Garry Higgins OAM, President of the Rotary Club of Maryborough was invited by Dorothy Gilmour to speak at the November Rotary Safe Families Champions meeting on Rotary Maryborough’s ‘SayNo2familyviolence’ campaign which was initiated 6 years ago.
While the SayNo2familyviolence campaign is a different program to Safe Families, both initiatives well complement one another and it is powerful that they sit within the Rotary network.
The first objective of Rotary Maryborough was to ‘Start the Conversation.’ A number of information sessions were held with Club members using guest speakers from service providers such as Victoria Police and people who had been subjected to abuse. A significant development was a ‘white board’ session in the Club with male and female members which identified that the issue of abuse is ‘mainly a women’s problem but a men’s issue.’
Another important consideration for the Club was to decide on its level of involvement. Two main objectives identified were to create cultural change within the Maryborough community where family abuse was a serious problem and secondly, to create institutional change within service providers, major employers and other local community and voluntary groups. Garry commented: 'local people respond to local people'.
Rotary Maryborough didn’t feel that it could impact at the top end of the spectrum in developing service responses, providing emergency accommodation or developing therapeutical programs etc. but the Club had an important role in advocacy work to ensure that the message was spread within the local Maryborough community. As such, Garry commented that a suite of services were developed in partnership with welfare and community groups to tackle the issue at an individual, community and legislative level.
The Club developed a Collective Impact Model with a Family Violence Action Group which included interaction with Police, Education Services, DHHS and the District Health Service. The ever-present ongoing challenge is to have enough people, especially men, treat the issue as a serious one. Success with the program has occurred within organisations where a culture is developing for women to come forward and talk.
Other important future considerations that Rotary Maryborough consider important is looking at prevention and especially the issue of coercive control in a family situation. Also, 45% of family violence occurs in front of children and it’s important to establish nurturing programs in a child’s early years which the local Maryborough community is now focussing on.
Report by Peter Berg
Rotary Melbourne Safe Families Champion
