
Staff at the Gender Centre are continuing to network with a wide range of services. The
following services are those with which we have a formal liaison strategy in place:
- Anti-Discrimination Board
- Kirketon Road Centre
- People Living With
H.I.V./
AIDS
- Positive Living Centre
- Bobby Goldsmith Foundation
- Sex Workers Outreach Project
- ACON
- Langton Centre
- Liaison re: Case Management and advocacy for clients at Department of Housing
- Marrickville Community Health
- Redfern Community Health
- Ashfield Mental Health Crisis Team
- Marrickville Mental Health Crisis Team
- The Missenden Unit
- P.F.L.A.G.
- Y.W.C.A.
- Social Workers at the following Hospitals - St Vincents Hospital, Royal Prince
Alfred Hospital, Prince of Wales Hospital, Concord Hospital, Liverpool Hospital Brain
Injury Unit
- Foley House (until December 2007)
- Department of Probation and Parole at Newtown & Burwood
- Department of Corrective Services, Correctional Institutions at Mulawa, Long Bay,
M.R.R.C.,
Junee, Kirconnel, Bathurst & Silverwater
- Metropolitan Community Church
- C.R.C. Broadway
- I.C.H.O.S.S.
- B. Miles
- Vincillan Village
- Samaritan House
- Salvation Army
- Foster House
- St. Vincents Homeless Outreach Team
- St. Vincent de Paull
- Homelessness N.S.W.
- Office of Community Housing
- Marrickville Council
- City of Sydney Council
- Twenty Ten
- Creative Youth Initiatives
- Create Foundation
- Aurora
- Inner City Legal Centre
- Marrickville Legal Centre
- Newtown N.E.S.P.
The Gender Centre is a secondary
N.E.S.P. service for the
Newtown area)
- Department of Housing Client Services Teams at Broadway, Surry Hills, Burwood
- Albion Street Centre
- Women & Girls' Emergency Centre
- City Women's Hostel
- Stepping Out
- Marrickville Youth Centre
- Oz Harvest
- Street Smart
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2.8 Media Liaison
The Gender Centre has enjoyed a good presence in the media and in public resources with the
following contributions:
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I would like to thank all the individuals and organisations that kindly donated their time,
effort, patience, money and goods and services to the Gender Centre throughout this financial
year. Listed below are but a few:
- City of Sydney Council
- Marrickville Council
- Aurora Group
- Inner City Legal Centre
- Oz Harvest
Your efforts and assistance are highly appreciated.
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The database for residential clients has been analysed as follows:
A total of 11 clients were continuing their residence as of 1st July 2008
| |
2007 / 2008 |
2006 / 2007 |
2005 / 2006 |
| Number of Residents |
|
31 |
20 |
| Total Number of Ongoing Clients |
11 |
13 |
11 |
| Total Bed Days Available |
4015 |
4380 |
4380 |
| Total Bed Days Utilised |
3289 |
4003 |
3452 |
| Occupancy Rates |
81.9% |
90.0% |
78.8% |
This gave us an occupancy rate of 81.9% and represents a high overall occupancy rate for a
S.A.A.P.
service.
Clients in residence receive a high degree of support in applying for public housing and
several of our ex-residents have been successful in securing long-term public housing
The service is divided into three separate parts, each with its own level of support and
responsibility.
Clients entering the residential service are inducted at the first level and progress through
to the third level during their stay.
The first level offers the highest level of support, the second level is medium support and
the third level, our exit units, is the lowest level of support.
The third level of the program is the level that most reflects independent living and assists
clients to make a smooth adjustment into independent living when they exit the program.
All residents attend case-management as part of their residence with The Gender Centre and
develop individual support and case-management plans.
Residents are also encouraged to attend workshops designed to facilitate their progress
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3.2 Residential Case Management
Case-management is provided to all clients who access the Gender Centre, whether they are
residing in accommodation provided by the centre or living in the wider community
The role of case management is to assist and empower people to resolve issues that impact on
their quality of life.
In case management a comprehensive client assessment is used to develop a case plan which
encompasses 7 key aspects to an individual's life.
