General News
8 January, 2024
Maryborough Rotary's sayNO campaign to re-boot with new website
As International Women’s Day quickly approaches in March, the Maryborough Rotary Club is preparing to launch a website in support of its flagship family violence prevention and awareness project. The local Rotary club launched its...
As International Women’s Day quickly approaches in March, the Maryborough Rotary Club is preparing to launch a website in support of its flagship family violence prevention and awareness project.
The local Rotary club launched its sayNO2familyviolence initiative in mid-2014 with the aim of reducing family violence in the Maryborough and broader community.
Now in its 10th year, the initiative has made a number of inroads and supported genuine, positive outcomes in the community.
Rotary’s Garry Higgins, who championed the program’s implementation and was presented with Order of Australia honours as a result, said sayNO2familyviolence has always been about supporting the community.
“The sayNO campaign started because we as a Rotary club and really the broader community recognised there was a need for community driven intervention,” he said.
“We were overrepresented in family violence statistics then and we still are today, however the program continues to achieve its goal of raising awareness of the issue and supporting those involved — both perpetrators and victims.
“Yes, part of it is holding people and their actions to account, but we recognised that awareness, peer pressure and leading by example will support healthy relationships.”
Since the initiative was launched, the Maryborough Rotary Club has organised and rolled out a number of initiatives and programs to the local community, with one of the early interventions being Active Bystander training.
Organised by Rotary and facilitated by Women’s Health Loddon Mallee, the Active Bystander training days were directed at sporting clubs and local employers to educate staff and residents on how to respond to and support people being impacted by family violence.
In 2014 the Maryborough Castlemaine District Football Netball League (MCDFNL) established a community round to highlight important issues impacting players and supporters, with the inaugural round used to implement the sayNO2familyviolence football round.
The club also took part in the Elephant in the Room project — designed to highlight the often hidden nature of family violence and the impact it has on those experiencing it.
The project saw Rotary work with a neighbouring shire to utilise art that would spark discussion about ‘the elephant in the room’, with support information made widely available.
In October 2016, the Maryborough Harness Racing Club joined Rotary to host a Day at the Races program, sharing the sayNO 2familyviolence message through signage that was seen and televised to a world-wide audience of around 32 million.
Other initiatives the club has been involved in or organised under the sayNO campaign include a family violence law forum held in partnership with the Loddon Campaspe Community Legal Centre, a gender equality in the workplace forum, a community vigil as part of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence, placing sayNO2familyviolence information sheets on the inside of toilet doors and creating positive profiles of women from the community.
Reflecting on the last decade of work, Mr Higgins said while much has been done, there is more to achieve.
“We as a Rotary club are certainly proud of what we’ve achieved with this program and I think the community are proud of that too,” he said.
To mark the initiative’s milestone anniversary, Rotary is currently developing a brand new website offering readily available advice and support, as well as a re-boot of the sayNO campaign.
While the new website is up and running, it will be officially launched alongside the re-booted campaign on Friday, March 8 as part of International Women’s Day.
For more information on the sayNO campaign and for any information or advice, head to sayno2familyviolence.com.au
If you or a loved one are struggling, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue at 1300 224 636.