Labor will invest $1.65 million for the University of Newcastle to deliver a project aimed at helping people who have experienced domestic and family violence into higher education and to change community culture.
The funding is a part of a $174 million Labor commitment to boost equity and participation in higher education.
The project consists of four complementary programs focusing on creativity and learning beyond trauma; choice, change, and opportunity; supporting students beyond domestic and family violence; and challenging gendered inequalities in leadership.
The pilot project will reach up to 1400 participants at different ages from high-school students to higher education participants from across the Newcastle, Hunter and Central Coast regions.
Shadow Minister for Universities and Shadow Minister for Equality, Senator Louise Pratt, said the project will be significant in creating important pathways for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
"We want to support more people who are disadvantaged and vulnerable who might not get a good go at higher education into university.
"I know so many of my own friends who have had these experiences where they haven't made it through their degrees because relationships broke down because of domestic or gendered violence and you will hear these stories in your own communities here," Senator Pratt said.
The project includes tailor-made pathways into university for people who have experienced domestic and family violence and will offer ongoing support during their time as a student.
Last year, the Hunter region showed higher numbers of domestic violence than the state average.
"Gender violence is reaching epidemic proportions in Australia and we need to find really serious ways to prevent gendered violence, to better support people who are leaving gendered violence, and to break the cycle which is why I am especially happy about this program trying to bring about cultural change," Federal Member for Newcastle Sharon Claydon said.
Part of the project will target high school students and raise awareness about the damaging impacts of gender inequality and provide the tools to challenge harmful attitudes.
Vice Chancellor for the University of Newcastle, Professor Alex Zalinsky, welcomes the announcement to fund the programs as the university is "strongly committed to equity and excellence".
"Equity means helping the disadvantaged and people who have been subjected to gendered violence are disadvantaged and they really are set back and we are committed to addressing those issues," Professor Zelinsky said.
Director of the Centre of Excellence for Equity in Higher Education, Professor Penny Jane Burke, said this project is important because of the power of higher education in creating change, hope, and possibilities for disadvantaged people.
"There is transformative power of education in rebuilding people's lives, I know that firsthand as a survivor of domestic violence myself," Professor Burke said.
"I know what role higher education can play in transforming not only their own lives but the lives of their children and their families.
"Not only the individual women are touched by this but it also extends into their families and communities."
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| L-R: Vice Chancellor Alex Zalinsky, Senator Louise Pratt, Professor Penny Jane Burke & Newcastle MP Sharon Claydon at the University of Newcastle's NewSpace. |
