Towards 2030: New Year Update
04 Feb 2025
We’re already a year into our strategic plan for 2024-2029! Titled Towards 2030, this document details five years of planning, helping us measure our progress towards a world where our communities live safely with dignity and wellbeing.
Last year, we marked our progress towards these goals by highlighting several key initiatives, including our rapid expansion in South Australia, our first-ever in-person all-staff conference, and our departure from the platform X, as we led the way on healthier digital media consumption.
In November 2024, we also provided an update our activities across the organisation with the release of our 2023-2024 Annual Report Making Our Mark.
As we head into 2025, we’re once again looking at the strategic plan and how we’ve progressed in the last six months.
Expand the Reach and Impact of Our Programs
In late 2024, we took a significant step towards filling service gaps in outer metropolitan Melbourne with the introduction of the Mental Health Locals in partnership with Mind Australia. These clinics in Melton, Greater Dandenong, and Greater Bendigo have a no wrong door policy, meaning clients can access support for any wellbeing issue they’re facing, whether that’s problematic substance use or family violence. Thorne Harbour Health staff are working closely with Mind to ensure that LGBTIQA+ clients receive affirming care at these locations.
Since opening its doors, the Dandenong clinic has supported dozens of LGBTIQA+ identifying clients who might not otherwise have connected with Thorne Harbour Health.
Exercise Trusted Leadership
Thorne Harbour Health was instrumental in the passage of legislation banning LGBTQA+ conversion practices in South Australia in September 2024. While not perfect, the legislation is a clear step in the right direction. Alongside advocacy groups like SARAA, our staff showed strong support for a comprehensive ban during several bill readings at Parliament, pushing for the strongest ban possible while acknowledging that the legislation fell short of the reforms seen in other states. Thorne Harbour peer worker and conversion therapy survivor Jace Reh bravely shared their story with Members of Parliament, helping to humanise the issue and encourage swift reform.
Our LGBTIQA+ specific alcohol and other drug and mental health services in Adelaide provided compelling evidence to further illustrate the depth of trauma experienced by queer people subjected to conversion practices. Throughout the reform process, our services offered critical support to community members affected by the political rhetoric related to the ban.
Thorne Harbour’s leadership in this legislative victory reinforces our commitment to championing the health and wellbeing of LGBTIQA+ communities in South Australia across many aspects of their lives.
Develop Our Communities
Everyday People is our latest health promotion campaign, sharing stories from 15 multicultural LGBTIQA+ individuals in a centralised mental health hub. This initiative highlights community members discussing their mental health challenges and the intersection of their multicultural and queer identities.
The final project includes video and written stories featuring participants speaking in their first or second language as well as English. With translations into diverse languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Tagalog, and Malay, this campaign represents a major step toward inclusivity.
The stories are hosted on a dedicated website that offers multiple interactive features, including links to culturally safe mental health services.
Everyday People empowers our communities to stay connected and proud of their diverse identities while working to dismantle stigma associated with issues related to mental health.
Build a Robust and Highly Adaptable Organisation for the Future
In 2024, Thorne Harbour commenced a Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) review of our website. By researching the actual searches our communities enter into Google and other search engines, we have been able to integrate these keywords into our website, increasing visibility and engagement.
While SEO is not a new technique, this marks the first time our flagship website has fully leveraged it to attract new clients and website visitors generally. By implementing this strategy, we are enhancing our digital engagement and communications, ensuring that more LGBTIQA+ people find and access our services online.
In the spirit of going where our communities are and recognising that more people than ever discover services through search engines, this initiative strengthens our organisation's digital presence now and in the future.
Looking Forward
As we move into 2025, we have several major projects on the horizon, including an expansion of our events offering to community and continued growth in service delivery across both South Australia and Victoria.
Check back for our next quarterly update as we continue to chart our progress and ensure that we are meeting the goals of our strategic plan as we head Towards 2030.