What does safety mean to you?

A PHOTOGRAPHY exhibition highlighting what safety means to a variety of people in the community is open at Ballarat Community Health in Lucas.

The Safety4U showcase includes images submitted by more than 20 local people and has been curated by a group from the Committee for Ballarat’s 2023 Future Shapers community leadership program.

Project coordinator Vanessa Brady said the show aims to raise awareness of the prevalence of domestic violence in the region.

“The photos in the exhibition are quite varied, which is indicative of the community around us,” she said.

“Some of the stories are coming from people who have clearly been victims of domestic violence, and some are purely coming from what safety means to them, which is what we wanted.

“That diversity means that the conversations can keep going in the community.”

Ms Brady said coordinators have consulted domestic violence support organisations in the development of the project.

“They were really helpful for us to work out the scope of the project,” she said. “We’re talking to them and linking in with them wherever we can.”

The project coordinators’ research has found that the rates of family and domestic violence in Ballarat are 12 per cent higher than the rest of Victoria.

It is estimated that one in three women and one in eight men experience physical violence, and one in five women experience sexual violence.

Community members are still welcome to submit a photo and a short narrative that respond to the question, ‘what does safety mean to you?’

“We’re really keen for them to do that as we’re hoping to have other exhibitions in the future,” Ms Brady said.

Visit the Safety4UBallarat Instagram and Facebook pages to see some of the photographs online.