sayNO2familyviolence Key Project

Over the last 5 years the committee has reached out to many community organisations, and businesses working together to raise awareness of aspects of family violence, and help to enable education to empower our local community to end family violence.

The sayNO2familyviolence committee was formed in 2017 to help reduce the burden of family violence in the Glenelg shire of Victoria.

We do this by raising awareness of aspects of family violence, through education of our community, building resilience, and helping to empower our local community to recognise, act and end family violence. We are involved with enabling programs and initiatives not providing the initiatives or programs ourselves.

The sayNO2familyviolence project is based on a program from Maryborough Go Goldfields and affiliated with the Rotary club of Maryborough.

It is a joint project between Rotary club of Portland Bay and Portland, however our committee has many members from Rotary club of Portland Bay and Portland, Portland District Health, Portland Victoria Police, Glenelg Local Learning and employment network (GLLEN), Glenelg shire council and Glenelg shire  Education providers.

"sayNO2familyviolence" provides a strong message of support, and a strong stance, that NO level of family violence is acceptable.
 
Why?? Because we CAN make a difference!
  • We know that men are more likely to experience violence from strangers and in a public place. However, women are most likely known to the perpetrator, and the violence usually takes place in the home.
  • One female is murdered by their current or former partner in Australia, each week.
  • In more than 30% of cases, children are involved.
  • The majority of women do not contact police.
(Australian Bureau of Statistics (2016), Personal Safety, Australia, ABS Website, accessed 3 January 2023.)
 
During the COVID 19 pandemic, the UN declared violence against women a shadow pandemic in 2020.
 
What we learned-
While trying to understand more about family violence, we felt our committee did not fully understand what family violence looked like, and this created many opportunities for discussion  We felt that if as professional and business people, we all had a different understanding about family violence, our community would have the same issues.
Collaborating with the Barwon South West Carer Respite center, we shared their brochure, turning this into an A4 poster, and began sharing this with businesses to apply to the back of the toilet door. The poster, created with the local disability industry, depicts aspects of family violence, not only physical violence that can be involved.
 
By sharing this understanding through the "back of the toilet door" campaign, the committee have been able to apply stickers to the back of over 850 toilet doors, influencing many toilet users.
 
 
What can you do to help change the story?