Our vision
Communities, organisations and services that are inclusive & just, in a participatory society where all people have health, wellbeing, representation & self-determination.
intertwine envisages a progressive society which is truly inclusive — where people from all walks of life, sexualities, ethnicities, genders and abilities can work creatively, collaboratively and courageously together to transform our society into one where all can thrive.
Our purpose is to eliminate marginalisation and oppression through dismantling systemic power structures. We do this through education, engaging and connecting diverse communities and organisations and fostering resilience, intersectional inclusion and self-empowerment
intertwine takes a primary prevention approach to help organisations understand the underlying drivers of violence and that creating the circumstances for gender equity, cultural and racial justice, freedom of sexuality and gender identity and a social model of disability will result in a society with lower rates of harm by others and lower rates of self-harm by those affected.
intertwine is a privately held not-for-profit company registered as a charity with the ACNC and listed on the Register of Harm Prevention Charities with the Department of Social Security.
Our values
Integrity
We walk the talk. We are trustworthy and fair. We operate with transparency. We pay speakers, staff, interns and participants in research projects. We respect the autonomy of the communities and individuals we work with. We declare our privilege and use it to be visible allies. We acknowledge the stolen lands on which we work. We name our intersecting identities in the interests of collective resistance.
Inclusion
Our fundamental maxim is ‘nothing about us without us’. We strive for social justice. We collaborate and wherever possible, centre marginalised voices. We operate through consensus. We recognise lived and living experience as authority. Our community of staff, Board and advisors with living experience guides our strategy. We create mentor positions for younger and less experienced staff in all of our projects and work.
Transformation
We believe that all people have the capacity to change for the better. We believe that conversations and training can create culture shift within organisations and across society. We believe that eliminating structural barriers will create space for all people to participate in a vibrant and fulfilling life.
Our principles
Decolonisation
intertwine acknowledges that it operates on stolen land and that its existence is a continuation of settler colonialism. We address this by paying a percentage of our income to ‘pay the rent’ programs, by prioritising First Nations employment, participation, authority and input, and by partnering with First Nations-run organisations wherever possible. We will examine all projects through a decolonising lens.
Harm prevention
intertwine takes a ‘primary prevention’ approach to the prevention of harm to human beings, that is, an understanding that removal of the drivers of harm long before harm has occurred will prevent the harm from occurring. In particular, this framework includes:
- Whole-of-population shifts that support and celebrate communities and diverse, multi-layered individuals while actively undermining rigid structures that categorise and divide
- Prevention not intervention — we support and create initiatives that produce resilience, empowerment, connectivity, and social cohesion.
- A fundamental position that removing social and economic barriers will result in prevention of self-harm and harm by others.
A values-based approach
intertwine relies on research and evidence that communicating through a values-based framework creates the environment and circumstances for change to occur.
Our approach includes:
- Persuasive communications aimed at the moveable middle
- Social psychology approaches to communicating
- Stories that follow a vision-barrier-action structure
- We do not dwell on or reinforce negative statistics or repeat myths in order to dispel them.
- We have an ethical lens through which we make decisions about donations, purchases and funding.
Nonviolence
intertwine is a harm-prevention organisation with a commitment to nonviolence. While we may understand how individual violence can arise under conditions of state violence, colonial violence and structural violence, and the material conditions of late-stage capitalism, we do not condone planned violence, armed actions or incitement to violence.
We support primary prevention of violence through structural change and mutual aid, and we support behaviour change programs and transformative justice approaches for users of violence. Where each act of violence creates the conditions for more violence, each deliberate nonviolent act creates the space for just futures for all without violence.
We are evidence-based
- We rely on evidence and proven approaches
- Where errors are discovered or new information unearthed, we publish retractions and correct the record.
Collaboration
intertwine has a fundamental commitment to participatory democracy and the collaborative sharing of power. The principle of ‘nothing about us without us’ means that intertwine will always ensure that affected communities are involved in the creation of materials, resources and projects that concerns them. This includes:
- Co-design of materials, training programs, events
- Participatory research frameworks and a commitment to data sovereignty
- Consultation where direct partnership is not possible
- Representation on all intertwine committees, projects, governance
intertwine may partner with organisations from time to time, especially where creating such a partnership extends knowledge and skills across multiple intersections, but where an organisation is owned and managed by members of affected communities, they will be the lead partner in the project.
