Wellbeing

Week Without Violence Activity

The ‘Week Without Violence’ is an initiative created by YWCA USA in 1995. Over the past two decades, organisations around the world have hosted community events to end violence against women. Activities focus on raising awareness, promoting attitude change and enabling individuals and organisations to begin positive actions towards ending violence in their communities.

Earlier this term, the Neighbourhood Justice Centre  participated in the Week Without Violence with students from Foundation, 5 & 6 at  Carlton North Primary School by running an art activity. Students were asked to draw or write what makes them feel safe on paper spirals.

The activity invited students to think about what environments, people, or actions make them feel secure, which aligns with the Week’s goal of promoting communities free from family and gender-based violence. 

The completed paper spirals were displayed at the school, the Neighbourhood Justice Centre and the Carlton Neighbourhood Learning Centre for the community to see. 

It was a pleasure for our team to meet the two Grade 5/6 and two Foundation students yesterday for our Week Without Violence spiral art activity. 

Some of the Grade 5/6 messages that stood out included:

• "Home should be a safe place for everyone"
• "You are awesome just the way you are"
• "Everyone deserves to be safe and happy, no matter what!"
• "No one deserves to be abused"
• "Find a safe place and reach out if you need help"
• "Abuse is horrible"
• "Don’t give up, keep persisting, never stop trying"
• "No one should feel small to an adult, you might feel different but there’s others sharing your pain, we know it’s not fair but we want to help"
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Other inspiring “What makes you feel safe” messages from the Grade 5/6 students:

• "Being friendly to others encourages more people to be friendly to you"
• "I am relaxed with fam and friends"
• "I am safe at school"
• "School makes me safe and sleeping refreshes me"
• "I feel loved and supported with family and friends"
• "I feel grateful for the safety of my home and the opportunities I have in life"
• "Being around trustworthy people helps me feel safe"
• "Community makes me feel safe"
• "Seeing light in the darkness helps us feel safe"
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And from the Foundation students, we loved the simple but heartfelt responses, “kind”, “mum”, “dad”, “love”, “teddy”, and “writing makes me feel safe.”

It was wonderful to see how the Respectful Relationships themes came to life through the students’ artwork and reflections.