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Australian Institute of Family Studies

Practice Profile

Bfriend Project

Contact details

Agency: UnitingCare Wesley Adelaide inc

Address: GPO Box 2534
(10 Pitt St)
Adelaide, SA 5001

Contact: Truffy Maginnis: Paul Stone
Coordinator and Women’s Project Worker; Male Project Worker
Phone: 08 8202 5805; 8202 5192
Fax: 08 8202 5807
Email: bfriend@ucwesleyadelaide.org.au

Website: www.ucwesleyadelaide.org.au/bfriend

Funding source

SA Department for Families and Communities: Community Connect Programme
UnitingCare Wesley Adelaide Inc.

Program duration and frequency

The program began in June 1995 and is still running. There are several components to the service including 3-6 month link-ups with a trained volunteer; short term support groups for newly identifying people usually run from 8 to 10 weeks; quarterly Forums that are open to community members on issues of importance to the project; a Parents and Kids group that is ongoing and offers social get together for ss and trans parent and their children and runs an annual Kids Camp; monthly social events for newly identifying people. We provide 3 training sessions a year for new volunteers and a refresher training for existing volunteers. Bfriend trains services and agencies on how they might work appropriately with ssa and trans folk who come to their service. This training is tailored to the needs of the agency.

Program description

Background

Research and community knowledge has shown that newly identifying same sex attracted people, particularly young people, are at a greater risk of depression, attempting and completing suicide, early school leaving, isolation and loss of family and community connection than heterosexual peers. Bfriend is one response to reduce isolation, facilitate connection into lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans community (lgbt) and/or to foster a sense of pride and acceptance of sexuality and identity. We also strive to maintain family closeness and connection for newly identifying people.

Bfriend is a confidential, free service which aims to: support people who are newly identifying as same sex attracted (ssa), lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender/transsexual or who are exploring their sexual identity outside the heterosexual or questioning their gender identity.

Bfriend does this by:-

1. Short term (3 to 6 months) link ups for newly identifying or questioning people with people who identify as bisexual, gay, ssa, transgender or lesbian who are part of our volunteer program. Bfriend supports people of all ages and genders.
2. Short term link ups for parents of people who identify as lesbian, ssa, bisexual, gay or transgender
3. Developing and providing relevant information and training to organisations, the community and government
4. Providing a specialised consultancy service to organisations, the community and government.

Bfriend sees itself as a project that allows an expression of transgender, gay, bisexual and lesbian culture. We acknowledge and are sensitive to the range and diversity that exists within transgender, bisexual, lesbian and gay communities. Bfriend wishes to honour that diversity in how we support newly identifying or questioning people.

Being attracted to someone of the same sex or questioning our gender identity, can have people experiencing different feelings including anxiety, a sense of relief, joy and confusion. Coming out as ssa, gay, lesbian, transgender or bisexual in our society, where heterosexuality is dominant, is a courageous and risk filled thing to do.

Bfriend also recognises the parallel struggle of families to accept and support family members who are questioning or coming out and offers a parental peer support model.

Bfriend culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) project

The Bfriend CALD project works with individuals and key people from CALD communities to build relationships and knowledge about sexuality/gender identity and it’s relationship to culture. This is important and sensitive work and has been successful in increasing the number of newly identifying people coming to Bfriend for support.

Geographical Area

• Local community
• State/Territory wide
• Urban
• Regional centre or town
• Rural centre or area

Target Group

• Other - as described in program description

Is the program based on an existing program or training model?

• No

Is the program/practice based on the findings from empirical research, theory and/or a particular framework/model?

• Yes

Briefly explain the research and/or framework model.

Bfriend commenced in 1995, the International Year of the Family, as a new initiative funded by UnitingCare Wesley Adelaide (formerly Adelaide Central Mission). It may come as a surprise that a Uniting Church organisation initiated a project such as this. What happened was:

A lesbian who was working in UnitingCare Wesley Adelaide's Family and Relationship Counselling team had noticed the gap that faced newly identifying men and women between coming to terms with their same sex attraction and finding friends in the community. She tells the story of 'Louise', a young woman she was counselling and her isolation. She tells it this way.