The case plan may involve referrals to other service provides with the case manager
coordinating and monitoring the process.
These 7 aspects cover a diverse range of areas including independent living skills,
employment/training, accommodation, health, self esteem/identity, recreation/leisure and social
supports.
Case management involves assessment/risk management, planning and the implementation of
service arrangements, and co-ordination of supports both formal and informal.
Again a large number of community clients have accessed the case management services of the
Gender Centre while remaining in their own homes in addressing their issues particularly housing
issues.
This indicates that clients that saw the case management worker were very pro-active in
addressing their issues particularly housing issues as they were not coming to the centre in a
crisis situation but rather they were seeking support long before their issues became that of a
critical incident
While the Case Manager was not always able to resolve the issues, the outcomes for many
clients ensured they did not need to enter any form of crisis accommodation, rather they were
either able to stay in their homes or find suitable and stable accommodation in other
locations.
One of the most exiting things that has come to the role of the case worker is the
interagency networking. Through this networking the Case Manager was able to attend a number of
diverse events such as the launch of the Out of Home care report card, Department of Housing in
service day at Broadway, The training of
G.L.L.O. at Goulburn Police
Academy and the Quest for Life workers weekend.
Following are the statistics for Case-Management
- 331 Case management meetings with clients
- 93 Exit house clients
- 93 Case management with community clients
- 145 Case management with in-house residential clients
- 61 clients accessed the service for 5 or more case management sessions
- 17 clients contacted the service for one off case management sessions
The case-management worker will continue over the coming year networking with a wider variety
of service providers, so that the issues of people who access the Gender Centre are better
understood.
In this way a greater variety of quality resources can be made available to anyone who seeks
help at the Gender Centre.
Residential Case Management Worker
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3.3 Service Magazine - Polare
The 75th edition of Polare was published in June of 2008. Polare is now entering its
fifteenth year of publication. There are currently 600 names on our mailing list and copies of
Polare are delivered to 27 outlets in Sydney.
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Library
46 books were added to the collection in the 2007/2008 period, 6 were purchased and 40 were
donated.
The library collection will continue to be selected in order to maintain a balance between
fiction and non-fiction, lay writing such as autobiographies, and professional books relating to
gender studies.
Information Kits
With the addition of information kits to the Gender Centre's website has greatly improved
access and many enquires are now satisfied by referral to the website from which kits and
individual handouts can be downloaded, as can selected items from all issues of Polare.
The following kits are available specifically targeting individual needs:
- Training Kits
- Transition in the Workplace Employee Kit
- Transition in the Workplace Employer Kit
- M.T.F. Information Kits
- F.T.M. Information Kits
- M.T.F. Surgery Kits
- F.T.M. Surgery Kits
- Student Kits
- Intersex Information Kit
- Professionals Kit
Website
The website continues to be a very valuable resource which is available to the wider
community, the site provides all the information that might otherwise be available in hard copy
form the centre including Polare, Kits and fact sheets and the unique information contained
within it has been invaluable in providing assistance and support in reducing the isolation felt
by those with gender issues
Over the course of 2007/2008 the website statistics show that a large proportion of the half
a million plus visitors each year are located within Australia and a large portion of them are
from New South wales
The site also serves as an essential way to promote events and workshops to clients who
access the Centre. As is the case with all websites the Gender Centre website creates the
capacity for a number of Gender Centre resources to be available worldwide
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Throughout the year the counselling service has had many enquiries from other service
providers. These service providers have contacted the counselling service requesting
information, consultation and referral in order to better assist their clients.
The counsellor has endeavoured to provide consultation and information to other
counsellors so that they can assist their gender questioning/transgender clients, without these
clients necessarily accessing this service for face-to-face counselling. This is recognition of
the following factors: the constraints of time and distance it can be difficult, or impossible,
for some people living at a distance from our centre to access the service in person.
The potential benefit of the continuity of counselling for clients, that is, not switching
from one counsellor to another but continuing counselling with the counsellor/therapist who has
contacted this service for support.
The educational role of this service in providing information and assistance to other service
providers is enormous.
