Living Proud

Living Proud (formerly Gay & Lesbian Community Services of WA Inc) has been providing support, information and resources to the Western Australian gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans and intersex community for over 40 years. In fact, we are the longest running organisation of our kind in the Southern Hemisphere.

As Western Australia’s main LGBTI community service our focus is on providing essential services to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans and intersex communities, including our peer counselling phone line, health and wellbeing initiatives and community capacity building. We also offer a number of training options for professionals including the Opening Closets Mental Health training and other half and full-day workplace training in order to improve accessibility for LGBTI people. We also have a successful history of running funded projects, often in partnership with other community groups.

Our objectives are to:

• Provide a range of quality services, support and resources which promote the health and wellbeing of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex and other sex, sexuality and gender diverse people (collectively LGBTI);

• Provide advocacy and leadership aimed at reducing disadvantage and discrimination among LGBTI people;

• Encourage and empower LGBTI people to actively participate within the Association, partner organisations and the community;

• Provide consultancy, information, education and training to a range of professionals and service providers which promotes access to services and improves the quality of services for LGBTI people;

• Develop the capacity of groups, organisations, businesses and other institutions to be inclusive of LGBTI people; and,

• To establish an ongoing structure to finance the above aims.

Living Proud is the WA partner for QLife which an anonymous mental health line. Qlife provides a nation-wide, early intervention, peer supported telephone and web based service to diverse people of all ages experiencing poor mental health, psychological distress, social isolation, discrimination, experiences of being misgendered and/or other social determinants that impact on their health and well-being. The service is confidential and staffed by trained peer volunteers. See the Qlife listing here.