Project co-founder Maddi Ostapiw said the group needed to get information about what the community wanted, so it could move forward. 

“It’s always been slightly difficult for the pride project to streamline what we want to do in the future because when we are talking about service gaps for LGBTI people, there are nothing but gaps,” she said.

“There is a lot of stuff that we’ve identified that needs to happen, but being a small grassroots organisation, we have to work out what we need to prioritise.”

Ms Ostapiw said the survey was open to all LGBTI people, as well as group supporters.

“We are hoping for about 150 responses to the survey,” she said.

“We want to get an idea of what the community actually needs, rather than what service providers think we need.”

Ms Ostapiw said she knew there were service gaps in education for young people.

“There is also pretty massive gaps in terms of medical professionals and mental health professionals in the region,” she said.

“We also know there are service gaps when it comes to trans people and their ability to be accepted in the community.” Ms Ostapiw said questions on the survey covered a range of topics.

“There are questions about if a person has ever been bullied or excluded for being LGBTI,” she said.

“There are also questions for our allies about how much they know about the community.”

Ms Ostapiw said after the data had been collated, the pride project would run focus groups.

“We really want to consult with the community, rather than dictating what we believes need to happen,” she said.

“After the focus groups, we want to put together a terms of reference and decide what the Wimmera Pride Project needs to be, whether that is an education service, or advocacy service, or a group for social events.

“We need to work out where the priorities are.”

Ms Ostapiw said anyone who wanted to get involved in the focus groups could email her at maddi@wimmerapride.com.au.