Sport
13 June, 2024
Maryborough Rotary Club to educate sporting clubs on prevention of family violence
The Maryborough Giants and Natte Bealiba Football Netball Clubs will unite on Saturday for an important event, with the prevention of family violence on the agenda prior to their senior games. In partnership with the Maryborough Rotary Club and...
The Maryborough Giants and Natte Bealiba Football Netball Clubs will unite on Saturday for an important event, with the prevention of family violence on the agenda prior to their senior games.
In partnership with the Maryborough Rotary Club and their SayNO2familyviolence initiative, clubs around the district will be educated on the prevention of family violence for the first time since before COVID-19’s impact, with the game between the Giants and Swans the first game Rotary will use as a driver to educate young people about prevention of the crime.
Maryborough Rotary Club’s Garry Higgins spoke about the importance of educating clubs in the midst of an increase in violence against women in 2024.
“We’ve done these programs before, but we haven’t done them since COVID. We have done them in the Bendigo Football Netball League and the Maryborough Castlemaine District Football Netball League previously. Saturday’s session will be with the Maryborough Giants and Natte Bealiba,” he said.
“It’s part of our SayNO2familyviolence campaign. We have a QR code and have developed a website which takes you to our information site about local services and defining what family violence is."
“Our philosophy is that the issue won’t be resolved by the parliament, judiciary or the police, it will be resolved by average punters like us. It’s about driving cultural change within grassroots communities. It’s where we believe the real cultural change can take place, and the drivers of family violence are very prevalent in football and netball clubs.
“We have young people who are unaware of them. It’s about making people aware of, one, what family violence is, two, showing the courage of calling it out when they see it, and thirdly, to acknowledge and remember the women who have been killed by their partners.”
Higgins said that he reached out to Natte Bealiba primarily, but also wanted to make sure all clubs in the district were educated.
“We reached out to Natte primarily, but also both clubs, with our family violence campaign. We are re-establishing the program, with the rebranding of our website and trying to get an action group re-established, having had a couple of meetings around that. This is part of the awareness program of having people start talking about it and start the conversation,” he said.
“In terms of our local statistics, it’s the single biggest crime event in Maryborough, breaches of Apprehended Violence Orders. In the last statistics, there were in excess of 450. And in terms of police visitations to family violence incidences in our area, there is more than one a day, and that is a terrible indictment to what is happening in our community.
“What we want people to do is, if they hear it, or see it, report it. If they hear it, or know of family members who have been subjected to it, ring Crime Stoppers and it has to be investigated.
“Our SayNo program has been going since 2014, and we’re getting back into our stride since COVID, as it knocked the stuffing out of lots of events. If we can get our community talking about it and taking some action, we’d like to see the reporting of incidences go through the roof to prevent family violence.”
On the day, Higgins will speak before the game, with senior footballers and netballers from both teams, along with the umpires lining up to mark the impact of family violence in 2024.
“Rotary Club members will hand out wallet cards with a QR code on them, and we’ll also hand out booklets to everybody,” he said.
“At the start of the seniors, we will have all the netballers, footballers and umpires lining up, and I’ll give a bit of a talk about why an old bloke like me would be talking to young people about family violence.
“We’ll have a minute’s silence to acknowledge the women who have lost their lives through family violence, and hopefully that has more significance than anything, I suppose, when people realise we have in excess of one woman a week killed by an intimate partner.
“They’re the ultimate outcomes of disrespect. That’s where it really starts, if you don’t have respect for your partner.
“One in four incidences are committed in the presence of children, and the on-going of lifelong impacts on children, of which I’m one of those, has a lifelong impact on them.
“Men need to realise that it’s not just about their intimate partner, but those people that are witness toit impacts on them forever.”