Blacktown LGBTQI Youth Group’s Survival In Doubt Following Funding Cuts
Image: Jasmine Phillips and Brittany Cronin
The Blacktown Youth Services Association is due to shut down in March 2021 due to a lack of funding. The community not-forprofit has been upskilling and empowering young people for almost 35 years, providing free access to basic essentials, legal aid, counselling, and more to some of the most vulnerable youth in Blacktown.
One of those services included听AllOut, a group that has been hosting regular social events connecting the queer youth of the community for over a year. Organisers Jasmine Phillips and Brittany Cronin wanted young LGBTQI people to be able to connect with their community.
鈥�It鈥檚 about looking out for each other, understanding each other, but understanding yourself too, and feeling safe in the space you exist in,鈥� says Cronin.
While the group began as an effort to increase queer visibility, things moved quicker than expected, and now the focus is on the development of the wellness of the community.
鈥�Being able to go to the shopping center and see other lesbian couples has been semi-life changing,鈥� laughs Phillips. 鈥�We鈥檙e starting to see some small but really significant changes, but we鈥檙e talking about a community where 60% of your neighbours voted against marriage equality. People who don鈥檛 live in Blacktown 飞辞苍鈥檛 understand the uniqueness and complexity of this place. There鈥檚 so many systemic issues, and unfortunately that can be a breeding ground for discrimination and lack of understanding.鈥�
听AllOut was the first youth led and oriented organisation for LGBTQI youth in Blacktown and has sparked a slow but steady increase in other groups in Western Sydney. Prior to their launch last year, any community that existed was underground, and while youth services were abound, none of them catered to the queer community. Of all the community youth services in the Greater Western Sydney Area, Blacktown is only one to make themselves an ACON safe space and actively invite LGBTQI youth to participate in the community. 听
Research conducted by ACON and Western Sydney University from 2019-2020 on the experiences of LGBTQI people from the Greater Western Sydney region found that community groups and leaders are key to change within their local communities, and funding was needed to drive further action. Those surveyed reported violence and exclusion from the LGBTQI communities of Inner Sydney, with culturally and linguistically diverse participants highlighting that queer groups and events were unwelcoming and unwilling to attempt to include those from diverse cultural backgrounds.
It鈥檚 clear that if Blacktown Youth Services has to shut its doors, and AllOut with it, the impact on the queer community of Blacktown and the Greater Western Sydney area will be felt heavily.
鈥淲e鈥檝e had so many people who are just amazingly complex, who have their own lived experiences, and come from so many different intersections,鈥� Phillips says. 鈥�They want to get to know us and build our community, and that鈥檚 incredible. We want to support them and we want to continue doing that.鈥�
