Switchboard Victoria is connecting
the LGBTIQA+ community
Switchboard Victoria is an LGBTIQA+ community-led not for profit organisation providing care, connection, support and advocacy for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender diverse, intersex, queer and asexual (LGBTIQA+) people, as well as their families, friends, allies, support workers and communities.
Our Programs
Rainbow Door
Rainbow Door is a free, specialist LGBTIQA+ service providing information, support and referral via phone, email and SMS to people in Victoria who may may be experiencing suicidal thoughts, family violence (including elder abuse) and/or issues related to housing, alcohol and other drugs, relationships, sexual assault, mental health, and social isolation. Staffed by trained and experienced LGBTIQA+ peers, Rainbow Door empowers LGBTIQA+ people and their loved ones to connect with, navigate and access services within a safe and affirming environment. Rainbow Door also provides specialist secondary consultation to other service providers working with LGBTIQA+ people and communities.
QLife
As the Victorian partner of the national QLife service in partnership with LGBTIQ+ Health Australia, Switchboard provides anonymous peer-based phone and webchat support, information and referrals to LGBTIQA+ people and their loved ones. Staffed by trained and experienced LGBTIQA+ peers, this free service is available for those wanting to talk about a range of issues including sexuality, identity, gender, bodies, feelings or relationships.
Training
Switchboard has been delivering LGBTIQA+ peer-driven training for over thirty years. We currently offer a range of trainings applicable to workplaces, LGBTIQA+ and other community sector organisations, and the broader community. We specialise in training about LGBTIQA+ suicide prevention, peer support, inclusivity and family and intimate partner violence.
QTIBPOC Program
Switchboard’s QTIBPOC Program seeks to contribute to greater connection and equity among QTIBPOC (queer, trans and/or intersex Black people, Indigenous people, and people of colour) in Victoria. The program offers free events, workshops and grants created by and for QTIBPOC communities, with the goal of sharing skills, experiences and knowledge that prioritise collective and relational ways of doing things.
Suicide Prevention
Switchboard’s Suicide Prevention program puts responding to the challenges of suicide among LGBTIQA+ communities at the core of Switchboard’s work. We work nationally to provide suicide prevention, intervention and postvention programs and resources, with an emphasis on building community resilience through peer-led and lived experience activities. CHARLEE is an online suicide prevention hub designed by LGBTIQA+ people with lived experience of suicide.
Pride in Ageing
Switchboard’s Pride in Ageing program aims to reduce social isolation, tackle ageism, and work with local communities to build long-term improvements and change for older lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender diverse and intersex (LGBTI+) Victorians. The program consists of uniquely regional and rural initiatives, the Out and About volunteer visiting service, specialist case support for older LGBTI+ people, and ongoing policy and advocacy work.
Rainbow Families
Rainbow Families Switchboard advocates for and connects LGBTIQA+ parents, carers and their families to relevant supports, resources, information and local events throughout Victoria.
The program also helps strengthen the capacity of mainstream organisations to better support LGBTIQA+ families by providing a referral point and access to inclusive, up-to-date resources.
Our Purpose
At the heart of our work is community connection – through dialogue, listening and peer-led service delivery. As an LGBTIQA+ community-led organisation, we understand that the experiences and challenges facing LGBTIQA+ communities are complex and everchanging. Run by community for community, Switchboard responds rapidly, collaboratively, and innovatively to emerging and entrenched support needs as well as issues that affect community wellbeing.
Our Vision
Switchboard’s vision is to create a thriving LGBTIQA+ community through connection, support, and advocacy. We are dedicated to listening, supporting and connecting LGBTIQA+ people and communities, our families, and our allies. We will strengthen our ability to provide vital connection, support and services to our communities. We will continue to improve and better reflect the needs of our communities.
We are
Informed
We listen, we reflect and we are well informed.
Active
We contribute to our community and the world around us (we lean in and reach out)
Accountable
We keep our promises to our members, to our LGBTIQA+ communities, to funders and to ourselves.
Connected
We connect and engage and mobilise communities, stakeholders and partners (we mobilise people power to empower our community).
Responsive
We respond to the diversity of community need.
Respectful
We are empathetic and meet people where they are at.
Switchboard’s statement on working with the diversity within our community when it comes to Faith.
At Switchboard we embrace and support people in and across our LGBTIQA+ communities who have various beliefs, practices, and feelings when it comes to issues of faith and religion. This is extended not only to those who use our services but into our membership, staffing, volunteers and Board members.
At Switchboard we have service users, general members, staff, volunteers, and Board members who attend places of worship, have a daily practice, observe days of religious significance and who consider themselves a person of faith. Equally we have people who have a non-defined spirituality, consider themselves agnostic, atheist or strongly opposed and also many who have been rejected and/or who reject religion. Some people have been the survivors of conversion practices and institutional abuse.
At Switchboard we strongly believe it is our role to hold space for this diversity in all its complexity and richness and to fundamentally meet people where they stand and support them to live their authentic self.
Switchboard is here to learn from, listen to and celebrate our communities. We are also here to stand up against persecution, including religious persecution and we will always believe survivors.
From time-to-time Switchboard might partner or work alongside organisations from a faith background. Our commitment to LGBTIQA+ communities is that we will only do so where we are both convinced and where they have demonstrated an ongoing commitment to inclusion for all in the LGBTIQA+ communities.