School worker gets activist award
Catherine Reidy, a 21-year-old project worker at Women’s Health In the North (WHIN) Thornbury, has been honoured with the inaugural Sally Isaac Young Woman Community Activist Award for her work to eliminate homophobia in schools across Melbourne.
Reidy, herself openly gay, has been focused on making life easier for queer students since her own school days.
“I started doing [homophobia] workshops with younger classes when I was in year 10 at Princes Hill Secondary College,” she told Sydney Star Observer.
“When I finished school, I was still interested in the issue and still seeing a lot of my peers struggling with homophobia in schools.”
In 2008, Reidy received funding to help develop Pridentity, a pilot anti-homophobia program which has since been embraced by school’s across Melbourne’s northern region. The program was this year delivered at Thornbury High School, Diamond Valley College and Hume Central Secondary College.
“We run workshops with all year 9 and 10 students covering the aspects of the health curriculum that don’t usually get covered,” Reidy said.
“We have discussions and activities on what it might be like to find out your friend is gay and how you might help them. We give [students] resources for support groups that they wouldn’t usually have access to.”
While the program is an important lifeline for gay and lesbian students, it can also prove an important awakening for the heterosexual majority.
“Often, it’s the first time these students have met someone who’s openly gay and it can be a really confronting moment for them – you see the lightbulb moment when they realise we’re not weird, we’re just normal people, and it can be very profound.”
The award, presented last week at Northcote Town Hall, comes with a tidy $1000 sum, however Reidy said the most heartening aspect of the honour was that it helped to get the word out about the program she’s helmed.
“In the past couple of days, I’ve been getting emails from right around the country from people asking about the program and how they could replicate it.
“I think in Victoria, we lead the way when it comes to school programs, whereas other states seem to lag behind a bit.
“Hopefully the good work we’re doing with Pridentity can spread to other areas.”
Congratulations Catherine for taking a leading role in educating the youth re issues around homophobia, and for also providing support for the gay and lesbian young people in our schools. The work you are doing educating these young people will have profound effects for helping end discrimination and bullying in schools and hopefully make a difference so that young people feel accepted and and don’t feel that suicide is their only option.