Fellowship Report online

A final blog to let everyone know that my Churchill Fellowship report is now available on the Churchill Trust’s website here.

My key learnings and recommendations relate to intersectionality, youth leadership and engagement, respectful relationships skills practice, holistic approaches and integrating respectful relationships into education systems.

This isn’t the end, but it’s not the beginning either. I’m somewhere in the middle of my life commitment to this work. I’m enjoying the process of sharing my Churchill learnings through my work and personal life, and look forward to continuing to learn and grow.

It is a very exciting time to be part of the violence prevention movement in Australia. Thanks to the collective work of many, there is hope for a more respectful and equal society. I’m really proud to be part of it.

PS The Churchill Fellowship has been an amazing learning experience and time of professional growth. Applications are now open for the year and I would highly recommend that those who are passionate and committed to their field consider applying. Details here.

“So, how was your trip?”

Final stop in LA this week and final meetings with Break the Cycle, a National non-profit focused on the prevention of ‘teen dating violence’, and Peace Over Violence, the leading LA based organisation ‘building healthy relationships, families and communities free from sexual, domestic and interpersonal violence’.

In this week of endings and beginnings I’m really grateful for the conversation with Patti Giggans (photo above), Executive Director at Peace Over Violence, who without knowing, helped me in my reflection, as I start to make the bridge to work and life back home.

“What are you taking back with you? Do you have 1, or 2 or 3 things that have sparked you?” she asked, and then listened with a smile as I listed about 10. A great question, and one that I have since been thinking more about.

How am I going to respond when people ask – “So, how was your trip?” In part it’ll be easier to intellectualise and provide recommendations for those who have a professional role in violence prevention back home. The harder, and perhaps more important work is how to gently challenge friends, family and everybody else that your action is as important as mine. How do you see yourself in this movement?

Environmental strategies for gender-based violence prevention

At a very different conference in Denver this week –  the International Bullying Prevention Conference.

As a caveat, I know that it’s important for family violence and sexual assault prevention programs to include analysis of gender and power. I’ve had the opportunity to consider what this gender-based work in schools might be able to learn from existing bullying prevention work.

In particular, conference sessions have made me think about how working at the school climate or environmental level could be included in a wholistic approach to family violence and/or sexual assault prevention. Perhaps this is school policy work, or professional development with teachers about challenging gender stereotypes, or work to ensure the contribution of students of all genders is equally valued?

This thinking also connects with one of Idaho Coalition‘s projects which is in early stages of working with a school around gender equity. In a week when Queensland Government has become the only Australian Government to have 50% of ministry positions held by women, I am starting to think more about the power of structural and environmental approaches to preventing the root causes of gender-based violence.

It feels like a lot

Wow – this week has been inspiring in an incredibly personal and political way. I’ve had the opportunity to spend a week with the passionate, generous and committed social change agents at the Idaho Coalition against Sexual and Domestic Violence and attend their annual conference Compassionate Communities – Towards Collective Liberation.

To be honest, before I arrived in Boise, I was thinking – “What is collective liberation?” And in turn, to try to capture (for a blogpost) the learning that has been felt more than thought, is a challenge. In essence, the conference gave voice to those who are marginalised in the move to end gender-based violence – Native Americans, immigrant women, refugees, transgender and gender-diverse people, young people, deaf people and people with disabilities, prisoners and girls and women at risk of sex-trafficking (just to name a few). And it called on all of us to give voice, build relationships, build understanding and to work towards the liberation of all communities.

And so – what does this mean for violence prevention programming?

What it means is that we must become and remain committed to ensure young people from diverse and marginalised communities see themselves, and their whole lived experience in our programs and approaches. We must build meaningful relationships with these young people and we must give them meaningful opportunities to lead. Hearing from some of the Coalition’s Youth Activists and learning about their work was a particular highlight of my week. For if we work to ”liberate’ the people on the fringes, we will all benefit.

And in order to do this, we must work on ourselves. I must work to understand and unlearn the privilege I have have been granted through my white, middle-class, heterosexual, educated, able-bodied life. And I must embrace this as life-long work.

As Kelly, the Executive Director at the Coalition noted in her plenary – “it feels like a lot”. But if we don’t, we maintain the status quo, we maintain the dominant structures which are the root causes of violence in our communities.

“we should look both small and large”

This week has been a week for thinking more about evaluation – one of the key learning intentions of my fellowship. As I’m not a researcher, the conversations have caused my brain to expand some more (and definitely left me with more questions to ask – is that the nature of research?!).

Following on from this week’s earlier meeting about Dating Matters and its large scale quantitative evaluation, I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation with Terri Powell at John Hopkins Centre for Adolescent Health, who passionately communicated about the need to also ask research and evaluation questions which are qualitative and are smaller in scope. She encouraged thinking about how evaluation can build understanding around the complexity of why programs work where, under what circumstances, for whom, and for how long. Statistics are great, but words have a place in understanding too.

I know I’m a words person, so this piece in the evaluation puzzle makes sense to me. Thanks Terri for making me think, and laugh too!

And finally for this week, thanks to Bruce Taylor at National Opinion Research Centre (NORC), for sharing his insights and wisdom from the Teen Dating Violence research sector, especially in relation to Shifting Boundaries, another evidence-based program here in the US. I left thinking about the need to understand more about the problem (especially in relation to violence in adolescent relationships) in order to inform the design of interventions.

