ABOUT US

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Our Vision

 Is of a just and inclusive society that celebrates people of diverse sexualities, sex and gender.

 

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Our Mission

To create change through lived-experience based education, support and advocacy which enables LGBTIQ+ Tasmanians to live their best lives.

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Our Values

Pride – Respect – Cultural Safety – Reflection – Creativity

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Working It Out (WIO) acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Tasmania, their diversity, histories and knowledge and their continuing connections to land and community.

We also acknowledge LGBTIQ+ advocates, friends and allies whose courage and strengths have helped to make this a more just society for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex populations and their friends and families.  Their commitment to change, their resistance and courage to achieve justice has impacted on all of us to some degree.  For some of us there is on-going hurt, anger or frustration. We are mindful of this in both the way we work and engage with others.

History

OUR HISTORY

WIO is Tasmania’s only dedicated LGBTIQ+ support, advocacy and education service.

WIO emerged out of the campaign to decriminalise male homosexuality in Tasmanian in the 1990’s. The widespread community backlash against the decriminalisation led to a spike in suicides amongst young, gay Tasmanians. A number of concerned community members and allies formed a group to address this growing problem, eventually commissioning a report. This report, Working It Out: A needs-based analysis of sexual minority youth in North West Tasmania, called for the provision of specialist services to support Tasmania’s LGBTIQ+ people and the organisation was thus born.

 

View Working It Out's 2022-2025 Strategic Plan below:

History
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LANGUAGE

WIO uses the umbrella term LGBTIQ+. However, when working within our population groups we use the language of the people in the room, mindful that there are diverse expressions of body, relationships, gender and biological sex. All language evolves and changes.  Using respectful and inclusive language means checking with the person about how they identify and the pronouns they use for themselves.

STAFF

ANDREWhe/him
Policy & Research Officer
ANIthey/them
LGBTIQA+ Support Officer (South)
JENNYshe/her
Finance Officer
CHLOEshe/her
Communications & Community Engagement Officer
OLIVIA (LIV)she/her
Manager, Learning & Programs
RUTHshe/her
Compliance Manager
DANIELhe/him LGBTIQA+ School Inclusion Officer
SIMONE-LISAshe/her
Better Lives Project Officer
TRACEYshe/her
Trainer
GARRYhe/him
LGBTIQA+ Peer Worker/Community Worker (North West)
YALEIthey/them
Gender Group Facilitator
JOSEPHhe/him
LGBTIQA+ Peer Worker/Community Worker (North)
KAIhe/him
LGBTIQA+ Support Worker/Peer Navigator (South)
WORTHYall pronouns
Rainbow Connections Coordinator
AMBROSEthey/them
LGBTIQA+School Inclusion Officer
CEILIDHthey/she
Working It Out Together Project Officer

To contact any of our friendly staff, please email info@workingitout.org.au or call (03)6231 1200

Lynn Jarvis

Chief Executive Officer

Dr Lynn Jarvis - she/her

(BA Hons, BEd, EdD)

Lynn has worked in a variety of management and executive level positions across government, adult and higher education and the not-for-profit sector. While a born and bred Tasmanian, Lynn has also lived and worked in Japan, Malaysia and Cambodia.

A key theme of Lynn’s work is supporting those marginalised from opportunities to live full and inclusive lives in ways that are meaningful to them.  Her focus is on leading from a values-based position and on working towards a more just society for all.

Lynn lives with her wife and an assortment of chickens, paddy melons, native hens, rabbits and other wildlife on a small property south of Hobart.

dani

Dani Cairns

(Chair - she/her)

Dani is a Biochemist turned Designer and then Builder - proud of and passionate about what we can create together, for each other.

Previously, Convenor of The Women's Library, Newtown, Sydney which did then and continues now to provide both reading resources and a social hub for the community.

Currently, organiser of ‘A Twist of Lemons’, a welcoming social space for queer women, diversity and allies. Dani remembers how it was to be "working it out" and regards the opportunity to contribute to an organisation whose primary focus is inclusion and acceptance, and whose ethos of care and understanding she shares, to be an opportunity to give back to her community.

Dani loves to create beautiful things, dip in the ocean at dawn and hike solo, long distance in wilderness.

Anna McNabsml

Anna MacNab

(Treasurer – she /her)

Anna is qualified Certified Practicing Accountant with extensive accounting and auditing experience across the business and not-for-profit sectors. Anna currently works as a Finance Business Partner at TasNetworks.

Anna brings a great mix of enthusiasm, technical knowledge and analytical skills to her role as Treasurer on the WIO Board and she is keen to use these skills to contribute to the wider community.

Anna is a proud Kiwi and has made Tassie her home after living in the UK for nearly 10 years, she loves getting out for a bush walk and adventure outside. She also has an interest in strength sports and has competed in both Powerlifting and Strongwomen in the UK and Australia.

