Talking with your loved ones about friendships, relationships and intimacy can be tricky. As parents, family and friends, we often worry that talking about it can be risky.

This free workshop will help you feel more confident to have these conversations. It will give you ideas about the best topics to cover, tips for talking and opportunities to practice so you can support your loved one to develop knowledge and skills that give them power and control to keep themselves safe, while also having a fulfilling life.

The four modules we’ll cover are:

Introduction and Setting The Stage
Human Sexual Development
Tips For Talking and Teachable Moments
Responding to Behaviours

Terms and conditions for participants

1 Introduction and overview of workshops

(a) Thank you for participating in our parent workshops. We are so excited to have you involved and appreciate your commitment to supporting and empowering your family member to live the life they want.

(b) Everyone needs people they know and trust to help them feel safe, supported and cared about. We know that families and friends have a great deal of knowledge and information to share with us.

(c) These terms and conditions set out our expectations for participation in the parent workshops: Relationship Planning: friendships, relationships & intimacy.

(d) The workshop will be delivered in one session up to 1 hour on 29 April 2026.

(e) The purpose of these workshops is to upskill families to support people with a disability to engage in friendships, relationships, and intimacy, in a way that recognises their right to autonomy and control, while giving you the knowledge to support them in areas that pose additional challenges.

(f) These workshops are adapted from content developed by Elevatus, a US-based company specialising in developmental disability and intimacy.

(g) For the avoidance of doubt, these workshops do not constitute formal training or accreditation and should not be relied upon as a substitute for formal training on this topic. These workshops are designed for individual capacity-building only.

2 Fees

(a) These workshops are free but by registration only.

(b) These workshops are not designed to constitute supports under the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

3 Behavioural expectations

(a) You agree to treat the facilitator(s) and fellow participants with courtesy and respect at all times.

(b) You also agree to respect the privacy of your family members, and other workshop attendees and use discretion when sharing personal or sensitive information.

(c) You acknowledge that people with a disability have the same right as others to have the experience of meaningful relationships like making friends and having loving relationships with members of the same or opposite sex. You understand relationships fulfil a number of needs for people including the need for affection, social contact, physical contact, and the need to develop a sense of self-esteem and confidence. You will engage in the workshops in recognition of this rights-based approach.

(d) You are encouraged to ask questions and raise any concerns they have. We will do our best to promptly address any concerns raised.

4 Waiver

(a) There is a level of risk involved with navigating friendships, relationships and intimacy. These workshops should support you to navigate these challenges with your family member, however, to the extent permitted by law, Melba is not responsible for any harm that happens at a workshop, or any relationships explored by your family member outside the workshops.

5 Cancellation/changes by Melba

(a) Melba will use its best endeavours to provide all workshop components as advertised but reserves the right to alter or cancel any workshops or delivery of content or other arrangements without notice subject to operational, technical, health and safety or other considerations.

6 Intellectual Property

(a) Elevatus Training owns the copyright to the training materials; curriculum, handouts, teaching tools, PowerPoints, etc. and we ask that you respect our intellectual property. Melba has adapted this content to apply to our participants.

(b) We will provide you with electronic copies of workshop handouts.

7 Privacy

(a) You acknowledge that Melba collects your personal information in accordance with its privacy policy which can be accessed at: https://www.melbasupport.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Privacy-Policy-2025.pdf

(b) In participating in the workshops, you agree to respect the privacy of others, including confidentiality of any material shared during workshops.

By registering for this event, I agree to abide by this Agreement and understand that failing to do so may result in withdrawal from the workshops.

Contact the host of Free Relationship Planning Workshop: for Parents and Families - Wednesday 29 April, 7.30pm to 8.30pm