For the Xmas 2018 Bags of Love exercise, we will need at least 90 [!!!] volunteer drivers so PLEASE put your hand up if you can help.

What's involved? 
You will need to:

1. preregister that you are prepared to do this
2. call your designated contact person SEVERAL DAYS PRIOR to Packing Day to arrange a mutually convenient day, time and place for the delivery
3. collect your 'load' from Glen Eira College on Sunday 2 December between 12 noon and 1pm
4. complete your delivery in the 7-10 days following Packing Day on Sunday 2 December
5. understand that the delivery will need to be made during office hours
6. appreciate the extremely serious need for ABSOLUTE confidentiality in order to protect the women and children taking refuge in the Safe House to which you are assigned
7. undertake to NOT disclose ANY information whatsoever about the Safe House to which you are assigned: not its name; its address or even its suburb; nor the name, email or phone number of the contact person I have been given to ANYONE including your family, friends, colleagues or any other charity or organisation

If you are comfortable with the above stipulations and can help us, we'd really appreciate it. Please email us [use I WOULD LIKE TO BE AN IMPACT DRIVER as your subject line] with the following information:

1. your name and mobile phone number
2. the suburb in which you live or work
3. how far [in time or kms] you're prepared to drive each way from home or work to make the delivery
4. confirming that you understand and agree to abide by point 7 above

We will acknowledge receipt of your email and then contact you again in mid-November with the contact details of your assigned Safe House once the jigsaw of matching drivers and Safe Houses has been achieved.
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If we have learnt anything in recent weeks, it is the job is not done for those working to prevent violence against women and children. Far from it.
When our country is experiencing an alarming increase in the number of women killed by men, (remember this, it is now more than one a week), there is much work to do.

Peak bodies for the prevention and response to family violence have implored each of the major political parties to commit to funding and implement all of the recommendations that followed the state’s Royal Commission into Family Violence.

We need bipartisan support on this. Funding for prevention needs to be ongoing – but importantly, as we increase awareness and education, funding for services responding to those in crisis need more funding to meet the need. 


Read the full article here

The Royal Commission into Family Violence took 13 months to complete, hearing harrowing testimony from hundreds of survivors over 25 days of public hearings.
The commission reviewed nearly 1000 written submissions, cost $13.5 million and was an unprecedented example of government and community collectively committing to ending the horror of family violence.
It would be a terrible shame to see all that time, effort and money disappear into the machinations of short-term politics and quick-fix reactions.


​Read the rest of the article here

We all see the horrible stats - 64 Australian women needlessly and cruelly killed so far this year: most at the hands of someone who once had told them, 'I love you'. But the numbers are only part of the story.

To show up in the statistics for Relationship Abuse, and hopefully not on the death statistics, the crime, and it IS a crime, has to be reported. All too often, Relationship Abuse continues for many years before authorities find out it’s happening.

Delayed reporting is a significant issue but it is NOT one which should diminish believability. Experts say the closer the relationship between victim and perpetrator, the higher the chances that there will be a significant delay in reporting.

Some victims keep quiet out of shame or for fear that they won't be believed: after all, their perpetrator might be a well-known, well-respected person. Others have nowhere else to go and view silence as a way of keep a roof over their heads. Some suffer abuse in the hope that their children, siblings or pets won’t be harmed. There are many, many reasons why people are hesitant to report the abuse or violence being perpetrated upon themselves or their loved ones: and that has to change.

The first step towards encouraging that change is to develop a clear societal understanding that it is NEVER the victim's fault: violence is ALWAYS a choice and the perpetrator needs to take full responsibility for any violence or abuse they carry out - and to suggest otherwise is victim-blaming. 

Victim-blaming marginalises the victim/survivor making it harder for them to come forward and report the abuse. If the survivor knows that you or society blames the survivor for the abuse, s/he will not feel safe or comfortable coming forward and talking to you.
Victim-blaming attitudes also reinforce what the abuser has been saying all along: that it is the victim’s fault this is happening. It is NOT the victim’s fault or responsibility to fix the situation: it is the abuser’s choice. By engaging in victim-blaming attitudes, society allows the abuser to perpetrate Relationship Abuse while avoiding accountability for those actions.

So, what can you do about it?

• Challenge victim-blaming statements when you hear them
• Never agree with abusers’ excuses for why they abuse
• Let survivors know that it is not their fault
• Hold abusers accountable for their actions:
  do not let them, or others, make excuses like blaming the victim, alcohol, or drugs for their behaviour
• Acknowledge that survivors are their own best experts and provide them with resources and support
• Reframe the question from 'Why does the victim stay?' to 'Why does the perpetrator abuse?'
  
  

Remember if you are aware of abusive behaviour and don't speak out against it, your silence communicates implicitly that you see nothing unacceptable taking place.

Do nothing and you may as well lend a hand.