Page 4549 - Week 12 - Thursday, 26 October 2017
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Community-led prevention
Gender equality is not something that will be achieved by government action alone. The Government provides a range of grants, awards, leadership programs and scholarships to support community leadership on gender equality. These include:
• ACT Women’s Awards;
• ACT Violence Prevention Awards;
• ACT Women’s Safety Grants;
• Audrey Fagan Young Women’s Enrichment Grants;
• Audrey Fagan Leadership Program; and
• Audrey Fagan Churchill Fellowship.
Since 2015-16, through the Women’s Safety Grants, the ACT Government has been supporting community-led projects to advance the priorities of the ACT Prevention of Violence Against Women and Children Strategy 2011-17. Examples of activities funded through this program in 2016-17 include:
• lunch time educational sessions within the construction, building and automotive industries in the Canberra region with the aim of preventing domestic and family violence;
• a pilot program to enhance the safety of women with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds following separation due to domestic violence;
• a project targeted towards children and young people to develop skills in communication, problem solving and relationship building with the aim of the prevention of domestic and family violence; and
• the development of a suite of resources to raise awareness of the experiences of older women subjected to family violence in the ACT and to offer practical information to women, support workers, family and friends.
School-based prevention
The Education Directorate aims to ensure that approaches to the primary prevention of domestic and family violence occur at all levels within schools—including the universal (school-wide), selected (class or group) and targeted (small group or individual) levels. A primary prevention approach in schools aims to effect long term cultural change, through educating children and young people to: build attitudes, norms and behaviour that do not accept violence; understand the drivers of violence; and be equipped with skills that assist them to form healthy and respectful relationships. Teachers are in a privileged position in their work with students as, in many cases, they have established and positive relationships with their students.
In 2015 and 2016, the ACT Government provided funding to each ACT public school to develop and embed social and emotional learning programs in their schools. Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) approaches enable students to acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills to manage their emotions and relationships. The Directorate’s Safe and Supportive Schools Policy (2016) requires schools to teach SEL approaches.
The Education Directorate is part of the National Respectful Relationships (RRE) Working Group which was established to progress education related Council of Australian Governments (COAG) priorities to address Domestic Violence. The group has representatives from the Australian Government, states and territories, Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), Board of Studies, National Catholic Education Commission, Independent Schools Council of Australia, Education Services Australia and COAG Education Council.
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