Barwon project bringing generations together and raising awareness

THE Warm Safe Home Project is combining the sometimes difficult conversation of elder abuse and arts and crafts in order to raise awareness within the community.

The project is about bringing together the younger generation with their grandparents as well as educating and raising awareness about elder abuse and family violence, something that unfortunately took an increase through the COVID-19 lockdown period.

Barwon Community Legal Service (BCLS) is leading the Barwon Warm Safe Project which has seen a huge amount of colourful and creative designs being put together around the region.

BCLS Community Development Manager Alexandria Jones said 2020 had been a difficult year for so many in the community and this project provided an opportunity to raise awareness around elder abuse, but importantly build the relationship between the younger and older generations.

“We really wanted a project to bring the community together and

using arts and crafts to start a pretty hard conversation about elder abuse and family violence against older people,” Ms Jones said.

“For us, it’s about really looking at what makes a warm, safe home, particularly in a COVID-era when we’ve spent a lot of time at home and we know our older people are particularly at risk during this time.

“This was a project that really aimed to build the respect we have for the older people in the community.”

Jones said the support the project has received had been amazing, from schools to community groups, from families to neighbours; this community-minded focus has been widely adopted.

“We’ve seen people really look back at what are some happy memories you have of your grandparents and that’s been a really beautiful intergenerational activity, it creates that conversation among younger people about why they value older people in their life.

“We’re trying top prevent elder abuse before it happens and to do that we need to increase respect and dignity of older people.”

The Warm Safe Home craft kits are free to purchase and can be done so at https://barwoncls.org/barwon-warm-safe-home-project/ as well as further information about the project.