A domestic and family violence and sexual assault prevention program will be rolled out to Young schools from June this year.
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Young's Ashleigh Shipp has championed the Love Bites program which seeks to provide a holistic approach to school-based, primary prevention of gender-based violence.
Ms Shipp said the program uses the education system as a catalyst for generational and cultural change by engaging schools, as both educational institutions and workplaces, to comprehensively address the drivers of gender-based violence and create a future free from such violence.
"The Love Bites program consists of two interactive education workshops on Domestic and Family Violence and Sexual Assault followed by creative workshops," she said.
“The Love Bites domestic and family violence and sexual assault prevention program is for students in Year nine and 10 of high school, aged between 15 and 17 years; the program can also be delivered in out-of-school settings as well. "
Ms Shipp said the aim of the program is to provide a safe environment in which young people can talk about domestic and family violence and sexual assault.
"The program promotes respectful relationships for young people and seeks to raise awareness about domestic and family violence and sexual assault – its prevalence and forms," she said.
"We want to engage young people, male and female, on the issues in a non-sex-segregated environment with male and female facilitators to hopefully bring about attitudinal change.
"The program aims to deconstruct the myths that exist in local communities and society generally on domestic and family violence and sexual assault, and we want to encourage and educate young people to support their friends."
Ms Shipp said education on these issues is vitally important.
"I think it is important that we educate young people about the importance of healthy relationships and what that looks like," she said.
"The most significant part of this program is that it gets young people to think about gender stereotypes, attitudes, values and social institutions. It also uses several presentation styles to actively involve young people, including youth-led small group activities; peer-to-peer learning, and art, music and drama workshops.
"Young people are then able to turn their art/music or drama into a community campaign to educate all of us on the key messages they learnt throughout the program. Young people are crucial to our community, and the messages that they deliver following this program are really powerful."