'It was 'Louise's' isolation and her need for contact with the 'lesbian community' outside the gaze of her family and culture, which made me determined to revive an idea for which I had been trying to secure funding over the years. I wanted to set up a 'buddy' system whereby volunteers from the gay and lesbian community would provide peer support for people newly identifying as gay or lesbian. It needed funds to co-ordinate, and the only organisations which were willing to support the idea had no money. However it was 1994 which made it the International Year of the Family! Invitations from my work-place management went out to workers to submit proposals for suitable family projects. I spoke to a friend and co-worker about the buddy idea saying to her 'I know they'll never fund this, and it will be a mad push to get up yet another submission that will go nowhere, but I want to stick it in their faces the 'we' have families too!'' - an ever so grown up motive! Coupled with hidden hope that something would come of it for 'Louise' and the many other women and men like her.

'We had the usual time of less than a week to get the submission together and then -we waited- for the ripples to tidal wave down from the executive 3rd floor to the counselling services on the first...and to my shock the waves never came. We never even got wet, although I suspect our manager did as she went into the swim for us. Bfriend is now up and running, even though 'Louise' decided that, by the time it was operational as a scheme, she didn't really need to be involved.

'Miracles do happen, mostly outside of the therapy room, and 'Louise's' came in the form of her 20 year old cousin, 'David'. They had been close years earlier and she was desperate to break free of the suffocation and the secrecy. When she told him about her sexuality, he was very quiet and reserved, which understandably she took for rejection. However, he was gathering the strength to tell her he was gay!'
(Windows, Leela Anderson: Bedtime Stories for Tired Therapists, Dulwich Centre Publications 1995)

As a result of the success of the programme in it's first year ACM made a decision to extend funding until the end of June 1998 and to seek other sources of funding to continue the program beyond that time. That endeavour was successful and we are now a permanent programme in the Family Services of UnitingCare Wesley Adelaide funded by the South Australian Department of Families and Communities.

We have developed significant ‘practice wisdom’ over the life of the project. We have developed the resources mentioned previously from the stories, evaluations and experiences of the people who have used Bfriend over the years.  This has been the primary influence on how we do our work at Bfriend. In Australia there are no other services that offer this support across all genders and ages and include families, so this has been project in constant development.

We have also been influenced and informed by many pieces of research the most recent include:

Self Harm and Suicide Risk for Same-Sex Attracted Young People: A Family Perspective Rhonda Brown, RPN Family Therapist, The Bouverie Centre, Flemington, La Trobe University

The Writing Themselves In and Writing Themselves In Again research by Lynne Hillier et al from the Australian Research Centre on Sex, Health and Society at La Trobe University.

In what way does this research and/or framework/model influence or inform the intended outcomes and objectives of the program?

People who come to Bfriend are not seen as ‘clients’ of Bfriend, but individuals making their own decisions about their sexuality or gender identity on their own terms. We believe that people will do best in this questioning process when supported in terms of a vibrant, exciting, growing and exploring culture/community.  Bfriend tries our best to pay attention and respond to changing needs of people who come to the project and what current wisdom is telling us about the shifting attitudes to ss and trans people in Australia and specifically South Australia, today. The mix of personal experience and knowelge from research supports us to respond in a timely and relevant way to the people who come to Bfriend for assistance.

Has the program/practice generated any publications, reports, videos, presentations or unpublished papers?

Making My Own Way – Stories of Coming Out in SA (2002) Published by and available for loan or purchase .

CD The Family Room – Stories of parents of same sex attracted young people. (2006) C o- produced at Radio Adelaide as part of Lifelong Learning. Available from Bfriend for loan or purchase.

The Bfriend website has 3 distinct pages: information about Bfriend and stories of people who have used Bfriend for support; same sex attracted and transgender parenting page; CALD resource page for workers and agencies. (the parent and CALD pages will be ‘up’ by the end of August 2007).

Has the program/practice been the subject of evaluation?

• Yes - internal and external/independent evaluation

What instruments were relied on to evaluate the program/practice?

• Written evaluations following attendance and
• The effects of the3 program/practice on participants by pre-test and post-test comparison

Briefly describe the outcomes of the evaluation:

Methods: Interviews and focus groups with people who had received support from Bfriend, Service Providers who refer to Bfriend and volunteers.

Outcomes: The main finding of the external evaluation was that Bfriend is ‘clearly meeting a demonstrated need for people who are questioning their sexuality or who are in the process of ’coming out’.’ (Jo Baulderstone, Flinders Institute of Public Policy and Management)

Internal evaluations report in the last financial year a 93% satisfaction rate with individual support and groups.

 

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