In the ongoing battle against Domestic and Family Violence (DFV), the Gladstone Region’s Coordinated Community Response to Domestic & Family Violence (CCRDFV) has been stepping up to educate, raise awareness and provide support for victim-survivors in our community since 1996.
Shockingly, the not-for-profit had its storage facility broken into on May 15, during Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Month, and items of values stolen, including five laptop computers used to deliver NAPCAN’s LoveBites Program, an early intervention respectful relationships program, to high schools across the Gladstone Region.
CCRDFV Chairperson and LoveBites Program Coordinator Vicki Dredge said the break-in and theft devastated the group of dedicated volunteers, but not for long.
“Within days of announcing the break in on our Facebook Page, Santos GLNG, who came onboard this year as a major financial sponsor of our LoveBites Program, reached out and advised they had purchased five brand-new laptops to replace those that had been stolen,” she said.
“We have been blown away by the community’s response to the incident, but cannot thank Santos GLNG enough for their generosity, especially with our next LoveBites Program due to be delivered in July.”
Santos GLNG CEO Stephen Harty said the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) company was “happy to be able to assist CCRDFV in their time of need”.
“With domestic and family violence rates sadly on the rise, our team values the important role CCRDFV plays in our community; this is why we chose to support it financially this year through our Community Investment Program, which has a strong-focus on early-intervention capability-building programs, ” he said.
“The donation of these five laptops doesn’t undo the hurt caused by this break-in, but it at least allows CCRDFV volunteers to continue to deliver LoveBites, an essential early-intervention program that can change our young people’s perceptions of relationship violence”.
LoveBites provides a safe environment for local high-school students to talk about sometimes-difficult topics including their attitudes towards consent, sexual violence, domestic violence, and many other challenging issues.
It also encourages the development of students’ critical thinking, problem solving and communications skills, which Chairperson Dredge said will “hopefully help them make the right choices for themselves and their relationships, ensuring they are free from violence and sexual abuse”.
“Importantly, after completing the program, students’ complete awareness artwork, reinforcing key messages that the CCRDFV use to raise further awareness, meaning these students become part of the community campaign to break the cycle of domestic and family violence and sexual assault in the Gladstone Region,” she said.
As a not-for-profit, CCRDFV relies heavily on volunteers to deliver their education programs and awareness-raising events, and financial and in-kind support from business and industry, including long-term supporters Here for Gladstone and NRG.
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