Over 250 school kids attended an event held at Mineral Resources Park by White Ribbon Australia and the Healthy Relationship Strategy Group to promote gender equality and sexual consent in young people.
Healthy Relationship Strategy Group involves the West Coast Eagles and a number of organisations which collaborate to address gendered violence and assault through the implementation of prevention strategies for youth in Australia.
The event titled, Say ‘Yes’ to Respect, aimed to engage with young people in a variety of ways, with on-stage bystander scenarios from Perth Playback Theatre Group visually educating the attending kids on sexual consent, gender identity and bullying.
AFL and AFLW players Nic Naitanui, Aisling McCarthy, Courtney Rowley and Lauren Wakfer kicked footies with the kids before getting splashed on the dunk tank.
Organisations from within the Healthy Relationships Strategy group also attended and offered information relating to the importance of respectful relationships.
WAFL Captain and Community & Game Development Officer Jackson Nelson praised the success of the day and the importance of projects such as this from the Healthy Relationships Strategy group.
“It’s about involving dis-engaged youth and it’s a good cause that we flagged as something we could get involved with and hopefully have a positive impact on the community in the Town of Victoria Park and outside of that as well.”
“There were some important messages provided to the kids throughout the day and events like this are a really fantastic opportunity to engage with youth and educate them on positive approaches to gender identity, sexual consent and preventative methods to de-escalate violence.”
“The kids were very excited when Nic Nat, Aisling, Courtney and Lauren all came out to show their support which was great. Both the kids and staff jumped at the opportunity to cover their favourite players in water in the dunk tank which provided a lot of laughter and smiles on the day.”
The Healthy Relationship Strategy group is part of the West Coast Eagles agreement with the Town of Victoria Park and events such as this will continue to be held in the future to benefit more young people within the local community and beyond.
