Limestone Coast Community Connect recently raised $650 as part of GiveOUT Day – celebrated by LGBTQIA+ organisations around Australia.
GiveOUT Day is a day of giving to support LGBTQIA+ organisations nationally to highlight the need of these fundamental organisations.
Despite 11% of Australians – or 2.7 million people – identifying as being of diverse sexuality, only the tiniest fraction of grants are explicitly given to LGBTIQ+ projects (50 cents per every 100 philanthropic dollars in 2013-2018).
LGBTIQ+ projects are not currently well targeted by Australian funding organisations or the philanthropy sector in general.
Limestone Coast Connect chair Patrick Smith said the money raised will be matched by GiveOUT day organiser the Fay Fuller Foundation.
“That nice doubling will go quite a long way to help us get established with the things that we want to do which is ultimately make the Limestone Coast a much more inclusive, welcoming, and better place to people who are a LGBTQIA+ person,” he said.
“We are operating on less than $1000 a year to do what we can to raise awareness especially down here regionally.
“This is a heavily under resourced sector which we clearly need to make better because ultimately, at the end of the day, if young people cannot see any viable adults being good role models, they’re going to leave the region, and probably never come back.
“We need to make sure all seven of the council areas in the Limestone Coast are actually quite inclusive and there are quite as lot of things we would like to see happen, but these things are baby steps.”
Mr Smith encouraged the community to reach out to the organisation to help make this happen.
“We do have some plans already under way, ready for 2023 to try and reach out some more but please search us up and find us,” he said.
“We are accessible, and we want to be able to assist the community in the ways that we can, but we also need the community to step up and assist us because having allies within our community helps amplify what we need.”
To get in touch with the organisation, join the Limestone Coast Connect Facebook group.
Limestone Coast Connect’s biggest event, their Picnic in the Park supported by the Feast Festival, will take place at the Railway Lands on November 20 from 11am.
Mr Smith said the group wanted to have a ‘big fun day’ inclusive of everyone.
“We will have more information coming out soon just to make sure we have numbers to see what we need to do and provide,” he said.
“We are having some installations and some activities coming down from Adelaide with support from Feast Festival in Adelaide coming down to include us.
“It is a day of signifance within the LGBTQIA+ community because it is the Trans Day of Remembrance and an important event in the trans community, so we are there to support them.”
