The Zonta Club of Adelaide Hills, Australia, launched its Expect Respect Project in 2012. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the club had to change its vision.
Goals of The Expect Respect Project.
This awareness-raising and educational initiative involves children, adults and the broader community in a coalition to break the cycle of domestic violence. The continued prevalence of violence against women and girls, especially in recent years, is a massive challenge to Zonta’s vision for a world in which women’s rights are recognized as human rights and equality for everyone is a reality. The Expect Respect aim is to use education to create cultural change as a primary prevention strategy. While emergency care services and legal support are necessary, it is only through education that the leap in attitude and behaviors required for lasting change will happen. Further, education of the young is most effective at an age before poor habits can develop. The project is centrally and purposefully focused on education within and with the community.
How the Expect Respect Project works.
In a snapshot, the Expect Respect project is targeted at children in the early primary school years and incorporated into the school health and wellbeing curriculum. It is run over two consecutive years. Children learn about bullying, respectful relationships, safety laws and children’s rights. They attend workshops run by police and teachers, then continue learning in their classes. Posters are produced by the children reflecting their learning, and they then create a calendar for distribution in the community.
Young adults get involved as mentors and can help to produce the calendar. High school student leaders are often present at a community event where everyone celebrates what the children have learned.
The project grew rapidly from 2012 to 2019, reaching more than 1,200 students. That was the story up to 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, and lockdowns were enforced throughout Australia.
Initially, the inability of Zontians and the police to visit schools paused the project. Following the pandemic, the police service found it was under pressure and less available to do the school visits, which the club depended on to begin each project. As a result, some schools left the project. This shift caused the club to review and revise the project to make it more sustainable.
As a result, the club strengthened the educational support by adding educators with various specialties that could be taught. Teaching units can now support students with more targeted lessons and a variety of different lessons to both broaden and deepen knowledge. One example is a retired elite STAR Force Police Officer and White Ribbon Ambassador, Derrick McManus, who conducts workshops on human resilience, teamwork and respect for older students. The club worked with Derrick on a lesson for younger students, and he now teaches a memorable message to “Fight the Fright and Do What’s Right.” This lesson resonates strongly with students ages 8-10. Police are still essential to the mix, but the project is no longer dependent on them exclusively. The club will further strengthen the in-class teaching by creating a 12-week teaching unit as an option for schools to use.
The club revisited the age group, identifying that children at age 8 are aware of others’ impacts on their thoughts and feelings and are ready to think about relationships for themselves. This cohort has two to three years following the Expect Respect training to be older buddies and mentors and grow in confidence with their relationship skills before entering the older world of high school.
The collection of evidence of student learning has been enhanced with lessons designed to show student understanding at the project’s beginning, middle and end. The multi-faceted project allows for the club’s involvement as they liaise with schools, plan and conduct displays and events, and work with media for promotion.
In 2023, the club brought this revamped project to a new area, Blackwood, with a cluster of eight primary schools and one high school. They had one class in one school take up the project, but they have received great feedback, and already, the reputation is growing with people keen to get on board. Community leaders got behind it and promoted it through their words and attendance.
The benefits of the revised project were clear to see at the public event and launch of the calendars. The students stood before the crowd and taught us the affirmation with hand signals they had learned to “Fight the Fright and Do What’s Right.” The room resonated with the sound of appreciative parents and community leaders.
The club’s vision is to have all primary school students in one district doing the project simultaneously. This vision will mean every child of the same age will receive the same messages over two years. The same messages will be present when they meet and mix in the community. The club hopes that we will see a recordable uplift in respect in the community when this happens.