Respectful Relationships to Prevent Violence
Women’s Health Goulburn North East promotes equal, respectful relationships between men and women as a primary prevention strategy to reduce all forms of violence against girls and women.
Supporting children and young people to develop and maintain healthy, respectful relationships is one of themost effective ways to prevent violence against women before it occurs.
Respectful Relationships in Schools
The key to preventing gender-based violence is the development of a whole-school approach that provides schools with:
- a common framework for understanding and responding to respectful relationships;
- effective curriculum delivers;
- relevant, inclusive and culturally sensitive practice and reflection;
- evaluation of the impact of strategies on the whole-school community.
Schools will be at a range of entry points in terms of how they currently address issues relating to gender-based violence and developing respectful relations. (DEECD 2014)
A whole of school approach to violence prevention and respectful relationships gives students multiple exposure to key messages across the curriculum and in different schooling domains.
WHGNE work with schools to assess what they are currently doing well and what their next steps might be.
Education Resources
Building Respectful Relationships: Stepping out against gender-based violence 2014
Primary prevention has become a central focus of community and government efforts to address violence in relationships and families.
One of the most important populations among whom violence prevention efforts have been implemented is children and young people.
There is a powerful rational for focusing efforts on fostering respectful relationships among children and young people. Early interventions with children and young people can have a lasting effect on their relationships in the future. (Respectful Relationships Education)
Children and young people’s social development involves learning the values, knowledge and skills that enable children to relate to others effectively and to contribute in positive ways to family, school and the community.
This kind of learning is passed on to children directly by those who care for and teach them, as well as indirectly through social relationships within the family or with friends, and through children’s participation in the culture around them. Through their relationships with others and their growing awareness of social values and expectations, children build a sense of who they are and of the social roles available to them. As children develop socially, they both respond to the influences around them and play an active part in shaping their relationships.
WHGNE - List of what we have done
- To what extent have agencies increased their capacity to respond to violence against women using a primary prevention approach?
- To what extent have individuals developed capacity to challenge existing gender norms and promote respectful relationships?
- Have individuals increased their knowledge and understanding of the social and economic determinants of violence?
- Has there been a change in policy and/or practice in organisations to reflect gender equity principles?
- To what extent has research conducted contributed to the evidence base on PVAW?
Children and young people’s values, knowledge and skills are developed by those who care for and teach them as well as indirectly through their community. For example, schools, other than curriculum have an influence. How the cleaner interacts with the children. How the parents speak to each other, Any clubs that they or their families are associated with have a stong influence on how adults relate to each other, standards of behaviour that are acceptable and unacceptable influence children and young people. Any interactions that children and young people have when shopping, visiting professional services ie Doctor, Council. All of these environments provide an opportunity to model, demonstrate and support respectful relationships to and with our children and young people.
Schools
Sporting Clubs
