Community leaders, frontline workers and advocates participate in the panel discussion topic ‘Men must be part of the solution’.

CatholicCare Wilcannia-Forbes has brought together frontline workers, community advo­cates and leading voices to explain the re­alities of domestic violence in regional, rural and remote NSW.

Hidden No More: shining the light on domestic violence in rural communities brought together more than 100 committed people as an important step towards lasting and practical change.

Its keynote speakers were NSW Women’s Safety Commissioner Dr Hannah Tonkin, the Hon. Stephen Lawrence MLC, author, professor and investigative journalist Jess Hill, NSW Police Incident and Emergency Management Commander Superintendent Greg Moore, and Magistrate Aaron Tang, Local Court of NSW.

CatholicCare Wilcannia-Forbes team members from Forbes and Parkes were part of the program’s panel discussions, joined by other community leaders, frontline workers and advocates.

Orana and Far West continues to record domestic violence-related assault rates more than three times the NSW average. In remote areas, women experience assaultrelated hospitalisations at 43 times the rate of women in major cities.

“Those are statistics, but for our team, we see real women and children, and the dam­age domestic violence does,” CatholicCare Wilcannia-Forbes CEO Anne-Marie Mioche said after the symposium.

“We’re trying to protect women and their children in areas with very few services,” Ms Mioche said.

“Services that are available in rural com­munities are often seeing two to three times the number of women they are funded to support.

Ms Mioche said she wanted both the fed­eral and state governments to reassess funding allocations for regional and remote communities.

CatholicCare Wilcannia-Forbes is a pro­vider of the Men’s Behaviour Change Pro­gram, which Ms Mioche describes as hav­ing “huge potential to transform behaviour”.“For the men who really embrace the pro­gram, it is not unusual for them to participate again by choice,” she said. “We need more programs like this, giving men the tools and strategies to stop that behaviour.”

Audiences build confidence and emotional resilience with the highly engaging adaptation of Anna Walker’s awardwinning book, Mr Huff.

The Forbes community had so much fun celebrating Reading Downtown Day on Monday 24 November at the Forbes Town Hall, with a special live performance of Mr Huff.

The performance was brought to life by Meerkat Productions, Mr Huff is an awardwinning children’s book about the clouds and the sunshine in each of our lives.

Through music, movement and storytell­ing, children discover positive coping skills and practical wellbeing Strategies. This adaptation of Mr Huff supports schools in creating a strong wellbeing culture and aligns with the Australian Curriculum focus on Personal and Social Capability.

The program is designed to help stu­dents recognise, name and manage their emotions, building resilience, self-aware­ness and emotional intelligence in ways that stick.

The special event was a partnership be­tween Forbes Shire Council, Forbes North Schools as Community Centres (SaCC) and Forbes Birth to Kinder, bringing the community together to celebrate literacy, learning and wellbeing.

Mayor Phyllis Miller OAM said it is won­derful to see local partnerships supporting fun and meaningful events for families.

“Reading Downtown Day is such a spe­cial event because it inspires children to discover the joy of reading. It’s so wonder­ful to be able to do something different this year for the community that’s interactive and fun,” Mayor Miller said.

Hosted annually, Reading Downtown Day aims to raise awareness about the im­portance of reading to children from a very young age.

This year marked the 21st year of the event in Forbes. Forbes North Schools SaCC committee member, Maree Yapp, said the group is proud to be celebrating over two decades of encouraging early lit­eracy.

“It’s amazing to see how the event con­tinues to grow,” Mrs Yapp said.

“Reading Downtown Day is all about showing families how powerful reading with children can be. It builds connection, confidence and a lifelong love of learning.”i