EDITORIAL | Conrad Liveris is the Chairperson of thread: community + health (formerly WAAC) and Sussex Street Community Law Service and a board member of Rainbow Futures WA.
WAAC and HepatitisWA are coming together as thread: community + health. The name is new, but the work behind it, and the commitment to the communities we serve, continues.
On 4 June, WAAC members voted unanimously to create a new legal structure to facilitate a merger with HepatitisWA. As we wrote in our article at the time, there is considerable overlap between the work of our two organisations and the communities we serve. Bringing the organisations together will make our services more sustainable at a time when demand is growing faster than funding.
Our new name reflects what has always run through both organisations, community connection, trusted health care and support shaped around people’s real lives. A thread carries history forward, holding different pieces together without making them the same. People who sew know that one thread is never enough, to create something great you need many.
Names and brands carry history and meaning and neither organisation took that lightly. For that reason, WAAC, HepatitisWA, M Clinic, Deen Clinic and Freedom will continue as trusted service names. At the same time, this new chapter called for an overarching brand of its own that weaves them together.
We are not the first to embark on this journey in our sector. Victorian AIDS Council became Thorne Harbour Health. ACT AIDS Action Council became Meridian. Queensland AIDS Committee is now Queensland Council for LGBTI Health.
It was never going to be easy to find a name and a brand equal to the richness of our history, the diversity of our work, and the breadth of the communities we serve.
When we engaged a marketing agency to assist us, we were insistent that there be a broad consultation. Hundreds of people have contributed to this across one-to-one conversations, workshops with our clients, staff, advisory groups and volunteers, with a survey for people they couldn’t meet face-to-face.
During the consultation process, we asked people to describe what was special about the two organisations, and what needed to be captured in the new brand identity.
One wrote: “I love the depth of knowledge here. The clinical expertise combined with the human warmth. People come to us scared and leave feeling heard. That is not common, and it is not accidental.”
Another wrote: “I love that you exist. That somewhere in this city there is a place where people can be honest about what they are going through without fear.”
The same words kept coming up to describe who we are and what we do: warm, welcome, inclusive, safe, authentic, honest, community, connection. This led us to thread: community + health.
A thread can connect, hold and create warmth. It brings two pieces together without erasing what makes each distinct. That made it a fitting name for two organisations with strong histories and for the many different, sometimes overlapping communities connected through our work.
The thread is visible throughout our history. It is in the awareness ribbons worn for HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C. It is in the quilts stitched with love to honour people lost to HIV. It is in the Progress Pride flag and the many flags that represent and celebrate our LGBTIQA+ communities.
It also runs through the work itself, in people sharing knowledge, offering peer support, providing trusted clinical care, challenging stigma and making it easier for someone to ask for help. The new name recognises the thread that has always run through our story.
Thread has always been part of our story. Our new name and brand recognises this.
The colour palette of the new brand (espresso, mocha and latte) has been chosen to capture the warmth people identify with our services, and to celebrate the human diversity of the people we serve.
The colours honour the fact that clients sometimes need to come to us discreetly, given the stigma and discrimination they encounter elsewhere. This is complemented by shades of red, blue and yellow for when we want to be noticed.
The brand is brought to life through a hand-drawn illustration style, with line drawings that evoke both the new name and the work of Keith Haring, an artist instrumental in HIV and LGBTIQA+ advocacy.
Over the coming months, the new identity will be woven through our website, resources and communications. In the meantime, more information is available at thread.org.au.
The name is changing, but the thread running through our work remains the same, free and accessible community services, trusted expertise, and care offered with warmth and without judgement.
Conrad Liveris
