By ANEEKA SIMONIS
KIDS aren’t often involved in conversations about family violence.
But a Pakenham primary school is working to change that, launching a powerful project that is helping shape their perspective on healthy and unhealthy relationships.
In the lead up to White Ribbon Day on Wednesday 25 November, prep and year six students from Pakenham Consolidated School illustrated T-shirts with descriptions of what makes a positive relationship or family.
Love, hugs, respect and safety were common theme voiced by the littlies who proudly hung their expressive message along the fence line of the school and looking out onto the Princes Highway.
The school’s wellbeing co-ordinator Erin Johnson said some students’ parents came to school to join in the activity which was focussed on developing positive attitudes, healthy perceptions about relationships and how a respectful family behaves.
Students who took part in the anti-violence project came from different family backgrounds.
Some lived with both parents, others lived in a single-parent home but all children shared a common desire – to live in a happy and safe home.
Year six student Holly-Jane described a positive family relationship as one where family members cared for each other and used nice words when talking to each other.
The T-shirts were donated to the school from a parent as part of the council supported Clothesline Project.
It aims to educate children, the emerging generation, in a bid to break the cycle of violence which is often observed in families with a history of abuse.
It comes after Cardinia shire recorded alarming increases in family violence reports in the area in the past year, with more than 40 per cent of incidents witnessed by children.
Anglicare data indicates that children who are subject to family violence in the home can suffer immeasurably – even in adulthood.
“Children who live in homes where there is family violence grow up in a setting that is insecure, full of worry and anxiety and dominated by fear,” the statement read.
“This can lead to significant emotional and psychological trauma, impacting the child’s ability to learn and progress.”
The T-shirts are expected to be left on the fence line for a week following White Ribbon Day as a display against domestic violence.