Listed below are the service providers that accessed the counselling service throughout the
year July 2007 to June 2008:
- Better Life Solutions, Port Macquarie
- Brain Injury Unit, Liverpool Hospital
- Brisbane Gender Clinic (June 2007)
- Psychologist (1 - outside of Sydney metropolitan area)
- Resident doctor (1 - rural hospital, New South Wales)
- Sarah Dabro, Sydney Morning Herald (request for information and contacts)
- Seahorse
- Sexual Health Clinic, Katoomba
- Social worker (1 - St Vincent's Hospital, 1 - Banktown Centrelink)
- Traxside Youth Service, Campbelltown
- University student for survey
- Canterbury Community Health Services
- Care Employment (June 2007)
- Catherine Wilson, Wellbeing Clinic, Miranda
- Centacare, Liverpool
- Cherrywood Accommodation Service
- Childcare centre, Wollongong
- Community nurse (rural Victoria)
- Counsellor, New South Wales state high schools (2) and primary schools (2)
- Counsellor ACT primary school (1)
- Counsellor/Therapist (1 - Sydney, 1 - Melbourne)
- Creative Youth Initiative, Mission Australia
- Department of Ageing, Disability & Homecare
- Freeman House, Armidale
- General Practitioners (2 - ACT)
- Hurstville Child & Adolescent Mental Health Centre
- Mental Health worker (1 - rural New South Wales)
- Parole and probation officer (1 - south west Sydney)
- Psychiatrist
The clients who most commonly access the counsellor are those in the process of exploring
their gender issues, through a range of presenting issues.
The more critical issues including suicide ideation family rejection and depression affect a
signicant number of counselling clients.
The following list indicates some of the issues that were addressed in the counselling
sessions for the period of 2007/2008.
- Cross-dressing
- Harassment / violence
- Transition
- Financial
- Passing
- Accommodation
- S.R.S.
- Relationships
- Drug & Alcohol / Gambling
- Family
- Suicide
- Health
- Sexual assault
- Anxiety / fear / depression
- Sexual issues
- Mental Health
- Isolation
- Religion
- Employment
- Information
It is obvious from both observation and client feedback, that clients gain enormous benefit
from the Gender Centre's counselling program.
Counselling Student Placement
A student counsellor from
A.C.A.P. began her
placement in November and was completed in January. The placement was a challenging and
interesting learning experience for both the student and the supervisor.
The counsellor contributed a number or articles for The Gender Centre magazine Polare.
Counselling Statistics
Clients and potential clients contact the service by phone, email or in person, due to the
high demand for counselling appointments the waiting period is usuually one to two weeks for
face-to-face counselling
Supervision And Training
The Gender Centre counsellor attends regular supervision sessions and is a clinical member
of C.A.P.A. as
well as a member of
W.P.A.T.H.
formally known as the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association. This is an
association for the provision of quality health care and best practice standards for service
providers.
Professional Development
- Dissociative Disorder training
- Drug Crime Diversion workshop
- Sexuality Training workshop
- Smart training
Counselling session details
- 670 counselling sessions for 2007/2008
- 260 face-to-face counselling sessions
- 195 phone counselling sessions
- 38 new clients for 2007/2008
- 215 Email counselling sessions
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The outreach education services are an important avenue for the Gender Centre to take its
services out into the wider community particularly those in need.
Outreach is delivered to sex workers working on the streets or in parlours, to prison inmates
and to transgender people confined in hospital or in their homes.
Outreach services to prison inmates and those confined to their homes play a major role in
reducing the levels of isolation experienced by these individuals.
The successful employment of Birdie our Thai speaking outreach worker has enabled the service
to communicate effectively with Thai street based sex workers in delivering educational
programmes on safer sex and harm minimisation, to the Thai community which previously had little
to no contact with the centre due to huge language problems.
The outreach team see on average 10 - 15 street based workers per outreach shift.
The outreach team knows most of these workers and offer a range of services as well as
information about the Gender Centre and any particular activities being run at the centre in the
near future.
