The Policing and the Rainbow Community – Community Forum Ballarat aims to bring together community members, services and organisations to:

Increase the confidence among LGBTQIA+ community in LLO’s and Victoria Police
Improve the relationship between Victoria Police and LGBTQIA+ people and families
Strengthen community connections, relationships, and sense of safety, including for serving officers
Improve the knowledge of LGBTQIA+ communities among LLO’s and Victoria police
Build confidence in responses to neo-Nazi and other threatening behaviour that is being targeted towards the LGBTIQA+ community.

The forum is being sponsored by the Victorian Government's Department of Justice and Community Safety and the City of Ballarat through the Empowering Communities Grants. This forum is for the LGBTIQA+ community in Ballarat which is home to the fifth largest population of LGBTIQA+ people by Local Government Area in Victoria.

The Hon Harriet Shing, MLC, Minister for Equality will deliver the keynote address.

There will be a mixture of plenary and workshop sessions and each session will agree concrete outcomes and design changes that will be implemented through ongoing project work with LGBTIQA+ community.

Forum details:

Location: Ballarat Goods Shed
Date: Saturday 28th October
Time: 10:30am – 4:30pm

Lunch and morning and afternoon tea will be supplied. Please ensure that you describe your dietary requirements when you book your ticket.

The event will feature speakers, workshops, and panels of community experts with lived experience and will aim to be a safe space for LGBTQIA+ people, their families, and allies by providing in person supports on site, space for people with sensory requirements and a focus away from deficit discourse.

The workshops will each build solutions to issues identified and create concrete steps for local community, services and Victoria Police to implement together.

Who should attend:

Ballarat LGBTIQA+ community members
Service Providers and organisations with an interest in LGBTIQA+ wellbeing, in particular with an intersection of their services with policing
Professionals with an interest in LGBTIQA+ wellbeing, in particular where their profession intersects with policing
Victoria Police officers and Justice officers.