By Lauren Henry

Women’s Health Grampians and partners celebrated 10 years of the Communities of Respect and Equality, CoRE, Alliance – marking the occasion with a gathering at Horsham Golf Club on Thursday.

Those in attendance celebrated and marked the milestone of WHG’s flagship partnership model, designed to prevent violence against women, children and gender diverse people.

CoRE started with 26 member organisations in 2016 and now supports 153 from various parts of the community – including the region’s biggest employers, multiple sporting clubs and peak bodies, businesses large and small, all councils across the region, as well as multiple public authorities.

Every member who signs up to CoRE commits to doing what it can to prevent violence and create safe, respectful and equal spaces. 

All members recognise that preventing violence takes a community, and that some of the most important conversations happen incidentally in various situations.

WHG chief executive Jennie Courtney said WHG was ‘tremendously proud’ of all that CoRE and its member organisations had achieved over the past decade. 

“Ten years after it was launched CoRE is now nationally recognised as a best practice model for delivering place-based, partnership-oriented violence prevention interventions across a geographically diverse region,” she said.

“CoRE is making a real difference to our communities and is a credit to everyone who has helped make it what it is today.”

A panel discussion, facilitated by WHG’s act-on-site consultant Katja Fiedler, featured senior CoRE consultant Melissa Morris, Grampians Community Health chief executive Greg Little, and Federation University’s Future Regions Research Centre team lead Cathy Tischler.

Panelists discussed the program’s history, achievements, importance, and future.

Ms Morris started working as a CoRE consultant in December, 2016.

“There’s no doubt there is a continued ongoing need for a strategy like CoRE because we continue to have high rates of gender-based violence,” she said.

“So while we’re celebrating today, we’re celebrating a 10-year milestone of what is a much longer campaign and effort that we need to do collectively. 

“Thinking back over the last 10 years, there is no doubt greater community awareness and profile of gender-based violence in our organisations, in our communities, and in the media exists.”

Ms Morris said  she had witnessed changes in community attitudes, particularly in terms of awareness of the issue. 

“ They think it’s an issue somewhere else, but not necessarily in their own town or community,” she said. 

“We know that when we deliver training, those light bulb moments go off – ‘I had no idea of this’.

“We’ve seen when we work across the region, we see people taking to the streets in Ballarat, Ararat, Edenhope, Horsham, Kaniva, Stawell, St Arnaud – the community is motivated to see change …  but there’s still more to do.”

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