Calling on the whole community to play an active role in preventing child abuse and family violence, the Weaving the Net Program has come to Wellington.
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Sydney-based facilitators Pam Greer and Rowena Lawrie said the program had seen a lot of success in other places throughout Australia as a series of consultative, educational and community development modules that will be on offer for free to the whole community.
Elder Pam Greer said she was hoping many people would take part in the successful program that began in reaction to the findings of the Honourable James Woods AO QC with the Report of the Special Commission of Inquiry into Child Protection Services in NSW.
"If a lot of things are kept a secret it will grow," Ms Greer said.
"We did a report on child abuse called Breaking the Silence; 119 records came out of that. In the Northern Territory we had a report called Little Children are Sacred and there was a report also done in Western Australia."
"There has since been a groundswell of people listening and hearing that things for children are not good."
One story has since stayed with her of a woman in a small town who had always been extremely diligent in watching her children and never left them by themselves.
One day, however, she was late by 15 minutes in picking her child up from school and they were sexually abused.
"It only takes that one time," she said.
"It took 15 years for them to tell her about it. This was in a town of 600 people where everybody knows everybody."
"We need to be all talking about something. Black or white we need to be working together and talking together."
"Hopefully people in this community will get strong and be able to stand up as Aboriginal people and say 'my child is just as important as your child and we all need to look after each other's children'," she said.
Local co-ordinator Loretta Stanley said she was keen to see the program take off in Wellington.
"It's something where the community suffers and we need to work together to overcome this," she said.
Anyone interested in taking part should call local co-ordinators Su Lousick on 0423 214 774 or Loretta Stanley on 68 45 25 65.
The courses will kick off with Skills in Child Protection April 27-29, Understanding Child, Sexual Assault May 31-June 2, Keeping our Mob Safe June 21-23, Understanding Domestic Violence in Aboriginal Communities July 19-21.