Daniel Witthaus … Tasmania for a week in August.

We’re lucky enough to be having Daniel Witthaus, developer of Pride & Prejudice, coming down to Tasmania for a week in August.

Apart from his work in schools across Australia with Pride & Prejudice, Daniel has also worked across regional, rural remote communities.

During his time, we think that it would be an excellent opportunity to utilise Daniel’s skills and experience across schools and rural communities. It could be a great chance to run LGBTI forums in all three regions.

These forums could run for 2-3 hours, and could be a mix of information and skill-sharing, gauging community readiness for work and what can be done to improve the health and well-being of local LGBTI young people.

We could also include time to discuss Pride & Prejudice program, given a quality, formally-evaluated program is needed in our schools. It would be great to know if you think this sounds like a good idea, and how many of you would be interested in helping to plan, organise and promote forums like these. I’d also love to know if there are any other ideas about how we could best use Dan’s time.

BIO: Daniel Witthaus is the author of Beyond Priscilla: one gay man, one gay truck, one big idea…, Beyond ‘That’s So Gay!’: Challenging homophobia in Australian schools and the Pride & Prejudice educational package. He has spent almost two decades challenging homophobia one cuppa at a time, both in Australia, in schools and rural communities, and overseas, predominantly in developing countries.

Daniel occasionally chats with media outlets. In 2013 Daniel founded the National Institute for Challenging Homophobia Education (NICHE), which focuses on the needs of regional, rural and remote Australia. NICHE has had success with both the YourStory cartoon series and the ‘oi!’ challenging rural homophobia campaign.

Daniel likes to use Melbourne as a base, with occasional sojourns in Berlin. He has won multiple medals, including gold, on tennis courts at World Out and Gay Games over the last decade. Look forward to hearing your thoughts and this is also a good resource for you to have.

Proposed Dates: Sunday 10th August to Sunday 17th.
Sharon Jones LGBTI Suicide Prevention Project Officer North