Meridian is a peer-led, community-based health organisation that has its origins as an AIDS Council, started in 1983 from a grass roots response to a looming crisis. Our vision is to build strong, connected, and supportive communities that are free of new HIV transmission, marginalisation, discrimination, and stigma.
At Meridian, we’re about celebrating diversity, strengthening community, and empowering our communities to live their best lives. In doing this work, we most value:
- Respect: By honouring people’s stories, valuing our history and treating everyone with dignity.
- Inclusiveness: By being unbiased and fair in everything we do and consulting widely to identify where we can make the most difference.
- Leadership: By motivating and inspiring others to reach the vision and mission.
- Partnership: By knowing, supporting, and collaborating with individuals, groups, and organisations to strengthen our response to HIV and AIDS.
- Empowerment: By supporting people to make their own informed choices.
Meridian employs staff who have lived experience and use this openly, appropriately, and effectively to build professional relationships with the people they work with. Lived experience is used to inform and contribute to staff culture and encourage community understanding and reduction of stigma and discrimination for all affected communities. Lived experience includes, but is not limited to the following, - people who are impacted by HIV, people who identify as sex, sexuality, or gender diverse and their families and allies, people who have undertaken or are undertaking sex work, people who have used drugs and those with mental health impacts.
All selection is based on proven experience, qualifications and/or training and the person’s potential to undertake the responsibilities of the position most efficiently. As an LGBTIQA+ peer-based organisation and an HIV service agency, we recognise that LGBTIQA+ people and people with HIV/AIDS bring unique perspectives, skills and knowledge that are important to Meridian’s work. Therefore, Meridian promotes the recruitment and continued employment of LGBTIQA+ people and people living with HIV/AIDS.
Meridian is a peer-led organisation that values diversity in the workplace and encourages applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities.