TiPS Graduate
Ezra Cosmo Burnett
he/they
About
Professional Title
Lived Experience Worker
Locations
- All of Victoria
Areas Of Expertise
- Advocacy and Inclusion
- Community and Youth
- Creative Expression and Activism
- Education and Equity
- LGBTIQA+ Awareness and Inclusion
- Mental Health and Wellbeing
Presentation Topics
- Addiction Recovery
- Advocacy
- Chronic Illness
- Chronic Illness and Disability
- Creativity and Communication
- Digital Content Creation
- Education
- Family
- Group facilitation
- Growing up LGBTIQA+ in Regional Areas
- Inclusion
- LGBTIQA+ Advocacy
- LGBTQI+ visibility
- Mental Health
- Neurodiverse perspectives
- Power and Privilege
- Queer activism
- Solidarity
- Teaching
- The Trans Experience
- Trans Rights
- Transgender and Gender Diverse Identities
- Youth Engagement
Open to Negotiating Fees
Yes
Biography
Ezra (he/they) is a facilitator, peer support worker, lived experience advocate, public speaker and writer who lives in Naarm (Melbourne) on beautiful Wurundjeri Country. He is proudly queer, chronically ill, disabled, neurodivergent, transgender man who is passionate about amplifying voices with lived expertise and building a more accessible and inclusive future for all. Ezra’s family is from rural Victoria and rural Tennessee, and he grew up mostly in regional VIC on Dja Dja Wurrung and Wadawurrung Country. Because of this, he is extremely passionate about amplifying LGBTQIA+ voices from rural and regional areas, as well as discussing the intersectionality of queer experiences beyond major urban areas.
He is currently studying a Diploma of Youth Work at RMIT and has been awarded a scholarship at Orygen for studying a Certificate 4 in Peer Support Work. Previously, Ezra has worked as a Project Support Officer at Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA), helping to plan, organise and facilitate the Take Charge of Change (TCC) Program. He has previously helped to facilitate the Young Leaders Program with CYDA, was a 2024 Young Leader with Minus 18 and was a member of the National Youth Advisory Council with Orygen from 2023-25. Alongside these roles, Ezra has previously run a TGD and Disabled Peer Support Group in partnership with Transgender Victoria and City of Melbourne Libraries, as well as MC’d for the Trans Justice Project’s Naarm rallies. In his free time, you’ll find Ezra making art, going for walks in nature, writing horror stories, or spending time with his friends, family and cats.
Experience
I have extensive public speaking and facilitator experience, and love being able to use communication strategies to bring diverse perspectives together. A few highlights include:
Public Speaking:
🌏 In 2025 I was selected by Orygen to be a Youth Delegate at the 7th International Association of Youth Mental Health (IAYMH) Conference, working both as a public speaker and as a content creator. At this International Conference I presented research from the “Climate of Distress” policy paper with Orygen, specifically connecting research to my lived experience organising with SS4C and the impact of the global climate crisis on youth mental health. Getting to travel to Vancouver on a scholarship and represent Orygen on an international scale has been a major highlight of my public speaking adventures so far!
👂🏻I was invited by ANROWS to speak as a panelist at their Nationwide 2025 Conference: “Listen, Learn, Act.” ANROWS is Australia’s national research organisation guiding policy and practice to reduce violence against women, young people, and children. I spoke on a panel that consisted entirely of young people with lived experience called “Take Our Lead.” In this panel we explored this big question: how can young people themselves be facilitators of social and cultural change and care for Survivors? Myself and other panelists discussed the power of youth self-advocacy and the importance of amplifying the voices of those with lived experience in discussions directly related to their lives. We explored how, historically, efforts to make research and practice knowledge relatable, translatable and accessible for children and young people has been difficult in a system dominated by adults. This panel was a place to discuss the importance of knowledge translation, and we shared information on how young people with lived experience play a vital role in the process of ensuring knowledge translation is authentic, accessible, and relevant.
♻️ My first experience with public speaking was as a Lead Organizer for the Ballarat branch of the School Strike 4 Climate (SS4C) Movement from 2017-2020. Within this role I spoke at numerous rallies, to countless regional newspapers, radio stations and televisions, and led multiple protests with crowds of over 1000 people!
🧠 In 2024 I was invited to speak as a panellist for the Autistic Pride Day 2024 Symposium. At this event I spoke about disability pride and its intersections with the autistic community.
Facilitation:
⚧️ As mentioned above, in 2024 I organised, facilitated, and ran a Trans and Gender Diverse and Disability Peer Support Group. This group was supported by City of Melbourne Libraries and Transgender Victoria, and ran every week at the Kathleen Syme Library and Community Centre in Carlton.
♿️ I helped to facilitate and moderate CYDA’s 2023-24 Young Leaders Program (YLP) alongside the Youth Action Team. I later helped to design, organise, moderate, facilitate and run CYDA’s Take Charge of Change (TCC) Program in 2024-25. Within both of these facilitator roles, I worked with a variety of young people between the ages of 12-25 with lived experience of disability.
🏳️⚧️ Since my teenage years, I have continued to be involved in organising efforts and speaking at rallies. This has included actions related to housing security, LGBT+ rights, workers rights and more. Most recently, in 2025 I helped to organise, facilitate and MC’d the Protect Trans Youth rally with the Trans Justice Project. Over 10,000 people showed up for this event at the State Library, coming together in a show of solidarity for young trans people across the continent.