Ricki Spencer

"Advocacy never stops. It keeps going". We were treated to conversing with the lovely Ricki Spencer this week. Ricki is a trans woman, mental health and disability advocate from Footscray who has endured some really rough treatment in her life and she continues to hold her head up high. Ricki tells us that she was stigmatised and bullied throughout primary and high school for being different and she learned very quickly that there was no support for her in society: from the police, doctors and family. Ricki went on to study Community Development and volunteered with the Victorian Aids Council. She and her community were stigmatised most severely during the AIDS crisis. Ricki holds a Bachelor and Masters of Education and is now partway through her PhD on unconscious, binary, heteronormative bias among the teaching population. Ricki has found it close to impossible to secure teaching work despite being more than qualified. Ricki also uses her time as a mental health advocate and co-design practitioner in digital health for broad access needs. Ricky says that finding connection with others and listening to how others have endured adversity has built her self-confidence. She says it is important to build allies. We thank Ricki so much for joining us on the blower from Footscray this week. Thank-you, Ricki.