Sophie Conlon
The Mount Gambier Bowls Club will transform into a sea of white when Ruby’s Reunification hosts a social lawn bowls day to raise awareness for gender-based and family violence.
Ruby’s Reunification senior coordinator Sharon Gray said the event would be held in recognition of White Ribbon Australia, which is part of a global social movement working to eliminate gendered violence.
“It’s basically a community event for us to be able to make a difference in the community at a local level about what’s happening with domestic violence and the difference people standing up and speaking up about it,” she said.
She said it was important people were aware of the statistics, and understood the difference they could make by starting a conversation.
One main fact Ms Gray was keen to share was that not all domestic violence was physical.
“Sometimes people have that misconception, it’s many different forms, emotional control, financial control, it’s limiting who they can see, where they can go, tracking people and isolating people from the rest of the community, and all of those still fall under domestic violence and gender-based violence,” she said.
Knowing and sharing facts, like one in three women have experienced physical violence since they turned 15, can help bring awareness to the issue, which is what Ms Gray hoped would be achieved through hosting the bowls event.
“It’s to start conversations about what we can do in our life, in our work places, what we can tell our young people to grow up and think about,” she said.
Ruby’s Reunification helps keep families together and young people out of the homelessness sector, Ms Gray said they worked closely with families and so they were passionate about helping end violence in the home.
“Unfortunately, domestic and family violence is the leading driver of homelessness for women, so as a family service this touches what our service is all about, about keeping families together and keeping them safe,” she said.
“Our service, Ruby’s, is a reunification service that supports young people to keep them out of the homelessness sector.
Ms Gray said Ruby’s had been running the event since 2019 and it would have been difficult to host the event without the support of the Mount Gambier Bowls Club, Rapid Relief Team, local businesses and the community.
Therapeutic youth worker Jess Porter said the evening would bring about conversations and awareness, but she could already see that happening within the community.
“Raising awareness, it happens on the night, but leading up to it, it’s already happening. We’re getting donations from so many local businesses so that conversation has already began,” she said.
Conversations could be between anyone Ms Gray said, coworkers, friends, family, at schools and more.
“At all levels it’s a conversation that needs to happen about how we can put a stop to it,” she said.
More than 20 teams will come out on Friday, November 25 to take part in the event, which will see bowlers with a variety of skill levels take to the green all dressed in white.
There will be awards for the best and worst teams, best dressed, best team name and more, and Ms Gray said conversation on the night will center around putting an end to gender-based and family violence.
“The teams that are coming are from other community services, and just general public, which is really great,” she said.
“It’s about joining together to talk about a very important thing that is happening sadly in all communities.”
For people who might need assistance from Ruby’s Reunification, Ms Gray said you could call the Mount Gambier office 8202 5030 for 24/7 support.
