Last night I had the opportunity and privilege to represent Ballarat Business Women at the ‘Pick Our Project’ event for Ballarat Women’s Fund. This special night is when the Ballarat Women's Fund members vote to decide how funds raised are used to address significant issues facing women in Ballarat.
Sadly family violence in Ballarat is 51% higher than the rest of Victoria. It’s a heart breaking statistic that no one is proud of but there are so many people in our community who are bravely and boldly trying to make Ballarat a safer place for all its lady folk.
The Ballarat Women's Fund for example was created by the Ballarat Foundation. It's a circle membership model where each member can vote on where the funds raised are spent. Last night we were voting on three extraordinary projects.
The short-listed programs where:
As mentioned earlier, I was representing Ballarat Business Women. As a board we’ve decided that the $500 membership fee aligns well with our values and goal to support women in our community. While I was sitting in the room last night listening to these passionate women pitch their projects it dawned on me how incredibly important initiatives like the Ballarat Women's Fund is (let alone the project’s they're showcasing).
I’ve never been in a position to be philanthropic. I LOVE the idea of being able to donate generously but living paycheck to paycheck makes feeding the family and paying the bills the priority. Since there is no money to donate, I’ve donated blood as my way of contributing to the community. I also donate time to various things but that dilutes my point so ignore it for now.
When I discovered that it was only $500 to be a member I was surprised. Not that $500 isn’t a stack of cash but you can direct debt over the year it works out to just over $40 per month. Breaking that amount down, all of a sudden you don’t have to be a wealthy person with an overflowing bank account - you just have to have a spare tenner each week - less than the price of two coffees.
Even though the Women's Fund is only two years old, it has already distributed $120k throughout the community. By increasing their membership base, they could contribute to so much more and believe me - every single initiative I learned about last night was worth the $30k grant on offer.
The winner in the end was Project Sitara which is an initiative by BRMC (Ballarat Regional Multicultural Council). This project will train 8-12 Indian women who volunteer to be ‘community champions’ and serve as trusted points of contact for other Indian women in Ballarat who are experiencing domestic violence. These women already do this service by simply being leaders in their community but Project Sitara will empower them with the right tools and knowledge to help link the Indian community with local family violence services.
The woman who presented the pitch (forgive me, I didn’t write her name down) was an Indian pocket rocket! Her passion for the project was infectious and when she read out some of the feedback from ‘Community Champions’ of their pilot program in Melbourne it was evident how important this project was. Some of the women had lived their whole lives believing that being beaten by their husbands was normal.
Coincidentally this week I’ve been reading ‘Our Common Bond’, the slightly cringy name of the Australian Citizenship booklet you need to know before you sit the Citizenship Test which I’ll be doing at the end of this month. It’s been interesting to read about the country I’ve been living in for 20 years. All these things I take for granted about freedom of speech, expression and association for example. New Zealand and Australia are cultural cousins. Most of our values align quite nicely.
There were a few sections that surprised me. One was the following statement in the Criminal Offences in Australia section:
“Everyone has the right to experience positive and safe relationships with their families, friends and loved ones. As in other countries, violence towards another person is illegal in Australia and is a very serious crime. This includes violence within the home and within marriage, known as domestic or family violence. Domestic and family violence includes behaviour or threats that aim to control a partner by causing fear or threatening their safety. Domestic and family violence can include hitting, isolating a family member from friends and family, or threatening children or pets. Domestic and family violence is not accepted and is against the law.”
At the time I was concerned at how explicit they needed to be. Living in safe and loving homes my entire life makes this feel like a no-brainer but after listening to the stories that sparked the need for Project Sitara last night I realised how incredibly important it is for us, the willing and able community, to support projects like this. Project Sitara will change lives. Obviously its not just the Indian community this affects but the project has to start somewhere and the local Indian community has rallied around it. Hopefully it will be rolled out through other communities in the future.
For less than two coffees a week you can be a member of the Ballarat Women's Fund - if you're not from Ballarat, there might be something similar in your community. You could get 5 friends to chuck in $100 each. As a business, you could consider becoming members (all tax deductible of course!) or as a work place you could pass a collection round and get the boss to match you.
When I think about all the privileges I have, even in this relatively turbulent time in my life, I can’t help but think there is always more we can do. The Ballarat Women Fund makes it easy to collectively make a real impact in areas of our community that need it most. It's also a great chance to gather with like minded people who all want to see the greater Ballarat community proposer. It’s also way more fun than donating blood - although that’s important as well so I’ll just have to do both now!
