The Hub is an ongoing collaborative partnership between the University of Newcastle and specialist community organisations and networks that support victim-survivors of gender-based violence in the Hunter and Central Coast regions. This collaboration is central to the Hub because it harnesses the expertise in local frontline services to support victim-survivors in higher education. It also helps promote access to and participation in higher education for victim-survivors in the community. Finally, it mobilises the research and advocacy capacity of higher education to support action for change across our region.
The Hub is built around inter-agency collaboration to develop post-crisis pathways to higher education for victim-survivors of gender-based violence. Through ongoing workshops, we have worked with key partners to co-design strategies and research that build better pathways into study and learning.
Reclaiming My Place is an eight-week arts-based program delivered in partnership with community-based services and learning partners. It’s a safe, supportive space for creative exploration, expression, and reflection, as well as providing opportunities for engagement in lifelong learning.
This program supports self-expression, confidence, and connection with others through art.
Our team is working closely with specialist DFSV services to conduct research and gain a better picture of post-crisis services and gaps in the Hunter and Central Coast regions. This project will help build an evidence base for resourcing and pathways.
We’re currently inviting community service workers to complete a 20-minute anonymous online survey to share their insights.
The Hub brings together the Centre of Excellence for Equity in Higher Education (CEEHE) with the Newcastle Domestic Violence Committee, Singleton Family Support, The Canopy, Interrelate, the Hunter DFV Consortium and the Hunter New England and Central Coast Primary Health Network.
The Hub originated through relationships formed between CEEHE and Singleton Family Support, The Canopy, and Nova Women in the development of the Reclaiming Our Place program in 2018. Based on this work, and as CEEHE began research into the impacts of GBV on students at the University of Newcastle, a series of collaborative workshops were held in 2021-2022. These workshops identified the need for an ongoing collaboration to bridge the community sector and the university – the Gender Justice Hub.
Our region, the Hunter New England and Central Coast area, has one of the highest rates of Domestic, Family, and Sexual Violence (DFSV) in NSW (Primary Health Network, 2024), and has seen an upward trend. In Maitland for example, between January 2021 and December 2022 alone there was an increase of 35.6% in reported domestic violence incidents. In Newcastle during the same time period, there was an increase of 5.9% of reported domestic violence cases and 10.5% of reported sexual assault cases (BOSCAR, 2023). These official statistics are unable to capture the enormity of the problem across the region as so many incidents go unreported.
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genderjusticehub@newcastle.edu.au
Centre of Excellence for Equity in Higher Education University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, 2308
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This project was prepared on Awabakal, Darkinjung, Gadigal, Wonnarua and Worimi lands. We acknowledge the unceded lands on which we work and we pay our respects to Elders past and present.
The cover artwork was produced by participants in the Claim Our Place program. Elements from participants’ artworks were collated by Anna Rolfe at the University Galleries.