Cade Lucas
A new suite of training programs from the Western Region Centre Against Sexual Assault (WestCASA) are in full swing, with the education and community sectors a particular focus.
The Werribee centre has recently been running training programs on topics such as responding to disclosures of sexual assault, affirmative consent and healthy relationships at universities and not-for-profits across the western suburbs.
WestCASA community education manager Adrian Smith said education providers and community organisations were two of their target areas for sexual assault education.
“They’re definitely areas of priority for us because they have a direct impact on the community,” Mr Smith said.
“They work directly with the community and have the best opportunity to meet the community at their level.”
Mr Smith said new catalogue of training programs provided by WestCASA focused not just on the prevention of sexual assault, but what to do afterwards.
“The main one at the moment is responding to disclosures of sexual assault,” he said of situations where people reveal they’ve been sexually assaulted, something they often do years after it occurred.
” It’s a comprehensive training program which also focuses heavily on affirmative consent,” he added.
Mr Smith said demand for training programs had noticeably increased over the past three months, a mixture of organisations coming to them and also a result of WestCASA promoting its services in the community.
Regardless of the motivation, he said was vital that people from all walks of life go through training on issues relating to sexual assault and building healthy relationships.
“It is each individual’s responsibility to inform themselves on what steps can be taken to eliminate sexual violence in our communities, and this is the focus of our education and information workshops at WestCASA. We work with passionate community members and organisations who take leadership in ensuring victim-survivors are supported and sexual violence is eliminated in our communities,” Mr Smith explained.
As well as running training programs, WestCASA also provides support to victim survivors of sexual violence in the western suburbs and advocates on their behalf.
Details: training@westcasa.org.au or 9216 0444
