ABOUT US:
We are young, we are women, we live in Tasmania, and our electorate Braddon is a known family violence hotspot.
Braddon is the poorest electorate in the poorest state in the country. One in three young people in our town have experienced or witnessed domestic violence. That includes little kids. The average age of a child feeling domestic violence with their parent is just 2.5 years old.
OUR EVENT:
On May 20 we are running a 24 Hour Colourathon to help these kids. We want to bring politicians, local businesses, our families and our community together to colour in and talk about family violence.
Our Colourathon is a fun, friendly endurance art event, organised by us. Every hour of drawing at the Colourathon will be sponsored to raise money for local women’s shelters - providing play therapy for the children who stay there.
Play therapy is a type of counselling used to help children experiencing trauma. Our local women's shelters provide the essentials, but they don't have the funds to provide these specialist services for kids, when they need it the most.
GOAL:
If we reach our goal of $6000, we can benefit up to 100 children who spend time in emergency care at our local women's shelter. We hope to raise more, so we can help more shelters, and more children.
Each specialist play therapy session can cost between $100-$200. Reaching our goal of $6000 would mean we can support one local shelter for one year with these services, plus resources to assist the therapy. Raising $10000 would mean we can help other shelters in our region access sessions too.
YOU CAN HELP:
We have been working hard with our local community, gaining materials and in-kind sponsorships to cover the costs of the 24 hour event. You might not able to get to our event, but you can still sponsor us here, and we have some really great rewards for you to enjoy!
All kids have a right to play - it helps them to build resilience, communicate, and understand their place in the world. We want the kids in our town to have this right too.
This is a great opportunity for us to help change our community, and your sponsorship will make a big difference.
REWARDS:
We have some amazing artists on board for the Colourathon - George Rose, Nadia Hernandez and Nico Nicoson, who have made some artwork especially for us, and as part of our rewards - they could be yours too! We have a range of printable or hard copy templates, as well as limited edition, signed prints on offer. So get sponsoring!
The 24 Hour Colourathon is an initiative by Project O.
Project O drives change in rural communities affected by family violence. It is is run by 20 young women, with arts and social change company Big hART, at our high school in Braddon. Project O teaches us new skills, to speak up, to take action and to become change-makers in our own community. For more information go to projecto.bighart.org
If you would like to hear more about Project O and the change we are working towards in our community, please email Producer Elspeth Blunt on [email protected]
BighART is a leading arts and social change organisation with 25 years experience in the field, working on over 50 communities nationwide. Visit bighart.org for more information, and watch our showreel here!