Defining LGBTIQA+ inclusion: Pride in lived experience

*Please note, the recording does not include the content covered in the workshop breakout rooms.

Organisation Involved: Switchboard
Workshop Facilitators: Anna Bernasochi (Switchboard Suicide Prevention Manager) & Joe Ball (Switchboard CEO)
Workshop Duration: 1.5 hours

In this workshop, Switchboard engaged with LGBTIQA+ summit attendees so they could begin to form a new network of LGBTIQA+ people with lived experiences of suicide. This was a collaborative workshop, with the primary outcome of articulating what it means to be LGBTIQA+ and have lived experience of suicide.

Workshop Outcomes:

– New connections among LGBTIQA+ people with lived experiences of suicide
– Strengthened the presence of LGBTIQA+ people in lived experience networks to make these networks more accessible for LGBTIQA+ people
– Began creating a LGBTIQA+ framework for lived experience of suicide inclusion
– Increased cultural safety for LGBTIQA+ people attending the Summit

About the Facilitators

Joe Ball: Joe is a longstanding LGBTIQA+ activist and CEO of Switchboard Victoria. Joe believes in grass roots solutions to systemic issues and draws upon LGBTIQA+ history and the wisdom of LGBTIQA+ elders to guide their work. In 2020 Joe was honoured as one of the 50 Outstanding LGBTI+ Leaders in Australia. Joe proudly identifies as trans non-binary and uses the pronouns they/them. Joe works and lives on the lands of the Kulin Nation in Narrm (Melbourne) Victoria.

Anna Bernasochi: Anna (she/her) is a community champion striving to put LGBTIQA+ suicide prevention on the national agenda. Proudly bisexual, Anna leads Switchboard Victoria’s suicide prevention program. She is a powerful voice, advocate, lived experience representative and recognised as an influential emerging leader in the mental health and suicide prevention sectors. Anna delights in sipping green tea, origami folding and co-parenting a boisterous young greyhound.