Courage to Change project working to prevent family violence
Kingston Council is working with community leaders to reduce family violence across the city.
The Courage to Change project is partnering leaders from Westall, Clayton South and Clarinda to help them drive prevention of family violence in the community. It was developed through extensive consultation with diverse cultural and faith community leaders to provide practical knowledge and skills.
Around 1500 incidents of family violence are reported to the police every year in Kingston.
The project is part of Kingston’s Prevention of Family Violence Action Plan 2019-2021 and is supported by the Victorian Government’s Free From Violence Local Government grant.
Kingston Mayor Georgina Oxley said that Council is committed to creating safe and respectful communities where family violence and gender inequality is not tolerated.
“It’s believed that most cases of family violence go unreported, so it’s likely that this kind of abuse is a lot more widespread in our community than we think,” Cr Oxley said.
“Preventing family violence is everyone’s responsibility and we are proud to partner with key community leaders to make a positive difference in our neighbourhoods.”
This week (September 23) the second round of Courage to Change workshops kicked-off at the Westall Community Hub with the final session of the two-part workshop to be held on 14 October.
It follows a pilot two-workshop series earlier this year involving ten community leaders, facilitated by the Australasian Centre for Human Rights and Health (ACHRH) and Women’s Health in the South East (WHISE).
Participants in the workshops discuss ways gender inequality contributes to harmful attitudes, behaviours and beliefs, and how safely challenging these can reduce the prevalence of family violence.
