Now in its 11th year and held at over 60 schools, the Respect program is an early intervention harm reduction project featuring workshops to teach boys about domestic violence and healthy relationships.
Working alongside professional musicians and family violence counsellors, boys learn about the different types of abuse and the importance of equality in a relationship, taking what they learnt and turning it into a song to raise awareness about violence against women.
Respect Program Manager Craig Taunton said the music video had been posted on YouTube to help spread the boy’s positive message.
He said the aim of the program was to transform young men into active agents of social change and role models in their schools.
“We have been very pleased with how popular these videos are on social media,” he said.
“At Outloud we are very passionate about the Respect program and strongly believe that if these young boys can understand the message at a young age, then they will continue to show respect to women when they are older.”
Craig said teachers report playground culture definitely changing thanks to the Respect program.
“There was a case of girls being made fun of and our boys stepped in, saying ‘it’s not cool’ to treat females like that,” he said.
“These wonderful Regents Park students are now part of the growing army of young men who can now stand up proudly and actively oppose domestic violence which is reaching crisis levels in Australia.”
To see the videos: youtube.com/c/Outloudarts
Boys taught ‘respect’ awareness
REGENTS Park Public School’s Year 6 boys have just released a song ‘Girls are Winners and Achievers’ after taking part in the semester-long program run by social impact arts organisation Outloud’s Respect team.
