enCOURAGE Forum

Debbie Gross lecturing to a group

Debbie captivated a wide range of listeners over 16 days, ranging from Rabbis to teachers to maternal & child health workers to parents of school children, youth leaders, Hatzola and mainstream service providers, to name just a  few of the audiences she addressed. Debbie transmitted her message in clear and unambiguous language.

We at Taskforce brought her to Melbourne to help make our children safer, to protect our community and to have an educated community. I believe that we achieved those aims. No one can now say that [the] Rabbis don't understand the complex issues surrounding both family violence and child sexual abuse.   No one can say that [the] teachers don’t understand, or that youth leaders don’t understand. By virtue of these seminars, we can say that we have a substantially more knowledgeable community and if we have that we are well on the way to having a safer community. If our community and our children are safe, then we have a rich community. We are thrilled to report that already one school has facilitated Ms. Gross’s safety program to the children-this is a great move and we hope that other schools will do likewise shortly.

We are already planning follow-ups with the educators who attended her sessions to assess what went well and how best to implement the message in each particular school.
An important component of the forum was cultural sensitivity training for non-Jewish service providers. Thus, a considerable number of mainstream service providers now have a clearer understanding of Jewish culture and traditions, which will enable them to better serve their Jewish clients.   

We intend to continue this training and expand on it.

Family violence and child sexual abuse are not topics that people want to talk about, but we must, and we have. We know that our community is not immune, that no community is immune. Therefore the JTAFV works diligently to train our community leadership to ensure an appropriate response to disclosures and a better understanding of the issues in general. Whilst Debbie was here we started our second training course for Rabbis. As with the first group, when this select group of Rabbis have completed their course they too will receive a certificate of participation. We thus will have a large number of trained Rabbis who form a knowledge base and who are a resource that few other communities have.

An awareness workshop was presented to concerned members of the community and we are looking at training another group of volunteers to assist us in our vital work.

We are also very proud to announce the launch of our sealed Kosher Care Baskets. We have an arrangement with all refuges that if an orthodox woman goes to a refuge she can be provided with kosher food and other necessities such as Shabbat candles, benchers, a kosher guide and like requirements. We also provide cutlery and crockery. We are very grateful to the donors who made these baskets possible.

The seminars were made possible due to the support of all of our sponsors-namely Sunraysia Foundation, Bendigo Bank, Besen Family Foundation, Bachrach Foundation , Focus Metals and The Hermal Group. We thank them for their support. It would also not have been possible without the enormous amount of work done by our volunteer team. Kol hakavod and yasher koach. And thanks to the community who supported us by attending the events.

As knowledge creates power, so we create an empowered and educated community.

Sheiny New, Joanne Strauss, Debbie Gross, Marianne Cooklin