Background Information

Over the past few years, Bfriend has been working with SHine SA and RASA Peace Project to increase our understanding of sexuality and it’s relationship to culture. In July 2005, Bfriend recruited a CALD Project Worker to develop the work with CALD communities. The main aim of the project was to develop resources on the relationship between sexuality and culture to augment the training we have been providing for the past four years.

While other organisations in Victoria are doing research and providing resources in relation to the interaction between sexuality and culture, to our knowledge there is no other project of this type that provides support to people who are thinking about their sexuality and coming out in Australia.

The Bfriend CALD project is not intended to provide support for newly identifying people from CALD backgrounds; it is about building relationships with people from CALD communities, encouraging conversations about sexuality and culture, and creating resources and supports for people working with CALD communities. As a result of the CALD project the number of CALD people accessing the support work of Bfriend is growing As the project develops, the question of how best to provide personal support to newly identifying people from CALD communities will be continually addressed.

The project has been designed with its independent continuation post-completion in mind (e.g. through designing resources and support groups which could continue to be utilised without a specific CALD project). The project requires significant resources and time to be successful, as the issue of sexuality and its relationship to culture is extremely sensitive and involves very gradual inroads into communities.

The project has been engaged in key capacity building and community strengthening activities which have received very positive responses and strong support from CALD communities and other agencies. There is a keen desire for this project to continue amongst these key communities and organisations.

A key parallel project is working with the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender/transsexual, intersex and queer (GLBTTIQ) communities on how we welcome and support ssa, trans and intersex people from CALD communities. There is also much work to be done on addressing racism in the GLBTTIQ communities.

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