By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
TWO years into a three-year program and Caroline Bell sees more than a little hope.
The manager of community safety at the City of Casey is one of the driving forces behind the CHALLENGE Family Violence project – a three-year initiative started in 2013 by the Cardinia, Greater Dandenong and Casey councils to promote peace in families, and funded by the National Community Crime Prevention Program.
Ms Bell said the project began with a call out for influential male leaders – from sporting, political, educational, and faith groups in the three regions – to encourage people in their specific field to join the campaign.
“The main objective was to use a primary prevention model to work with influential male leaders across the three municipalities to encourage them to join forces to support and extend on the White Ribbon campaign,” she said.
“We’ve provided those male leaders, roughly 70 across the three municipalities, with information and education about some of the causes associated with family violence.
“I’m really pleased with the level of involvement and their commitment to the project. At the moment they’re in the process of developing individual action plans to see what they can do in their work life or personal life to address the issue of family violence.”
Ms Bell said in 2015, the final year that the current funding will be provided, she expected the leaders to draw on the information they’d used and implement preventative and educational strategies within their organisations.
“It can be done through a whole range of activities,” Ms Bell said of the implementation stage.
“Some of the leaders have decided to organise individual activities, like holding a White Ribbon Day event.
“Some of the faith leaders might be delivering certain messages to faith groups and community leaders looking at changing policies, to explicitly address gender equity.
“Some are looking at doing marketing campaigns.”
And Ms Bell said the three councils planned to re-submit for additional funding for the CHALLENGE program after the end of next year, to continue the important work they had started.
“We certainly welcomed the announcement from both the current government and the Opposition that both are committed to funding the anti-violence campaign post the election.
“And we’re certainly looking to re-submit for funding.”
White Ribbon Day is held in Australia on Tuesday 25 November.
For more information on the CHALLENGE program, visit www.casey.vic.gov.au/health-safety/health-promotion/family-violence-prevention, or contact the City of Casey community safety team on 9705 5200.
