WOMEN’S Health Grampians will expand its program to help other organisations learn more about eradicating violence against women.
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In 2016, the organisation formed the Communities of Respect and Equality alliance, a partnership of organisations, businesses, clubs, groups and networks that share a vision for safe, equal and respectful communities.
Women’s Health Grampians program manager Darlene Henning-Marshall said the alliance had now grown to 75 members, with new members joining each month. Wimmera councils and health services are among the members.
Ms Henning-Marshall said Women’s Health Grampians would this year offer more specialised training to all CoRE members about how to prevent violence, as well as bystander and community responsibility, and gender equality.
“This is a great move forward, and we think crucial in supporting our many CoRE members in progressing the initiative in meaningful ways,” she said.
“Many members have been asking for this sort of training, so it is great to be able to finally offer it.
“We will provide training in the Wimmera and across the Grampians catchment.”
Women’s Health Grampians chief executive Marianne Hendron said results from member evaluations after the first year of the program showed about 84 per cent of members had embedded or were in the process of including CoRE commitments into their internal documents.
“We know that to drive sustainable cultural change, we need organisations to make gender equality part of their everyday business, so this result is very pleasing,” she said.
Evaluator Alison Peipers said overall, member responses suggested they were making good progress with their commitments through the program and translating their intentions into actions.
Ms Henning-Marshall said Horsham Rural City Council was among the organisations leading the way through CoRE.
She said their participation in the intensive cultural change program Act@Work broadened understanding of the issue within their workforce and challenged behaviour.
“We're trying to capture what different organisations are doing so we can share that with other groups to inspire them,” she said.
Ms Henning-Marshall said people could visit www.whg.org.au to learn more.