Meridian is proud to present this inaugural Meridian Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) 2021- 2022. Our Reflect RAP signifies Meridian’s sincere intent to strengthen Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural safety through a structured process of establishing and strengthening meaningful and respectful relationships with First Nations’ community members. It was developed by Meridian in consultation with members of the ACT’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community and Meridian members.

It has been another busy year as we continue to work at the individual, community, organisational, and public policy levels to achieve positive outcomes for our communities.

We kicked off last financial year by refreshing our strategic plan to ensure we remain at the forefront of achieving positive outcomes for our communities. Our new plan sets out an ambitious program of activities that aim to contribute to eliminating HIV and improving sexual health, improving access to quality services for people living with HIV, creating a safe community, and
improving access to inclusive and knowledgeable health and wellbeing services for people who require support around gender identity and sexuality. The plan also sets an agenda for investing in the organisation to ensure sustainability and growth. The 2021-2024 Strategic Plan is available on our website.

Peak bodies within community sector play an important role in representing the interests of their members and communities to government, as well as strengthening the capacity of, and fostering collaboration within the sector.

Our Year > 2020 - 2021 Snapshot

Peer-led services (sometimes called peer-to-peer or peer-based services) are run by people with the same or similar identities or lived experiences as their service users. They can include peer-led health promotion, peer support groups or counselling, peer service delivery, or peer leadership. These approaches do not replace mainstream models of healthcare provision; they complement and work within and beside mainstream healthcare.

Meridian was invited by the Capital Health Network (CHN) to co-design a service model for delivering mental health services to LGBTIQA+ communities in the ACT under the Psychological Therapies Targeting Priority Populations contract.

Meridian facilitated a co-design process with LGBTIQA+ people to design a service model that would respond to their mental health needs and address the barriers to mental health services that they experience.

LGBTIQA+ people face many barriers to full inclusion in the workforce. A range of initiatives have been developed to remove these barriers; however, they largely focus on removing barriers within workplaces rather than to employment. Employment services can make a difference by facilitating and promoting inclusion within job seeking, recruitment, and hiring processes.

LGBTIQA+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and asexual. The plus is used to show that it is also inclusive of the full diversity of genders, sexualities and bodies, including people who identify as pansexual, gender diverse, agender, gender fl uid, non-binary, as well as people who are questioning their gender and/or sexuality.

Minimum standards for data collection of sex, gender, variations of sex characteristics and sexual orientation.

This paper was developed by Meridian in consultation with community members and service providers, including the Canberra Inclusive Partnership’s Service User Reference Group, YWCA Canberra, ACT Shelter and Havelock Housing. Meridian acknowledges the existing body of work done by national and international researchers into the issue of LGBTIQA+ homelessness, which has informed many of the recommendations within this paper.