Applying a Public Health Model to violence prevention

Yesterday I started the US leg of my travel and learnings, meeting with Aisha Burgess from Dating Matters, here in Baltimore. Dating Matters is a five year project which has applied a Public Health Model to adolescence violence prevention. The comprehensive approach includes working with young people in Years 6, 7 and 8, their parents, teachers and the wider school community, youth ambassadors and working at a policy level with the school district.

In terms of programming, the Year 8s receive the evidence-based program Safe Dates, whilst the Year 6s and 7s participate in “evidence-informed” programming, which has been developed for this project.

Dating Matters is currently in the final year of implementation. I’m really keen to watch out for the research and evaluation which accompanies the project. The research is looking into the effectiveness of the Year 6 and 7 programs, as well as comparing the schools who’ve received this comprehensive intervention, with those who only implemented the Safe Dates program.

I certainly believe that prevention education programs are likely to be more effective if they are part of holistic initiatives. This research will test this theory.

Tools to support adaptation – One size doesn’t fit all

It is quite humbling when you ask someone about their experience writing programming with Indigenous communities, and they hand you one of their books and several of their articles on the topic!

Of course the numerous academic articles (which present findings on the effectiveness of The Fourth R) are worth a read, but what has stood out is the readability and practicality of a number of their resource tools. I love the red light-yellow light-green light tool in the implementation manual which easily communicates what is, isn’t and may be (with caution) adaptable within the program. Of course it’s evidence based! And I also can’t wait to thoroughly read their book about working with Aboriginal communities, which includes suggested processes for adapting programs. As we know one size doesn’t fit all, these tools seem a wonderful way to support communities to remain committed to the fidelity of the program, whilst also meeting diverse needs of young people.

Thanks to all at the Fourth R for a brain-expanding week!

Whilst I enjoy a week off in New York City, I’d like to take this opportunity for a personal shout-out of thanks to my Mum who looked after our little one in order for me to have this amazing opportunity so far. Not only has she swapped tourist attractions for libraries and playgrounds, she has cooked and cleaned up after us and has taught our high-energy babe to clap hands – I can’t thank you enough! xx. Check out Mum pushing the pram in Vancouver’s fall colours below!

Reading – WRiting – ARithmetic – Relationships

I am having the most enriching week at The Fourth R  program in London, Ontario, meeting so far with program founders, writers and research/evaluators. I don’t think I’ve ever asked so many questions in such a condensed period of time… it’s hard to short-list my learnings!

Two things stand out so far:

1. The strength of skill building within the The Fourth R’s programs. As it’s been put to me, it is not only important to give young people an opportunity to talk, but it is vital to support them to practice new skills (eg conflict resolution, negotiation, assertive communication, etc). Program writers and evaluators here claim (and it is hard to dispute!) that the embedded nature of such skill building throughout their programs, is one of the reasons they have been found to be so effective in preventing violence.  Check out their research and evaluation if you want more details!
2. According to those I’ve met, another reason The Fourth R is so successful is that the program has been championed and written by teachers, for teachers. It has been strongly recommended to me that program adoption and sustainability will be at its best when there is leadership and champions within Education departments, regions and individual schools. Ensuring all programs meet curriculum expectations is a vital step to towards this ownership.

I’m looking forward to more meetings over the next couple of days to learn about the program adaptation with some of Canada’s First Nations and Inuit communities.

Grassroots Programming on Vancouver Island

Thanks to Zena and Janet at the Cowichan Women Against Violence, I had the opportunity on Thursday to be present for a session in their respectful relationships program in a local high school. I was reminded that Year 9s are Year 9s wherever you are- Love their humour at times and incredible insight at others!

Later on I appreciated Zena’s reflections on their program, identifying the strength in their ability to be flexible and responsive to the youth in each session, and across the 12 week program. She mentioned that this responsiveness meant that they were able to build trusting relationships, have meaningful conversations and at times meant “letting go” of what activities or outcomes they had planned.  The conversation was a great reflection on the importance of genuine connection in the facilitation of respectful relationships programs.

On Friday I met with Alexa from Victoria Sexual Assault Centre who shared about their violence prevention program Project Respect. Alexa spoke with passion about the youth-led nature of their work, describing a year-long cycle of youth staff training, implementation in schools, youth-led summer holiday events and youth-informed program review and adaptation. It was inspiring to learn about the true value placed on youth leadership and ongoing renewal of the program – surely something all programs should strive for!

Youth leadership and enrichment beyond program participation

This morning’s excitement included driving out of Vancouver on the right-hand-side of the road (in the rain!) and catching two connecting ferries to arrive at the misty and beautiful Salt Spring Island. I had half an hour to catch my breath (aka unpack the car) before meeting with some of the team at the Salt Spring Women Opposed to Violence Association (SWOVA) – Lynda, Christina and Sharyn.

It was particularly inspiring to hear about SWOVA’s Respectful Relationships program‘s Youth Team. This involves past participants of the program engaging in a year-long process to become youth facilitators. Developing skills in leadership, facilitation, social justice and personal awareness, they are then supported to co-facilitate the program. It seems that it is as much about these young people being further enriched by this experience as it is about them co-facilitating for younger year levels. With conviction, Christina described the Youth Team as the strongest aspect of the program.

I was also interested to hear about the pros and cons of online, module style training, which is offered as one form of training by SWOVA. Perhaps something to consider in an equally large and expansive country such as Australia?

As the program was originally developed over 15 years ago, it is one of the oldest in Canada, and has been through many developments. Given the fact that Salt Spring Island is relatively isolated, it is amazing that the SWOVA team has achieved so much.