White Ribbon is a global movement to end violence against women. So in this movement to end violence against women the Department for Education obviously has a really big, important role to play. And that’s because what we can do together is change behaviours. We can change the way that we think about violence against women, we can think about the behaviours as they occur, we can think about what leads to those behaviours. And that’s important for us as an institution or a big organisation in South Australia, and that’s about us, our staff, how we think about that, how we, how our culture, how our expectations of each other and the behaviours we would want to see – how we can change that. And of course, it’s really important being an education organisation for our students as well.

So everyone in our department has the right to feel safe, valued and supported and we're really committed to enacting that in the Department for Education and so our Domestic and Family Violence Workplace Procedure is one way that we demonstrate our commitment and it's a procedure that talks about what we have available to support our people who might be experiencing domestic and family violence. But it also provides support to our principals, preschool directors, line managers, with support for them to help people who might be experiencing domestic and family violence. We have flexible leave arrangements that employees can take, and we have special leave provisions as well.

So the most important thing for people to take away is that we want to be able to respond to the unique experiences that people are having. I believe you can build safety through having really clear, honest communication. You want to build those strong relationships where women feel like they can come to you when they're in need. Community and connection is important because it creates safety. I feel like if women are safe at our school they'll want to be there more, kids will want to be there more, and then that's an educational, positive roll on.

So one of our larger events last year was White Ribbon, where we invited parents to come in and have the opportunity to be a part of a school event around respectful relationships. And leading up to that, what we did was have respectful relationship conversations in each classroom. Build your understanding and know the signs, so you can recognise and respond to people who are experiencing violence.