Rainbow Community House, a non-profit organisation that provides mental health support to young people in the LGBTIQA+ communities is set to close its doors.
The North Perth based service who catered to people between the ages of 12 and 25, flagged it was facing a funding challenge earlier this year. This week they announced they would not be taking on new clients, and current users of the facility would be referred to other services for support.
“It is with heavy hearts that we officially announce the upcoming closure of Rainbow Community House at the end of August. For the past 5+ years, RCH has operated as a not-for-profit organisation providing mental health support to LGBT+ young people between the ages of 12-25.” they said in an email.
“Due to our upcoming closure, our waitlist is closed, and we are not accepting referrals. If you or your clients are looking for counselling or social support services similar to RCH, we have included a list of crisis and other services in this email. The service most similar to ours (free/affordable and LGBT+ specific) is Freedom Centre.”
Rainbow House was founded in 2019 to “support the emotional, mental and relational well-being of queer youth through the provision of specialised and tailored individual, family and group counselling services”. They employed several psychologists and counsellors.
A spokesperson for Rainbow Community House told OUTinPerth that the closure had come after a significant benefactor to the service had opted out of providing further funding to the centre.
“For 5+ years the service has been almost solely funded by a single, incredibly generous benefactor. This benefactor has decided with significant difficulty to pivot philanthropic efforts to other endeavours.” they said.
“Unfortunately, active pursuit to secure more sustainable funding sources has not been successful. Our priority remains to ensure our current clients transition to appropriate ongoing support.”
Since opening in November 2019, the small team at RCH have seen 121 clients for nearly 4000 sessions. The organisation said they had developed a model over the years that responded to the need for longer term treatment of the trauma we were encountering, offering blocks of 24 fortnightly sessions and the option to return for another block of therapy after a break.
“RCH has operated with two or three part time counsellors/psychologists using a range of modalities as appropriate for the client’s needs and goals, taking a more in-depth and longer-term approach than any other low-cost service provides in this space.
“Alongside counselling, we offered social work support which helped clients access the services and build skills needed to meet their basic needs. This service became crucial in enabling clients to then enter the counselling space and focus on the depth work to heal their trauma.” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson also noted that the organisation’s social worker completed welfare and NDIS applications, worked on skills building, sourced referrals to additional services, and provided crucial liaison and case management support.
“We have found the model to be incredibly successful in supporting clients to make sustainable change.” they said.
If you are looking for a community group, support service or social group – check out OUTinPerth’s list of community organisations.
Declaration: OUTinPerth co-editor Leigh Andrew Hill was previously a staff member at Rainbow Community House.
