SUPPORTING LGBTIQA+ REFUGEES AND ASYLUM SEEKERS IN AUSTRALIA
Since 2018, Many Coloured Sky has supported a growing group of LGBTIQA+ refugees and people seeking asylum in Australia - almost 500 people from 43 different countries on five continents. From our office and drop-in space in Melbourne, we offer a range of face-to-face programs and activities, as well as capacity building, professional development and networking activities to build a supportive network of organisations nationally.
As with all of Many Coloured Sky’s work, we take a development approach, ensuring that LGBTIQA+ refugees themselves shape our services and programs and have multiple opportunities to participate and lead, including in paid roles and advisory positions in our partner organisations.
For more information
+61 0400 257 004
Please note: at this time we can only provide direct support to people already in Australia
Queer Refugee and Asylum Seeker Peers
Queer Refugee and Asylum Seeker Peers (QRASP) provides strength-based, community-led supports to our queer refugee community and ensures that all our work centres lived-experience, strengthens genuine community and gives multiple opportunities for members to gain skills, share ideas, support their peers, and lead.
· group and one-to-one peer support and mentoring
· social dinners and events
· weekly workshops and activities
· drop-in and safe space
· peer service navigation and advocacy
· peer-led multi-session programs
· a lived-experience advisory committee that guides our work
· guest speaking opportunities
· governance and leadership workshops and support
· training to become a peer mentor
Heartspace
Heartspace enables and supports our members to:
assist their peers with connection to mental health and wellbeing services and programs
co-facilitate multi-session programs and one-off workshops focused on mental health and social connection
mentor community members
co-design and deliver training and capacity building to mental health and other relevant organisations
A social work position coordinates and supports a lived-experience team of peer mentors / facilitators, addressing complex individual needs of LGBTIQA+ refugees and asylum seekers, assisting peer-led program development and supporting engagement of the team across mental health and allied sectors.
Heartspace is funded by the Victorian Department of Health
SETS: LGBTIQA+ Settlement Engagement and Transition Support
SETS builds capacity and meets the settlement needs of eligible permanent migrants, mostly permanent humanitarian entrants. Our partnership with Queerspace at Drummond Street Services is Australia’s first and only LGBTIQA+-specific SETS program, and focuses on -
social connection
economic well-being and independence
personal wellbeing
connection to the Australian community
working to ensure that the broader settlement sector is welcoming and inclusive of LGBTIQA+ people
We provide settlement-related information, advice, advocacy, help to access mainstream and other relevant services, community connection
Eligibility requirements apply to the SETS program. Funded by the Commonwealth of Australia.
Services for organisations
professional development and training
Many Coloured Sky delivers tailored professional development to services across multiple sectors - working with LGBTIQA+ refugees and asylum seekers, intersectionality in practice, supporting LGBTIQA+ young people from multicultural backgrounds, and more. Fee for service.
Community of Practice and Network
Our online Community of Practice and Network supports service providers and focuses on improving practice in working with queer refugees and asylum seekers.
secondary consultation
We’re available to assist organisations to improve their responses to the individual needs of LGBTIQA+ refugee and asylum seeker clients.
Collective Impact
Recognising the complex challenges faced by LGBTIQA+ refugees and asylum seekers, we work collaboratively with partner organisations to advocate for systemic and legislative change and to develop and trial new programmatic approaches. In 2024/25 we’re hosting two collective impact action groups, hosted in Melbourne and focused on mental health and improving access to safe and affordable housing.
QUEER REFUGEE HUB
Many Coloured Sky’s office and meeting rooms in Melbourne were established immediately after Melbourne’s extended COVID lockdown in 2020, and one of the key reasons for this was to provide a home and place of refuge and support for queer refugees and people seeking asylum. Our original “Basecamp” offered drop-in activities with meals, access to computers, printers and the internet, support from volunteers to complete forms and applications, conversational English classes, workshops, and the opportunity for those in need to take home donated items of food, toiletries and cosmetics, and other goodies. In 2023 we co-located with Drummond Street Services, offering a larger drop-in space and lounge, group work area and proximity to Drummond Street’s Queerspace programs.
ADVOCACY
LGBTIQA+ people seeking protection in Australia as refugees face multiple hurdles as a result of discriminatory legislation and policy, personal histories of trauma and victimisation, racism, homophobia and transphobia in the Australian community, poverty and lack of opportunity. Many Coloured Sky supports LGBTIQA+ refugees and asylum seekers to be heard and uses its resources and networks to advocate for change on multiple levels. We do this through dialogue with governments and Australian leaders, awareness raising in relevant community service sectors and in the Australian community, promotion of good practice, attendance at interviews and engagements our members may have with government departments, and building the skills, resources and networks of our members to be heard, respected and to lead change.
In late 2022 we met with then-Immigration Minister Andrew Giles and presented a range of our concerns to him. These are summarised in the document linked HERE -
RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Find our “You Are Welcome Here” posters and other resources HERE
For more information
welcome@manycolouredsky.org
+61 0400 257 004
Please note: at this time we can only provide direct support to people already in Australia