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Women's Health Grampians Newsletter
December 2019
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2019 Wrap Up Edition
While the end of the year may be a time of winding down time for some, it seems that some of our most significant events take place in the final weeks of the calendar year, so it’s been action packed here at WHG!
You will read about the excellent Leading Change Event in Horsham which saw us engage in a new space for prevention of violence and gender equality, that of emergency management and response and draw on the rich body of work developed by some of our women’s health partners in other regions.
Our AGM in November was a wonderful celebration of the fantastic year’s work undertaken by our highly talented and committed staff and we were all enthralled by our guest speaker Dr Maggie Kirkman from the Department of Global and Women's Health, Public Health & Preventive Medicine, Monash University presenting her findings around women’s health and ageism.
The AGM was closely followed by the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence and the WHG Comms Team developed a highly engaging social media campaign based around the key messages of ‘calling it out’ and bystander engagement.
We also partnered and held two successful and thought-provoking key regional events in this time. There was the first regional Not in My Workplace #NIMW summit held at Sovereign Hill focusing on sexual harassment in the workplace. Closely followed by the Children and Youth Prevention Showcase held in partnership with Central Highlands Integrated Family Violence Committee (CHIFVC) at Beaufort. The Prevention Showcase was opened by Minister for Youth, Women and Prevention of Family Violence, The Hon. Gabrielle Williams and eight different programs were featured covering education, sport and community programs and settings and including several fantastic Aboriginal led programs focusing on culture and connection. The whole event was graphically recorded and the poster capturing all the activities will be available for distribution – contact CHIFVC on 5322 4100.
Please note our office will be closed from midday Tuesday 24th December and reopen on Thursday 2 January 2020.
Finally best wishes to you all for the Christmas and New Year period. We value our partners and stakeholders enormously and look forward to continuing our exciting and challenging shared journeys in 2020!
Marianne Hendron, CEO, Women's Health Grampians
Back row L-R: Marieke Dam, Pat Loughnan, Rose Durey, Shannon Hill, Deb Harris, Melissa Morris, Jess Cadwallader, Ange van den Berg, Valma Ffrost
Front row L-R: Kate Diamond-Keith, Belinda-Sue Parsons, Dee Micevski, Marianne Hendron
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Annual General Meeting & Annual Report 2018-19
This year’s AGM was held in Ballarat at the Lucas Community Hub and we would like to thank all that attended. Presenting her findings on ageism, sexism and how women can be supported to age well, our guest speaker Dr Maggie Kirkman empowered us to not hide our age to help stamp out ageism!
We farewelled three Board members – Katherine Gillespie, Jo Millard and April Ure who have given us years of their time and welcomed four new members – Jennie Courtney, Julie-Ann Zajac, Di Thomson and Shawna Dominelli. We will share more about these interesting women in future newsletters. Our official positions for the year ahead have been elected: Amy Rhodes continues as Chair; Rachel Whittaker is Deputy Chair; and, Debbie Bach Treasurer. Thank you to all our Board outgoing and incoming and officials for the generous amount of time and wisdom you contribute to guide and steer WHG.
Our Annual Report was also presented at the AGM meeting. It showcases the great work WHG staff do towards preventing violence against women, advocating for women’s sexual and reproductive health and the work of Equality for All Advocates to bring about change by sharing their lived experiences of discrimination.
Don’t forget to check out our Annual Report on the website to get even further insight and inspiration.
 
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Leading Change Event Wimmera
The Leading Change Event in October focused on gender equity and emergency management and was attended by 75 people. Our fantastic guest speakers were Stephen O’Malley (Gender and Disaster POD), Inspector Di Thomson (Victoria Police), Amanda Lamont (Co Founder Australasian Women in Emergencies (AWE) Network), Tony Baker (CoRE AGG) and our very own Marianne Hendron (CEO, WHG).
There were 32 organisations represented at the event including Horsham Rural City Council, Northern Grampians Shire, Yarriambiack Shire, Pyrenees Shire and Moorabool Shire; Grampians Community Health and some of the health services/hospitals; Victoria Police; CFA; SES; Ambulance Victoria; 3 Primary Care Partnerships – Central Highlands, Wimmera and Grampians Pyrenees; DELWP; Parks Vic; Wimmera Development Association; Salvation Army; Family Violence Support agencies and GWMWater.
We would like to thank Horsham Rural City Council, Wimmera CMA, Grampians Community Health and the Sexual Assault and Family Violence Centre for supporting the event.
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16 Days of Activism
16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence – campaign summary
It has been a busy time of year as WHG joined the international campaign to end gender-based violence and call out sexism, sexual harassment and disrespect towards women. WHG supported CoRE members as they ran their own campaigns to raise awareness about the prevention of violence against women. Through social media and media interviews, we showcased what we were doing at WHG and our partner organisations, and what we can all do to prevent violence against women.
Not In My Workplace Ballarat
Focusing on sexual harassment in the workplace, especially small and medium businesses, there were over 100 people attending the Not in My Workplace #NIMW summit which was held at Sovereign Hill on 4 December.
The event had a stellar line up of speakers including Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins, Our Watch CEO (and previous WHG CEO!) Patty Kinnersly, Sovereign Hill CEO Sarah Quon, VicPol Superintendent Jenny Wilson, Ballarat based human rights lawyer Liz Lacey and Hepburn Shire CEO and long standing CoRE member Evan King. Business leaders went away well equipped with information and resources to help prevent sexual harassment in their business and broader settings.
It’s great to see continued attention on the issue of violence against women.
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Prevention Showcase
The inaugural Prevention Showcase: Working with Children & Young People to Prevent Violence Against Women event was held on 5 December at the Goldfields Recreation Reserve in Beaufort. The day saw presentations from seven initiatives from across the Central Highlands region which work with young people where they live, learn and play. Each program showcased at the event contributes to the mutually reinforcing messages which promote gender equality and aim to prevent violence against women before it happens.
Young people featured heavily in the program; Jack Ward from Ararat College shone as event MC, there were musical performances by Ash Egan and Ava Stephens, and a series of skits about respectful and safe relationships by the Creative Learning Team from Ballarat Community Health.
The Hon. Gabrielle Williams, Minister for Youth, Minister for Women and Minister for Prevention of Family Violence, addressed the audience. She shared messages about the importance of whole-of-community prevention initiatives and of her optimism in the young leaders of the future.
“We know that if we can change the mindset of the community we really can shift the harmful attitudes and the overt harmful behaviours that lead to family violence”
The Hon. Gabrielle Williams
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Stop Domestic Violence conference 2019
Earlier this week, Kate, Melissa and Rose attended the Stop DV conference in Surfers Paradise. This was an engaging and thought-provoking conference, and our staff presented on CoRE and the importance of partnerships in rural areas, Equality for All, and the joint work that we have been undertaking with Ballarat Community Health to engage migrant and refugee women in the prevention of violence against women over the past few years. All presentations were well-received and we enjoyed being able to share what we have been doing at this forum.
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