Tue 26 Jun 2012 In: Our Communities View at Wayback View at NDHA
OUTLine’s new General Manager Timothy McMichael wants to lift the bar even higher for volunteers, increase training standards and revamp the face-to-face counselling service. He also plans to work more closely with other organisations as he strives towards a goal of boosting the “wellness” of our community. He revealed his vision in his address to the OUTLine's recent AGM, and address you can read in full here: Timoth McMichael is the new GM of OUTLine “It’s with very great pleasure that I speak to you all this evening, at a time of change for OUTLine with a newly elected chair, new Board members, and with me as a new General Manager now in role full time. “If we look at where New Zealand is at in terms of changing societal attitudes, and certainly with changes in statutory entitlements and responsibility, it could be argued that our rainbow community has never had it so good. "For sure, same sex couples are now able to have their relationships recognised and protected by the State, we have a National Prime Minister who says he’s open to the idea of same sex marriage and same sex couples being able to adopt children, only two weeks ago a TVNZ poll showed that 63% of the population supported same sex marriage, but we still have hate crime, we still have homophobia in all its’ facets; only three weeks ago teenager Zakk d’Larte, 18, made a complaint to police about a homophobic attacked he endured at Westhaven Marina on Saturday night. He says he was set upon by three men who said things like “I wish we could do to the gays what Hitler did to the Jews.” The teenager says he was knocked to the ground and kicked repeatedly, then left lying unconscious in a gutter for a number of hours. “We have institutionalised homophobia in many organisations, societal homophobia in some parts of the population and of course, almost the biggest daemon of all, internalised homophobia, which I would define as a fear, loathing and denial of one’s own homosexuality, which still has the ability to eat and eat way at the heart and soul of so many of our people, and which still leads to unnecessary hurt, harm, and all too often suicide. “If there is one thing I’m able to achieve during my tenure as General Manager, it will be to find more creative way still for improving the wellness, including the mental health, of our community. “I believe passionately that the more we can do to promote the psychological wellbeing of our community, the healthier our clients will become. So if part of the task of improving mental health is to break down the barriers of homophobia, of whatever nature, then we need to get out here and do it. Our joint collaboration with Rainbow Youth with the launch of the new campaign WTF is one example of working slightly outside of the square, and finding a different way to educate, challenge, raise income and further develop support for OUTLine. “Auckland is too small a city, and NZ is too small a country, for OUTLine to work in isolation, with the likes of Body Positive, Rainbow Youth, NZAF, Positive Woman and other similar NGO’s undertaking sometimes similar, or similarish activities under their own stream. I believe we need greater collaboration still, to work on joint initiatives, to ensure what is inevitable an increasingly small pot of money from funders is used wisely and not for duplication of services. I also think it is increasingly important to pool resources, and this may well mean, for example, shared accommodation. “So as I said at the start of my address, here at OUTLine we have a new Chair and a new GM, at NZAF they have a new Chair and a new GM, at Rainbow Youth they have a new Chair, at Genderbridge, they have a new Chair too, so there’s no doubt that change really is in the air. “Here at OUTLine I’ll be looking to explore early on ways to sign memoranda of understandings with any of these or other agencies, where mutuality can lead to a reduction of cost and greater outcomes for our community. “And I’ll also be looking early on to see what we can do in other directions to improve the wellness of our community – looking at self-development groups, personal support groups, and social groups which aren’t specifically aimed at the young gay white population, and which aren’t necessarily linked to either sex and or alcohol, although in our culture there’s often, of course, a place for these things too. “But on the wider front, what do I see happening for OUTLine over the next twelve months? “Well to start with Martin Fraser and I are about to begin work on a revised training for our potential volunteers. We have increased the contact time for the training to 42 hours and now will have a separate post training induction course of 4 hours for those whose applications to be a volunteer phone counsellor have been successful. “We’ll want to raise even further the bar for quality of content and for delivery of the training, and as a consequence, raise even higher the bar for quality and competence of those being selected as volunteer phone counsellors. “And then we need to ensure that all our current phone counsellors are given the very best kind of support whilst working with us; and that’s about continuing professional development. Later in the year we’ll be introducing a revised monthly forum on the first Monday of each month, and from January next year, quarterly Saturday trainings. And we’ll be starting work on a more formal process of annually reviewing all our staff’s work. “To ensure our investment in training potential volunteers is appropriate, and to maintain the level of competence of the service, we’ll be requiring a firmer commitment to attend a minimum of 6 monthly drop ins and 2 quarterly trainings in any one calendar year beginning January 2013. “Well trained, well supported volunteers mean better motivated phone counsellors which will mean better outcomes for our clients ringing us. “The next task at hand will be to bring the face to face counselling service into order – introducing minimum standards of service delivery and determining how the whole administrative function of how we deal with referrals will work. “We have established a steering group who are already working hard on developing a proposal to be presented to the new Board for their July meeting. I fully intend that a new face to face counselling service will be ready to roll out by Spring. Core questions we’re looking at include should we continue to offer a free at the point of delivery service, should there be restrictions on the number of sessions available, are we wanting to deal with just acute presentations, rather than on-going chronic or long term issues; just a flavour of the issues with which the steering group are grappling. “What I am clear about is whatever type of face to face counselling service we end up with; the service needs to be professional, competent, and affordable to OUTLine. “So it seems change is happening all around us. I like a particular Maori proverb which talks about change; it talks about people coming in and out of our lives and making changes as they go, and then leaving enough to ensure life continues on. “Ka piki e te tai, Piki tu Piki rere “The tide rises, In and out it flows.” GayNZ.com - 26th June 2012