Sexual assault, sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination have no place at our University or in society. We are working with our community partners to help improve your safety.
Set the bar
The Safe and Respectful Communities (SARC) team received a UOW Community Engagement Grant for $13,000 to create and implement training for staff at licensed premises on how to address and respond to sexual harassment and sexual assaults in their venues. The initiative and online training program has been aptly branded as “Set The Bar”.
The SARC team are working closely with community partner, Wollongong Local Liquor Accord to roll out the training to pubs, clubs and licensed venues. The Wollongong Local Liquor Accord is an industry-based group that works to reduce problems related to alcohol in the local area. Members of the Accord include Police, Council, and local liquor outlets and suppliers.
The training has been well received with all participates agreeing that the training has motivated them to play a more active role in preventing sexual violence.
Set The Bar was recently awarded a Diamond LearnX awards for Best Learning and Development Project (Best Learning Campaign). This award focuses on a campaign-based learning project that was implemented to create behavioural change.
Set the Bar training
The Set The Bar initiative focuses on the underlying issues of Sexual Harm and helps staff be able to identify, call out and hopefully put an end to inappropriate behaviour and harassment in their venues. The training also provides guidance for staff on what do say and do if incidents of sexual harassment or sexual assault are disclosed to them.
Venues that have completed the training will receive a badge to display that shows their commitment to provide a safer venue with trained staff who are able to respond to any incidents appropriately.
This initiative is empowering local licensed venue staff, such as managers, bar staff, and security staff to be able to:
- Define behaviour that constitutes sexual assault and sexual harassment
- Discuss the gendered nature of the problem
- Identify and understand barriers to reporting, disclosing and seeking help
- Practice strategies on how to be an active bystander and disrupt perpetrator behaviour
- Understand what to say and do when receiving a disclosure of sexual assault and/or sexual harassment
- Identify support services and reporting options available
For more information on the Set The Bar initiative read the UOW media release or contact SARC Project Coordinator, Angela Cowan at acowan@uow.edu.au
Hi, I'm Angela. I’m the Project Coordinator with the Safe and Respectful Communities team here at UOW.
We believe that everybody has a role to play in promoting a fairer safer and more respectful environment on our campus and out in the community. Sexual assault, sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination have no place on any of our campuses or in society and this is why we're working with local partners to help improve your safety both on and off campus.
We've partnered with the local Wollongong liquor accord to train staff from bars, clubs, pubs and other licensed venues on how to identify call out and act on undesirable behaviour and harassment in their venues. We really hope that this set the bar training initiative has a positive ripple effect out into the community and not only benefits you but anybody working in or visiting those venues.
Contact SARC
Contact SARC for support, first level responder training (staff and students), and other training options.