LOCAL advocacy groups including LOUD Fence and Continuous Voices are lobbying for State and Federal funding support to establish the sculptural memorial for survivors of sexual abuse at Victoria Park.<\/p>\n
The City of Ballarat has made a commitment of $520,000 to the planned memorial, which is expected to cost $1.5 million in total, and will be installed by the lake beside Plane Avenue.<\/p>\n
Continuous Voices\u2019 Blake Curran was 21 years old when he lost his father, Peter, to depression. Peter was abused as a child at St Alipius, and St Patrick\u2019s College.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy kids don\u2019t have a grandfather, so it would be great to have a place to bring them to, and a place where my mum, spouses and partners of victims, and all those affected can come to and reflect,\u201d Mr Curran said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important to recognise not only the victims, but the massive ripple effect that it\u2019s had on the people around them, and people across Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n
LOUD Fence\u2019s Trevor Coad wants the memorial to bring hope to all survivors, their families, and friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis brings a sense of community, and somewhere to come to just quietly sit and be,\u201d he said<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an acknowledgement that the old memories are real, but with that acknowledgement and the hard yards of treatment, things do get better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Victorian upper house member Western Victoria, Stuart Grimley, said he has written to the Premier, Treasurer and Attorney-General, lobbying for $1 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether it comes from the State or Federal government doesn\u2019t matter, as long as this gets done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had communications with LOUD Fence, Continuous Voices, the Ballarat council, and many victim-survivors of the Ballarat community saying how important this memorial will be.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not going to heal all wounds, but this will offer the community a place to come, reflect and remember, not only as a survivor, but as families of survivors, and to have conversations to make sure that this never happens again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Continuous Voices, the City of Ballarat and artists met this week to share their ideas for the memorial\u2019s design.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis memorial could be used as a case study for other places, like Newcastle, to see the process we went through,\u201d Mr Curran said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LOCAL advocacy groups including LOUD Fence and Continuous Voices are lobbying for State and Federal funding support to establish the sculptural memorial for survivors of sexual abuse at Victoria Park. The City of Ballarat has made a commitment of $520,000 to the planned memorial, which is expected to cost $1.5 million in total, and will […]<\/p>\n