Griffith University will hold its second annual sexual violence awareness and prevention week — It’s On All Of Us — from April 1-5 with a series of events and workshops on each campus, aimed at promoting respectful and safe campus communities.
Key events include panel discussions on Gendered Violence in the Community on April 3 and Sport and Gender on April 4.
“We must clearly understand the link between violence against women and gender inequality,’’ says Shaan Ross-Smith, Director of Griffith’s MATE Bystander Program and Chair of DV Connect who is a speaker on the gendered violence discussion.
“It’s important to know the things that stand in our way as bystanders. Why are most of us currently doing nothing, and what message does that send?
“Some of the reasons we don’t act as bystanders are extremely real and valid — but once we know what they are, we can navigate around them and choose to do something anyway. We need to be inspired by people doing great work in the area of violence against women and gender equality so that we can be empowered to influence positive change.”
Griffith Sports College Manager Naomi McCarthy OAM, who is a speaker on the Gender and Sport panel discussion says while support for women in sport is rising, there’s still much to be done.
“It’s important to recognise that we’ve come a long way in just a few years, and for elite athletes at Olympic and Para-Olympic level, the gender support is quite even but it’softennot the case in professional sports.
“We continue to see more opportunities for men than women, this includes in athlete support, media, sponsorship, coaching and even sportadministration. We’ve seengreat work done by both men and women in sport in trying to close the gap, but in many sports the gap is still vast.”
To see the full program, register for workshops and events, and learn more about how you can engage in the preventionofsexual assault, harassment and other disrespectful behaviours, seeSafe Campuses -It’sOnAllofUs.
