Bel is a manager at Rainbow Health Australia and leads the LGBTIQ+ Family Violence Prevention Project.  

Rainbow Health Australia is a program that supports lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) health and wellbeing through research and knowledge translation, training, resources, policy advice and service accreditation through the Rainbow Tick. They are located within the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society (ARCSHS) at La Trobe University.  

The LGBTIQ+ Family Violence Prevention Project is an initiative of Rainbow Health Australia that focuses on family violence experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse, intersex and queer communities, and how to prevent such violence from happening in the first place. Its focus is on addressing evidence gaps, strengthening understanding of the drivers of violence for LGBTIQ+ communities and building the expertise of both LGBTIQ+ organisations and family violence primary prevention organisations.   

A key output of the project is the Pride in Prevention Evidence Guide which summarises the current available evidence on the drivers of family violence experienced by LGBTIQ+ communities and provides recommendations for priority interventions to address it. This guide aligns with Change the story and is currently considered the foundational practice guide for work in this space. This was followed up by a series of practice guides focusing on messaging, partnerships and evaluation.  

The project has also involved working with LGBTIQ+ community-controlled organisations to develop two pilot projects – Transfemme, led by the Zoe Belle Gender Collective and safealways, led by Thorne Harbour Health.  

RHA plays a critical role at a national level supporting capability-building through policy advice, partnerships, forums and workshops and presentations. They also working in partnership with Our Watch to build on Pride in Prevention and Change the story to develop a new national framework for the primary prevention of gender-based violence against for LGBTIQ+ people and communities.  

Bel has a degree in politics and international studies, minoring in gender studies, post graduate qualification in family and domestic violence and a Masters degree in policy and public management. She has a background in community-led sexual assault prevention both on campus and at music and arts festivals. She previously worked in mainstream primary prevention at a women’s health organisation and DVRCV and before that led the communications department of an international development organisation. She also worked at WIRE, where they served on the helpline and worked as a trainer.   

Bel’s colleagues come from a range of backgrounds including community development, media communications, climate activism and LGBTIQ+ inclusion. Bel sees significant crossover between LGBTIQ+ inclusion and advocacy work and primary prevention, with a shared focus on health promotion and public health principles, training and facilitation, partnerships, project management and evaluation.   

Bel brought numerous skills to her current role from her previous experience including active listening, messaging, coalition building and advocacy. This foundation has equipped Bel with strategic insights into power dynamics, stakeholder engagement and persuasion techniques essential to challenging social norms, responding to resistance, navigating complex authorising environments and driving change in the sector.  

In her ongoing work, Bel has had to deepen her understanding of coalition-building, especially where there aren’t easy or ready connections. This includes framing issues, timing initiatives and strategically managing resistance to LGBTIQ+ inclusion within the sector. Bel emphasises the importance of balancing evidence with political realities and engaging individuals in a way that addresses both LGBTIQ+ issues and the broader impact of heteronormativity for everyone. Bel’s approach focuses on meeting practitioners where they are and designing initiatives that resonate with existing knowledge, while gradually expanding their understanding.  

Bel encourages her staff to pursue specialist training in specific prevention techniques such as messaging and partnerships, not just general prevention training. On-the-job training is equally valuable, providing opportunities to apply theoretical knowledge in practice. She also values widespread training to ensure that the mainstream workforce is, at a minimum, not inadvertently reinforcing cisnormativity and heteronormativity through their practice.  

Equally important is building the capacity of LGBTIQ+ organisations to provide the time and resources required to apply their already strong skills in health promotion to take up leadership roles within the gendered violence prevention system.  

Bel sees confidence, authenticity and curiosity as essential for engaging men and boys in primary prevention. She has several approaches and questions to meet men and boys where they are at, providing strengths-based and positive alternatives to violence-supportive attitudes and acknowledging they may also have negative experiences, including violence, as a result of the patriarchy. It is also important to understand the intersections between sexism, homophobia and transphobia and the ways these forces impact men’s experiences.  

When working with young people, Bel advocates for empowering them to shape positive change themselves, positioning them as agents of transformation in a sometimes-confusing social landscape.  

Bel’s approach to intersectionality includes a commitment to cultural literacy, competency and trust-building when working with communities other than her own. Senior leaders in the field, she believes, need a sophisticated understanding of gender theories and how gender oppression is inseparable from other forms of structural inequality and processes of colonisation. This means looking beyond additive approaches to intersectionality to instead understanding how these systems intersect and reinforce each other.