Last night at our Annual General Meeting we were incredibly excited to launch SARAA’s Strategic Plan 2024-2030, providing a roadmap to guide our work over the next 5 years.
Our plan sets a vision for LGBTIQA+ South Australians to thrive in an inclusive society where we experience optimal health, safety, inclusion, equity, and equality.
It articulates SARAA’s role as a member-led peak body that undertakes systemic advocacy working to change laws, policies and practices to improve the quality of life for LGBTIQA+ South Australians.
Over the next 5 years, SARAA will work to achieve the following goals:
1. Decision-makers adopt best practice policies that address systemic inequity and enhance the health, safety, inclusion, equality and equity of LGBTIQA+ South Australians.
2. LGBTIQA+ South Australians actively participate in society as their authentic selves, are meaningfully engaged, and are supported by a thriving sector.
3. South Australians understand and implement best practice actions that enable the health, safety, inclusion, equity, and equality of LGBTIQA+ South Australians.
4. LGBTIQA+ South Australians are authentically represented and are visible at all levels and through various mediums and platforms.
5. SARAA is the trusted and credible peak body in South Australia for LGBTIQA+ South Australians and stakeholders.
How we developed the plan
We thank Katerina Eleutheriou from Ilios Consulting who we engaged to support the development of our Strategic Plan 2024-2030. In addition to reviewing our existing documentation and developing a draft strategic plan that would align better with the key functions of a peak body, Ilios Consulting supported capturing member feedback on our draft Strategic Plan and providing recommendations to the SARAA Board.
The consultation process took place over a one-month period. The consultation process included:
- An online survey distributed to members of SARAA
- Face-to-face consultation with members of SARAA
- Face-to-face consultation with SARAA staff
- An online consultation with SARAA members
A total of 29 respondents contributed to the consultation process:
- Online survey: 7 responses
- Attendees at face-to-face members meeting: 20
- SARAA staff: 2
- Attendees to online consultation: 0
Ilios Consulting developed a report summarising the consultation activities and the perspectives members’ shared. The report included 5 themes of member feedback overall and an appendix with specified changes recommended.
How we incorporated feedback
The Board subcommittee managing the strategic plan development reviewed all the feedback and recommendations. We have accepted some suggestions in full, other suggestions in part, and a very small number of suggestions were not accepted.
In response to the key feedback themes of Definitions, Inclusion, and Systemic Advocacy, we have implemented a definitions section, utilised our definitions and values sections to highlight SARAA’s commitment to inclusion, and revised the how we work section to further highlight the purpose of systemic advocacy.
In response to the key feedback themes of Measurement and Change Management, the SARAA Board have taken these on notice.
We will work with our new CEO to identify how best to address the concerns raised, as part of the preparing and implementing our operational plans.
The annotated consultation report is available upon request.
In that report, we have included a column in Appendix 1 that describes whether or not SARAA accepted the suggested changes in the final version of the Strategic Plan. Where we have accepted the suggestion in part or have not accepted the suggestion, we have provided additional information about how we came to that decision.