OUR STORY
We are young women from rural and remote areas of Australia - Roebourne WA, Wynyard TAS, Cooma NSW and Canberra ACT - and we are passionate about helping children who have fled family violence - for many of us it’s a topic that’s close to home.
So we are working together to run Colourathon - a 12-hour art-making marathon at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. This event will bring together politicians, local businesses, our families and our communities to talk about family violence and how to prevent it. We also have local colourathon events happening on the day in Cooma NSW and Wynyard Tasmania.
We are raising money to help our communities respond to family violence better - so we are looking for people to sponsor each hour of non-stop colouring!
WE WANT TO MAKE POSITIVE CHANGE
Funds raised by Colourathon will help better equip our local women's shelters. Many shelters in our communities cannot afford specialised childhood trauma training. When we found out about this we wanted to help. If shelter staff are better equipped to respond to the specific needs of children fleeing violence, those kids will feel less scared and have more support to heal from their experience. This training will help hundreds of kids in our communities have better, stronger futures.
At Colourathon we're going to colour in for 12 hours straight, as well as paint murals, make weavings, draw, play live music and heaps more! On the day the community is going to come along to help - from the local sports clubs, to people from Government, local businesses, families, friends and teachers. Its going to be GREAT.
We’d love you to support our campaign by sponsoring us for every hour we make art.
Beyond donating - you can help by following our journey and supporting us on social media:
Use our hashtag: #colourforchange
Facebook: @ProjectOBighART
Instagram: @bighart_online
Twitter: @BighART_INC
WE ARE YOUNG WOMEN FROM PROJECT O
We are part of Big hART's Project O - a program helping us to speak up and take action in our communities. We want good things for our futures - so we joined Project O to learn new skills, develop our confidence and work with our communities to drive positive change.
When you live in remote or country areas, its not always easy to have your voice heard. Project O is changing that for us, so that we can be involved in making things better for our towns.
Last year we ran the first ever Colourathon in Wynyard, Tasmania. The funds we raised supported a local women's shelter in NW Tasmania to have this very beneficial training, which has greatly helped the children in their care.
Now Project O is a NATIONAL MOVEMENT of young women so we are doing Colourathon bigger and better this year - helping more shelters, and more kids!
We are stronger together!