Consider how you can support rainbow people and their whānau to connect with each other.
How can your organisation or service provide space and resources for peer groups to grow? Do you have a physical space where groups could meet? Is there a process by which service users can make suggestions about what they need or want in order to connect with each other? It’s important to be led by what rainbow people want. Could you find out if there are potential activities that would be relaxing or appealing, e.g a regular art and crafts group or a movie night?
Rainbow people benefit from being able to connect with each other. Whānau benefit from being able to connect with other whānau. Are there ways you can support whānau to run groups with each other?
It will strengthen your organisation if you have ways for service users to connect with each other, and ways to feed information from the peer groups (whānau or rainbow people) back to the wider organisation.
There are different functions a peer group can perform: some may exist only as a safe peer support space, some may exist as a way for people to connect with each other and also feed knowledge or information back to the organisation. Talk to rainbow service users and their whānau about what is useful and relevant to their situation.
How can your organisation better listen to rainbow service users and their whānau? What kind of infrastructure would be useful to enable their voices to be heard?
Take Action
Support the creation or sustaining of peer support diversity groups or Queer-Straight Alliances for rainbow service users.
Provide resources to support families and whānau from a range of cultural backgrounds to support their rainbow family members. Check our list of resources for parents and whānau for a few we recommend.
Talk to rainbow service users about what their needs are in terms of peer groups or activities.
Read our tips for working with whānau for some advice to consider when working with rainbow people and their whānau.
Offer physical space or facilitation or something that you think might be useful if whānau want to run peer groups. Ask what you can do to help.
Think about the processes or infrastructure that your organisation could create to better listen to rainbow people generally, and in particular to any feedback that arises from the peer groups.