AS part of the national Rotary lead campaign against domestic and family violence as well as the 16 days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence, Rotary Hamilton invited reverend Peter Cook to share a local perspective on the issues that face some families in our community at a meeting on Wednesday.

At the meeting, member and former policeman, Bruce Wheeler, shared some of the data available surrounding family violence in the Southern Grampians Shire.

In Australia, domestic and family violence is disturbingly common – it is one of the drivers of homelessness among women, children, and men.

Rotary Hamilton bulletin editor, Lorraine Wilson, said domestic and family violence crosses all boundaries, such as race, age, financial status, education, sex, and the suburb people may live in.

“Unfortunately, many victims of domestic and family violence will never report their experience – with many incidents unreported, domestic and family violence may be much worse than we think,” she said.

“Rotary Hamilton’s #sayNOtofamilyviolence focus group is determined that domestic violence be our main social issue project for the next several years.

“We will be engaging with the interested parties with the aim of supporting programs and initiatives that raise awareness of and advocate best practice for reducing harm of family violence, for our local community.”