Statement regarding COVID-19

Updated 28 July 2021

Twenty10 is committed to continuing our services supporting LGBTIQA+ young people in New South Wales, their families and our communities at this most challenging time.

Based on current lockdown restrictions in Greater Sydney, we have made the decision to suspend face-to-face services in Chippendale and Parramatta. Our team is working remotely and teleweb services have recommenced across most of our programs.

Young people and programs

Some of the challenges facing young LGBTIQA+ people at this time include:

Potential loss of income, employment, housing and increased risk of homelessness;
Increased feelings of anxiety and self-isolation, mental and physical ill-health, compounded by not being able to access safe, social support services face-to-face;
Spending increased time in the home environment where families may be less supportive;
Potential increase in risk of family violence.

Some of the things we are doing to mitigate these concerns include:

Working with our peak bodies to ensure employee’s rights, tenant’s rights and government subsidy packages are accessible and support young people;
Liaising with our partners such as Kirketon Road Centre, Inner City Legal Centre and Burton St Centre to ensure young people can still access these services;
Taking a flexible approach to rental payments and income fluctuations for our housing clients;
Increased hours for our phone and email intake and referral service, now operating weekdays from 10am – 1pm;
Providing online resources direct to service users, as well as to the broader community, through our Facebook page, Instagram and Twitter;
Providing an online social support service, hangOUT, via our Discord server;
Providing QLife phone and web-based peer support service.

We hope that by suspending face-to-face services now, that we will help to protect the health and safety of service-users, employees and volunteers, and ensure that we are able to restore all our programs safely in the future.

Training and Community Capacity Building

From an organisational perspective we are also facing future challenges due to reduced capacity to deliver our LGBTIQA+ Inclusivity training programs and fundraising events between now and the end of the year.

Understandably many face-to-face training sessions we have booked have had to be postponed. Instead, we will be delivering training online via Zoom.

Fundraising and Donations

Wear it Purple Day will likely be online this year in Sydney due to the continuing restrictions in August, making it more difficult for us to raise funds. If your school or workplace is looking for speakers or trainers for the day, or for events throughout the year, get in touch with our training team.

As our fundraising capacity has been affected by these restrictions, we appreciate any donations you can make! Every little bit helps.

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_button button_url=”https://www.twenty10.org.au/donate” button_text=”Please donate here if you can” button_alignment=”center” admin_label=”Button” _builder_version=”4.4.1″ background_layout=”dark”][/et_pb_button][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.7.7″ hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″]

From all the Board and Staff at Twenty10 inc. GLCS NSW, we hope everyone can stay safe and in good health throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Our communities have faced great challenges historically. By staying connected and working to help reduce transmission rates, and supporting those who are the most vulnerable at this time, we will get through this together.

Access up-to-date information about COVID-19 through NSW Health’s COVID-19 information page, Frequently Asked Questions and the NSW Government’s current restrictions for Greater Sydney.

Terence Humphreys & Jain Moralee
Co-Executive Directors, Twenty10 inc GLCS NSW