Rowan Richardson

Rowan Richardson

(he/him)

Rowan is a teacher based in Hobart, where he teaches senior secondary science via distance education. Rowan is passionate about equity in education, particularly for LGBTIQA+ students, and has spent most of his career teaching in North East Tasmania.

He is a mainland import and grew up on Gumbainggir country in NSW before studying and working as a scientist on Yuggera country in Brisbane. Rowan loves the great outdoors, his dog Ted, and dreams of building his own tiny house on a block of land.

He is currently trying with mixed success to become a green thumb (tips and tricks welcome).

Miranda Hann

Miranda Hann

(she /her)

Miranda is a General Practitioner (GP) Registrar and has worked in multiple hospital institutions to create greater access to services for LGBTIQ+ identifying individuals. She is passionate about creating safe spaces within a healthcare system that often shuns our community and has a special interest in gender affirming care.

She is thrilled to be a Tassie transplant, having lived throughout Australia and originally from the US, and finally settling here as home. She loves getting outside and has been learning about native plants and their uses. She hopes to continue expanding her knowledge of the original owners of Tasmania and the struggles experiences by LGBTIQ+ people historically and currently here in Tassie.

Benjamin Jones

Benjamin Jones

(he/him)

Benjamin is an executive, Australian lawyer and systems developer, who is currently completing a master of business administration focusing on social impact. He is a passionate advocate for those who experience systemic disadvantage, discrimination and prejudice.

Benjamin joined WIO to contribute back to the communities that have always supported him as a proud gay man and to support the fantastic work WIO does for so many across Tasmania.

In his spare time, Benjamin is a delighted uncle, avid fantasy reader, and unpaid IT support for most everyone he knows.

Scoutt Winter

Scoutt Winter

(they/them)

Scoutt is originally from Whadjuk Nyungar country in Western Australia and has been living on palawa/pakana country since 2012. In their role as Community Educator for the Tasmanian Council on AIDS, Hepatitis & Related Diseases, Scoutt loves getting out to regional Tassie to talk about sexual health & health literacy.

Scoutt is a self-identified nerd about community organizing and governance. Before their role at TasCAHRD they worked in the Settlement sector; leading a team across the State to support newly arriving refugees both individually and in a community development capacity. Scoutt was also part of the largest workers cooperative in the southern hemisphere (Resource Work Cooperative) for five years, including sitting on the Board for three years and holding the position of Chair for two.

Scoutt is passionate about justice and uses an intersectional lens to advocate for the rights and dignity of marginalized Tasmanians. Scoutt has an extremely cute rescue staffy named George and a garden full of pansies.

Photo AM

Andrew Mitchell

(he/him)

My name is Andrew, and I am a partner, father, grandfather, son and friend, all roles I cherish. I am at a stage in my life that means I don’t work full time and am able to focus on my study – currently two thirds of the way through a bachelor of psychological science, with a plan to study and research long term – and work in areas pertaining to social justice.

Professionally, I have had a career that meandered through business and business ownership and eventually to working in the Humanitarian Settlement Program in Tasmania, and now coordinating the Lutruwita (Tasmanian) Sex Worker outreach project as a peer.

I feel like I have been ‘coming out’ for fifteen years, via a journey which has included connecting with many amazing folks that are then connected to Working It Out, and I have been able to have been able to get closer to living an authentic life. The word pansy used to be quite triggering for me, but now I love that word and those flowers so heck’n much!

Ellen MacDonald - Bio photo

Ellen MacDonald

(she /her)

Ellen is a Queer and disabled woman originally from the lands of the Turrbal people in South East Queensland. She now calls Launceston home where she has the privilege of overlooking the Kanamaluka on palawa / pakana country. Ellen has a professional background in community development, community engagement and disability advocacy, with extensive board and committee experience in the not for profit and health sectors. She is employed at Health Consumers Tasmania as the Community Engagement Manager.

After a lived experience of young onset bowel cancer, she began getting involved with consumer representation and advocacy in health where she shares her lived experience and represent consumers, and her communities more broadly, on various boards and committees. Ellen is deeply passionate about community being the leaders of change and in the importance of valuing lived experience. She brings this passion, her own lived experience, and her very nerdy love of governance to her board roles and her day job.
In her spare time, Ellen loves a bit of craft – particularly snarky and nerdy cross stitch. She also has problematically large house plant collection which she adores.

OTHER PROJECT FUNDING

tascomfund

TASMANIAN COMMUNITY FUND

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DEPARTMENT OF STATE GROWTH, TASMANIA: ACTIVE TASMANIA

DEPARTMENT OF PREMIER AND CABINET

DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION, CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE

australian gov health and aged care

AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND AGED CARE

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