The outreach team provide frequent referral information to workers about the centre
especially on issues of counselling and housing services offered by the centre.
Private transgender sex workers also contact the outreach team for safe sex supplies and they
respond to those requests.
Earlier this year the Gender Centre participated and assisted in a survey of street based sex
workers for the City of Sydney funded research into safety and design needs.
The Gender Centre provided two extra shifts on Saturday nights during the
information-gathering phase of this project to ensure that the needs and perspective of
transgender workers were included.
The outreach team delivered education and information to over 620 clients on a range of
topics including safe sex, safe injecting,
H.I.V.,
Hep. C, mental health,
A.O.D., housing, health,
discrimination and legal issues.
Outreach, while delivered in a casual manner, has a more practical motive. Over the course of
2007/2008 the outreach team distributed more than 15,000 condoms and more than 1,500 tubes of
lubricant to help minimise the risk of the spread of infectious diseases not bad for a small
service.
The outreach team also distributed almost 3,500 syringes and collected over 1,000 used
syringes in sharps containers.
Outreach statistical information includes:
- 56 Private home visits
- 2 Hospital visits
- 6 Gaol visits
- 50 Parlour visits
- 50 Street visits
- 50 Taxi club visits
Drop-in
Drop in on Wednesday night continues to run smoothly with an average of 20 persons attending
with a mixture of regular and new clients.
For new clients drop in is often the first point of contact for someone to both the Gender
Centre and to others with gender issues.
The quality and variety of food provided by Oz Harvest gets positive feedback every week.
There were 762 meals distributed during drop-in and on outreach.
The outreach team also conducted a number of Health workshops in-house in accordance with our
health funding requirements as well as regular health reports in Polare.
Outreach is an integral part of the Gender Centre's service plan it continues to provide
services to a wide range of clients who may have difficulty in accessing the service
otherwise.
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3.7 Community Support Services
As always the social and support events for the year continue to be a success. The
following list provides an overview of the events conducted throughout the year.
- Spring Barbecue 30 people
- Christmas Barbecue 50 people
- Easter Barbecue 37 people
- Self Defence classes 27 people
- Healthy Eating workshop 5 people
- Horticulture/Permaculture 2 people
- Bush Regeneration 1 person
- Food service/Hospitality Certificate 6 people
- Access to computers 8 people
- Barista/Coffee Course 5 people
- Safe Food Handling/Workplace Hygiene 5 people
- Nutrition Workshop 6 people
- Hotel/Room Attending Course 5 people
- High Tea 10 people
- Hepatitis C Workshops 20 people
- H.I.V./
AIDS Workshops 20
people
- Youth Groups 15 people
In total, 252 clients attended workshops and courses run at the Gender Centre or off-site
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A youth group for 18-25 year olds was held at the centre throughout January, February, March
of 2008. This ran as a closed group for eight weeks covering a number of topics on Monday
evenings. Topics covered were Gender 101, ideas and experiences of gender norms and gender
warriors, transitioning games, hormones, surgery, and options, sexuality and exploring sexuality
and the interaction between gender and dealing with family and friends the good the bad and the
ugly.
8 young people attended the group and discussions were vibrant and lively throughout the
weeks. Two workers from Twenty—Ten joined the group to assist in the discussions on sexuality
and the group concluded with a DVD night.
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All staff of the Gender Centre have continued with the aims of providing optimum service to our
clients and in developing a strong and positive relationship with other agencies and our funding
bodies.
The success in achieving the service's objectives has been monitored throughout the year by a range
of processes including:
- Residential data collection and analysis with particular reference to occupancy rates
- Strengthening focus on case management practices
- Analysis of reasons for discharge
- Monitoring data relating to attendance at in-house groups, resident meetings, number of
clients contacted and referrals through outreach
- Monitoring of circulation levels of print publications and resources
- Collateral feedback from other agencies and service providers
- Data collection relating to referral patterns
- Level of demand for participation in key national, state and local mechanisms, strategies
and activities
- Increased awareness and focus on occupational health & safety issues
- Ongoing commitment to engaging in quality improvement across all programs
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