EXPLORING THE DIVERSITY TOOLKIT

Welcome to Flourish Australia’s online Exploring Diversity Toolkit.

This toolkit was created for Flourish Australia by Practical Visionaries with key contributions from Flourish Australia staff, ACON and Futures Upfront.  

It aims to support Flourish Australia's overall diversity strategy by supporting staff to understand how different aspects of diversity impact on service accessibility and responsiveness.  

The toolkit also provides various resources and activities to help staff begin the journey towards designing services that enable full participation within a diverse and inclusive community.

This section covers:

• Dimensions of diversity - the four dimensions covered in this toolkit

• Why this toolkit was created

• How to use this toolkit

• How this toolkit was created

DIMENSIONS OF DIVERSITY

The toolkit explores four dimensions of diversity and provides various videos, resources and activities to support Flourish Australia's staff's understanding and learning about what it means to provide services in a diverse world.

Whilst there are many dimensions of diversity, this toolkit focuses on the following four dimensions:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities

• People from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds

• People from lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex communities

• People with disabilities (other than mental health).

Staff are encouraged to build on the learning from this toolkit and explore other dimensions of diversity to improve best practice in working with diversity at Flourish Australia.

WHY THIS TOOLKIT WAS CREATED

Flourish Australia has had a long history working to create a more inclusive world for people with a mental health issue or psychosocial disability.  Through Flourish Australia's recovery orientated supports and resources, and social enterprises, Flourish Australia has been helping people to fulfil their hopes, dreams and aspirations.  

Building on the strength of Flourish Australia's work on inclusion of those with a lived experience and Flourish Australia's strong relationships and networks with indigenous communities, Flourish Australia has begun looking at how Flourish Australia can embrace and harness the dynamism that diversity brings to the workplace and to the people and communities Flourish Australia works with.

As Flourish Australia grows, ensuring that Flourish Australia is responsive to the diversity of people in our communities will be one of the keys to Flourish Australia's success into the future.  This toolkit was therefore created to support Flourish Australia's journey towards becoming a more inclusive organisation.

MODULES

This toolkit has the following four modules (which can be accessed from the menu bar at the top):

• Module 1: ATSI (Introduction to Engaging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities)
• Module 2: CALD (Introduction to Cultural Diversity in Mental Health)
• Module 3: LGBTI (Introduction to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex Inclusivity in Mental Health)
• Module 4: Pwd (Introduction to People with Disabilities and Mental Health)

MODULE SUB-SECTIONS

Each module has sub-sections along with associated videos, resources and activities for staff to explore.  Internal and external links are in blue.  

From each module page, you can scroll down to access each module's sub-sections.

Resources and activities

Resources and activities are identified by the following icons:

RECOMMENDATION

It is recommended that staff complete each module in sequential order (that is, complete each sub-section one after the other) as each sub-section builds on the concepts and ideas presented in the previous sub-section.

Staff can also come back to this toolkit to revisit the modules and to download any of the associated resources.

TIME LAG

Please note that there may be small time delays (between 5 to 10 seconds depending on your internet connection) as pages, images and videos load.  This is normal due to the rich multimedia experience of this website.  We therefore ask for your patience if this happens.

HOW THIS TOOLKIT WAS CREATED

This toolkit was created by Practical Visionaries for Flourish Australia, in consultation with staff who attended the two day training course.

Video footage and photography from a two-day diversity innovation workshop, Common Ground, held at Figtree Conference Centre, Olympic Park, was used to create the videos and images for each module.  

Common Ground was an opportunity to start exploring how different aspects of diversity impact on the way Flourish Australia delivers services and how Flourish Australia can design services to make a difference for the diversity of people that live in our communities. This includes people from indigenous communities, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds; people from lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex backgrounds; and people with disabilities.  

The following staff and consultants were involved in presenting at Common Ground and are featured in the videos in the various modules: