Diversity workshop breaks down barriers
Organised to help raise awareness about gender diversity and sexuality in the community, a free workshop was held in Rockingham last week.
Hosted by the City of Rockingham, the Sexuality, Gender Diversity and Mental Health workshop presented by the WA Association of Mental Health presented participants with knowledge about recognising diversity and its impact on mental health, using positive language and terminology, recognising unconscious bias and avoiding discrimination and understanding gender and sexual spectrums.
One of the participants was local homelessness
advocate Owen Farmer, who said he took part as a way to increase his understanding of people who might normally be ostracised or misunderstood in the wider community.
“I am on the front line of homelessness in this area and thought the workshop would be a great way to work to gain a deeper insight,” he said.
Mr Farmer said he believed the workshop was one way to start breaking down barriers and to work against discrimination.
“For me, the session gave me an outlook to not judge a book by its cover and to really work to understand where people have come from and what they could be going through,” Mr Farmer said.
Local homelessness advocate Owen Farmer.